Only the freshest innuendo served here…..

Posted on May 31, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Yesterday’s title is more connected to reality than I had previously realized; I can feel the changes happening here at ECR as I type. Yet, it all looks the same from this vantage point; a blank, white screen, filled only with trepidation for the need to fulfill my chosen duty….. which is NOT going to get it done. Perhaps if I petitioned for an extension?…..

Reality, however much we would prefer it do so, does not do extensions…. When the bill comes due, it’s payable in full, or deal with the immediate consequences, regardless of whether or not those consequences are something with which we are capable of dealing. In short, duty gets done, or a price is paid. No exceptions, no excuses, and whining, though optional, is considered wimpy, and not encouraged by any right-thinking participants…. Reality itself adopts the cat’s position, i.e., it doesn’t give a shit either way….

Regardless of how much I blather about it, or dance around the point, it remains…. changes are coming to this blog…. In fact, they started yesterday, but, even I didn’t notice…. not that it matters now, does it? Once it’s posted, there’s no more editing allowed; once you set out on that slippery slope of scree, there’s little hope to ever get done with it…. and, given the idiosyncrasies of the WP editing page, I don’t like to chance it, anyway, as one never knows how one’s proposed changes will actually turn out on the page…. That’s too much of a crap shoot for me….

All of this blather, of course, is merely a prelude, to madness and folly, I’m sure, but, that actually remains to be seen…. One thing I DO know for sure, and that is that I am going to be spending a LOT more time out in the BBR, looking for suitable pictures to illustrate the pearls…. I say that because my first outing, yesterday, for that purpose was more of a wash than I like, as you’ll see from the pix taken…. It’s not going to be as easy as I had thought, which is fine….. a little complexity is good for the soul…

I’m wandering…. I can feel it. I’m circling around, just filling in lines until enough of them have accumulated to call it an intro…. AND…. I believe I’ve reached that point already. From what I can see from here, this appears to be sufficient, and I don’t hear any objections from the court-appointed monitors, so, I think we can go on now, and see how this is going to work, exactly…. You see, it’s all new to me, too…. Isn’t that encouraging?….

No? Oh well…. I guess that means we’re all committed to this fabulous folly, so, we may as well just get on with it, before I manage to screw this up any further….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It’s snowing still. And freezing. However, we haven’t had an earthquake lately.” — A.A. Milne’s Eeyore

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Here is how I’m going to have this work…. First comes the picture; below the picture will be a pearl, followed by some quick, hopefully amusing or engaging prose or poetry from me, then the next picture…. and so on, down the line. It’s not complicated, but, what do you want to bet I can screw it up? Okay, don’t everyone offer money at once; I know I’m a Bozo, so you can’t hurt my feelings…. I do hope you enjoy this new experiment, designed to save the sanity of everyone involved….. That said, let’s be off…. Oh, if it isn’t my own picture, attribution will be listed after the picture, & before the pearl….

This picture came from the SFGATE.com “Day in Pictures” gallery, on 5/30/2014….

“A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Actually, kids are cool…. Ralph, I think, had just spent two days babysitting his nephews, and was a bit overwrought when he wrote this particular aphorism…. This picture is included just because it was so cool; it’s hard NOT to anthropomorphize this one, and believe the hippo is actually smiling at having her picture taken with the little girl, who is more bemused than pleased, to judge by appearances….. It’s also hard to not believe that both are familiar with the whole picture-taking thing, aren’t really INTO it, and are putting up going along with it out of politeness….

See, now isn’t this fun, and educational? Speculating nonsense about odd configurations of animals and people is always a kick in the pants, eh? No? Oh…. Well, we’ll go on anyway…..

“With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead.” — RFC1925

The picture is a study of a park, across the street from the bus stop where I awaited a bus home from a nearby town. It has no particular significance, other than the desire to get started taking photos for this experiment….. I guess I’ll figure out how to make the pictures fit into the pearls better as the process evolves…. One may only hope….

“Money will buy a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy the wag of his tail.” — Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818-1885))

The picture is the kid’s playground at another park, near my house, next to the field where a local semi-pro baseball team plays, a few blocks from where I live…. The pearl, once again, has little to do with the picture; I just thought it was a good pearl, and a good bit of logic with which to approach reality…. As mentioned above, this process is still evolving, so, bear with me, please…. It will get more compelling, I promise….

“A warped sense of humor is vastly better than no sense of humor at all.” — Smart Bee

This picture is my first attempt at an action shot…. not too bad, all in all. The accompanying pearl is my firm belief, and I hope that whatever sense of humor is possessed by the Gentle Reader will extend itself to include this Pearl, as the first of its kind…. I have a feeling this new technique is going to work out well, if I can only get enough pictures to work with…. If nothing else, it will get me out of the house, and save me from any further descent into sloth and lethargy…. For now, let’s go on, & see if I can pull the rest of this together for today….

“You see things, and you say “WHY?” But I dream things that never were, and I say “WHY NOT?”” — George Bernard Shaw, “Back to Methuselah”

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I’m saving time today by not searching for a poem; here, instead, is one of mine, to keep the blame for all this where it belongs….

Honorable Request

Days, filled to a brim with fluff and time, pass
dimly into memory, bit by combative bit,
ever mournful, yet loud with life and sass,
only in dream do we meet, and dance, and flit.

Souls, spinning ’round in gleeful wonder, comply
as they must, never given a reason,
somberly proper, yet limber and quite spry,
dancing on to greet each bright new season.

Storms, angered by apathetic care, rage
proceeding into ministerial glare, unknown,
clothed in colors, purified solely with sage,
past an infinite future, already flown.

Life, plumbed to its depths and secrets, keeps
flowing with currents, strong and fairly found,
love stands, asking release, as it slowly weeps,
seeking refuge unasked, to stay honor bound.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

To finish off today’s effort, an old-school pearl is pretty much a given…. If nothing else, it will give me a feeling of familiarity that should soothe the pain of the newest part of this, which is working muscles that aren’t accustomed to such a workout…. I’m not whining, because I like it; it feels good to stretch out in directions heretofore neglected, and my muscles can use the work. They’re actually more used to being worked hard than they are NOT being used, which is the case far too much in my current position…. Changes comin’ all around, ffolkes…. Hope you enjoy today’s gathering of gems…..

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Essays: First Series (1841) “Self-Reliance”

“Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.” — Henry Clay (1777-1852) — Speech at Ashland, Ky., March 1829

(This pearl may seem out of place, but, I thought that maybe a politician might drop in to read today, and, if so, it would be good for them to see a reminder of what they are SUPPOSED to be doing….. The rest of the pearls all go together pretty seamlessly, I think….)

“I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment.” — Gautama Buddha

“A thing either is what it appears to be; or it is not, but yet appears to be; or it is, but does not appear to be; or it is not, and does not appear to be.” — Epictetus

“Often, the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.” — Mark Twain

“Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they think laughable.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“The only abnormality is the incapacity to love.” — Anais Nin

Just so you know, this pearl is one for the ages…. I mean it. It’s got a LOT of what is needed to make ourselves into better human beings…. happier, too, if done right….

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

This certainly put the effort back into the job, I’ll say that. I suppose anything has a learning curve, at first…. Let’s hope it turns out to be worth it…. which I’ll never know if I don’t get this posted, so, see ya, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.gigoid the dubious

Save the tangerines for Uncle Micah….

Posted on May 21, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Must have coffee….. ugh….. Go away…. No, wait, I’ll do that, you stay here a minute….

Alright, I’m back…. but, I’m still not sure if I should be doing this…. Mama told me when I was in this kind of mood I should avoid people, lest I be tempted to break my vow not to kill anyone before breakfast each day….. Mama had a lot of good advice, and this one has helped me a lot, what with the fuss modern society makes when one leaves too many bodies lying about the landscape…. Hell, they get upset at ONE; I should know…. I’ve had to avoid their silly implications a number of times, and you’d think I had done something wrong, or something, when all I really did was bring justice to the universe….

Of course, authorities and official types never like to be told they are fools, which seems to happen all too frequently during our encounters…. Maybe that’s why I get a bit of a return favor, when they ignore me much of the time, having learned NOT to fuck with me over their silly corpses…. If I had wanted to be held responsible for them, I’d have left some evidence, now, wouldn’t I? Sure I would; I’m not mean…. I just hate inefficiency, and that’s all I see whenever they come around, so, I figure it’s better for everyone if they continue to be clueless…

Of course, they DO look at me funny, but, they’re welcome to that…. I haven’t worried about stuff like that for years, ever since I decided to stop paying attention to their silly laws and regulations….. I feel much better, now that I don’t, even if I have to disappear one of their asshole myrmidons now and again…. It keeps my hand in, and keeps me in practice in case they ever send more than oh, say, a dozen or so at once…. I tend to get a bit harsh when that happens, so, it’s good to keep my skills at peak…. It’s just better for everybody….

If you couldn’t tell, I’m indulging myself this morning, painting my fantasy of how I would LIKE to deal with reality…. If I had my druthers, I’d probably ace one or two of them on a daily basis, just to practice, as I said above…. But, it would be too much of a hassle at this stage, and might even lead to my own demise….. those who live by the sword, etc….

But, I wouldn’t mind, if it gave me the chance to remove a significant number of them from this plane of existence; I would guess it would be rather cathartic for me…. As I said, though, too much hassle for now, so, I sublimate by writing about it when I can… It sort of relieves a bit of the pressure that can build up, and can cause me to actually bite one of them…. which I’d love to do, even if I only have the two teeth on top….

This isn’t getting me much of anywhere, though, so I think I’ll bring it to a crashing halt, & get on with the rest of this mess…. I may as well, since I keep talking myself out of going hunting…. and, I ain’t talking about hunting snarks, or boojums, or other fictional creatures, either….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Character is that which can do without success.” — Emerson (I’m assuming that is Ralph Waldo….)

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Today’s rant comes to you courtesy of several news articles, to which you will find links below…. It helps me if y’all read the article first, then my comments make more sense…. I also have to comment here, to say that I find it very disturbing, though not particularly surprising, that many of the articles about the chicanery and illegal, immoral activities in which our government and police forces are engaged, are to be found only in foreign news sites… The sites in this country seem to ignore/pass over much of what is obvious to other countries, tending to softball any criticism about the people in power here…. I’m assuming that is because they are afraid of retribution; else why keep silent? It certainly is not to their advantage to do so….

Any who, read, then I’ll show some excerpts, upon which I’ll comment, as the key points to be found…. Hopefully, my comments will make themselves obvious, but, to be clear, the excerpts will be indicated with quotation marks; my comments have none….

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/19/cecily-mcmillan-three-months-jail-occupy-future-protest?CMP=ema_565

“On Monday, Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan was sentenced to three months in jail and five years of probation, after she faced down a maximum sentence of seven years in prison for her conviction of assaulting a police officer. Her supporters, unsurprisingly, feel the sentencing is excessive – especially given her testimony that the officer in question first grabbed her breast – but it’s also clearer than ever that McMillan’s conviction will have a chilling effect on the future of serious activism.”

“The most famous example of this is probably NYPD deputy inspector Anthony Bologna, who pepper-sprayed peaceful female protesters during an OWS march. In 2013, the district attorney’s office announced that it would not prosecute Bologna – and the NYPD docked him just ten vacation days and reassigned him to Staten Island.”

A large number of people are surprised when they see articles such as this, as they are really, really stupid, (sorry, I calls ’em as I sees ’em….) due to their implicit trust in the police forces in this country, assuming, in complete error, that they are dedicated professionals with integrity and compassion for others; they actually believe that bullshit. They have a hard time when an article like this comes out, which, if they only paid attention, they would see happens pretty much every fucking day….

Yep, every damn day, I go through the news, and there is ALWAYS at least one, and often more, articles that report another cop gone rogue, or some piece of corruption exposed, or another forcible rape by a sheriff deputy, or some other example of one of the BRC’s faceless myrmidons abusing the power of authority that comes with their job…. EVERY DAY ffolkes, and that is NOT an exaggeration; look at it yourself…. If I can find at least one article about a corrupt cop every day, how many do you think there actually ARE? A LOT, wouldn’t you guess? I would….

Except, it’s not a guess… My estimate is that at least half, & most likely more than half, of the assholes wearing a badge in this country are totally unqualified to carry a gun to enforce the law, because they are they type of person who will abuse that power…. Way, way more than half is my actual gut feeling, but, we’ll be conservative, & keep the estimate there at 50%…. Believe me, when it comes to corrupt cops, half of them is MORE than enough….

My question is: how can any intelligent citizen think that these people could be trusted to use their weapons ONLY in defense of the law, if they were the only ones allowed to carry them? Do you think that most police would show integrity, or would they abuse their position, using their weapons to control and intimidate citizens, rather than protecting them? I’m sorry, but, I just don’t think they are any more trustworthy than the average citizen; in fact, I would wager serious money on them being far less honest, and far less honorable than the average joe on the street, and that is a fact….. Hell, they can’t even bring themselves to use their turn signals…. what makes people think they’ll not pull the trigger?….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Ex-aide-set-to-testify-in-Christie-bridge-scandal-5490758.php

“Christie, who says he is still considering running for president and will decide his political future later, recently said the lane closings would be “a footnote” by 2016. But his prediction last week came the same day his former campaign manager contradicted Christie’s timeline of the bridge scandal…..Political operative Bill Stepien said Christie misspoke Dec. 13 when he told reporters he had received assurances that no one close to him knew about the lane closings.”

Misspoke? Misspoke? What the fuck does that mean, if not “he lied”? As far as I can see, it can’t mean anything but that, but, this guy, Stepien, remember, is a “political operative”, and, as such, has been extensively trained to use the English language in ways no other sane person would think to do…. He is obviously pissed off at Christie for making him fall on his sword, but manages to still try to minimize the key fact of the matter, to wit: Christie was involved…. his governing style encouraged that sort of thing; it’s clear that he knew about it, and he lied about it….

This particular brouhaha, in fact, is one of the easiest issues to understand, as history has shown us that we can, for sure and for certain, count on one characteristic of politicians to be a fact…. WHATEVER a major politician says. especially regarding their own guilt or innocence, about ANYTHING, is going be an outright lie…. It’s knee jerk for them; they have no other behavioral response to fall back on, so, in such instances, when they are accused of ANY wrongdoing, they deny, deny, deny…. If pushed to the wall, they will say that the person they ~~scapegoated~~, er, fired, had lied to them, which, as we know, is a crock of shit….. If they hadn’t trusted the idiots, they wouldn’t be where they were….

Two things bother me about issues of this nature…. One, the lies that are told by the perpetrators of such acts are reported as if they have validity; the media doesn’t even TRY to point out any discrepancy in fact, or suggest any alternatives to accepting it as truth…. when, in truth, they KNOW it all to be a crock…. Second, people in the public read this crap, and believe it…. They have no clue, and are unwilling to believe, that they are being lied to at every turn…. If they do that, they would have to first admit their own FUCKING STUPIDITY….

Sorry, I get a bit worked up when I think of how gullible the average American is; it makes me ashamed of what the forefathers foresaw for this country, to see that the corporate assholes have won…. They’ve taken over all three branches of the government, and the majority of people in this country have no clue that they are nothing more than slaves….

The average American is no longer an educated, honorable citizen of a democracy, who watches the government with cautious regard…. Mostly they are grossly overweight couch potatoes, carrying fifty extra pounds from eating all the crap the corporations want them to eat, locked into their own brand of indulgent stupidly, believing everything a talking head on their TV tells them, making them extremely easy to lead around by the nose, as they give up their legacy of rights to unprincipled, immoral, INSANE assholes with more money than common sense, or compassion, ignoring and/or denying as much of what goes on around them as they can…. It’s a wonder we aren’t all wearing collars….

Just wait, though, that day will come, if the monied elite have their way…. They sure as hell haven’t shown any inclination to either share any of what they’ve usurped from everyone else, or to change their nature from being predatory, so, I’d wager they’ll just keep on doing what they’ve been doing, and continue to do, which is lie, cheat, and steal to and from everyone else, always seeking to maintain their control over the rest of the world…. while the sociopathic assholes they have trained as their puppets and myrmidons, that we call politicians and preachers and policemen, continue to run roughshod over the rest of society….

So be it…. gigoid has spoken….

“Jesus died too soon. If he had lived to my age he would have repudiated his doctrine.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

The cartoon was reproduced, without permission, but with full attribution, from the UK Guardian news site….. If it’s too small, you can find it there, under yesterday’s date….I hope.

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I’m having a bit of trouble today, trying to keep my head from exploding; it’s making it hard to get anything done…. The rant above is actually the result of a short period, yesterday afternoon, when I found the articles, and was stimulated to rant by the sheer effrontery of our talking heads and societal myrmidons, who parade their ignorance and stupidity all over the public stage…. I just used the angst therefrom to edit this morning, punching it up where necessary…

My mood, however, such as it is, is making it hard for me to accomplish any of my real goals…. such as here, where I would like to put a nice poem by some classical or contemporary poet, but, due to the way my head, and my lower back feel, finding one like that would be an impossible task….

Intelligent searching takes too much attention, which is rather broken apart right now, so I don’t feel capable of that much focus for so long…. Which means, of course, you’ll have to put up with another of my old ones, because, they’re right here, and require very little of my attention to pick one out….. I do hope it’s a good one, or alternately, that you enjoy it, such as it is….

A Failure to Germinate

Marking the days in elements of sad disarray
only holds me thrall, as I laugh while I may.
With cold, hard hands so impatient and cruel
pulling me to this vale of tears, a pathetic old fool.

Feelings sit silent, cast in shadows and light
breaking forth to implicate such vengeful might.
Just below the surface they patiently hide
to sally forth bravely, colors bright as they ride.

Tears and pain transform valued assets in hand
while comfort and serenity retreat to a far land.
Bold, bright patterns of hope garnish my ruinous state
until reality enters, full of disdainful portions of hate.

I sort out the illustrious measures of vision gone mild
only to find them transformed, now vicious and wild.
In my deepest desires I find myself calloused and cold
with faithless advocates whose souls have been sold.

My search finds little to support any hope of relief
far too much time has passed to bolster such belief.
The sad becomes real, and real becomes unfounded
until flights of such fancy are all dead, and grounded.

Nature has informed me of the newly hatched crime
that reality has boasted of proudly, time after time.
The last answer we think of is always the best
as we come to terms with fate, our hope at rest.

~~ gigoid ~~

“I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.” — Marianne Moore

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Oh boy! Old school!….. Yay!….. Have fun, ffolkes, I intend to…..

“The dismaying thing about man is not where he descended from, but what he is willing to descend to in the course of living life.” — Smart Bee

IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it… This is the condition of children and barbarians, in whom instinct has learned nothing from experience.” — George Santayana, _Life of Reason_, — vol. 1, chap. 12, p. 284 (1905)

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

“No matter how much cynicism you have, it is never enough to keep up.” — Lily Tomlin

“My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” — Clarence Buddinton Kelland

“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_

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When I look back on these Pearls upon finishing each one, I am almost always surprised to find it nothing like what I’d imagined at the start…. Today, that’s probably a good thing…..

I see from my post-creative perusal that some of the pearls are old, in the sense that they’ve been here before…. That’s okay, I’ve been at this long enough now that was bound to happen; there are only a finite number of aphorisms, even if that finite number is large….

Any who, I hope you enjoyed today’s effort…. to my way of looking at it, it didn’t come out too badly…. It’s all me, for sure…. Well, all of it not otherwise attributed, anyway…. See ya, ffolkes, I’m starting to babble now….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

An Andorean warrior, curiously in mufti, stares in wonder….

Posted on May 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

One technique I’ve developed, in the past two-plus years of writing this blog, has to do with this introductory section, which, if you’ve more than one time logged in to read here, you are aware the intro has long been my nemesis, so far as consistency goes…. Nothing I’ve been able to come up with has ever struck me as the one sure way to go, so, every morning, I sit and stare at the blank white screen, filled with as much ignorance as I ever allow myself to experience, in regards to what the hell to put there to fill up the vast void of white that confronts me, here, and in my nightmares….

Now, consistency, as you also may know, is NOT one of our watchwords; one of history’s great minds once told us that it is not necessarily a good thing, defining it as merely a concern of those with no real genius in them (“the hobgoblin of tiny minds” I think was the phrase used…. and, I forget, whether it was GB Shaw, or GK Chesterton, or exactly who first said it…. It was one of those eighteenth or nineteenth century Brit lit icons….

It will come to me, whereupon I’ll insert it into the narrative, probably in some parentheses, as here….. I know how y’all love it when I editorialize in the middle of stuff….). Where was I? Oh, right, consistency…

Since it doesn’t concern us overly, I’ve never worried about achieving it to any significant degree, at least, not here…. There ARE parts of my life where I’m very consistent, but, nobody really cares much how well I can cook, or tie my shoes, so, it’s not really an issue for me…. except here…. Oh, I don’t really CARE if I’m consistent; I just want it to be uniformly good, or readable, or whatever adjective you choose to say I like people to like what I write…. If they get either a chuckle, or a random thought about morality, ethics, or compassionate love for others, out of what I produce, well, I’m good with that….

If they don’t, I do try to give folks, and ffolkes, every opportunity to object, or to disagree, or to otherwise express their thoughts and/or feelings about what I’ve written….. Since that’s true, and the ball’s in their court, I feel as if I’ve done all I can do….

That, as you are well aware, is something in which I firmly believe, i.e., “All you can do is all you can do”, so, I feel as if I’m pretty well entitled to be guilt-free, at least in that respect…. Of course, there are always those who might disagree with that assessment, but, for those misguided few, we have a special procedure, involving large plastic anal probes, and a number of excitable young primates borrowed from a local zoo…

Ooh, that’s nasty! It might be good at this point to remind y’all about today’s special offer…. Today, and today only, we will be offering each and every participant in this…. well, whatever it is… each one in attendance, whether recently buffed or polished, will be supplied with their very own portion of whoop-ass, and the opportunity to let it out on a real, actual, dyed-in-the-wool politician, which we have taken the trouble to capture and sedate, so you won’t even have to tie them down to whoop on them…. Each one is fresh from a recent press conference, so you know they’ve been lying; thus, no guilt necessary for putting them through your personal wringer….

Okay, I’m done now…. I’m relatively awake, have consumed sufficient coffee that homicide is no longer an issue, and ready to move on to another form of personal torture…. I can’t say that today’s intro comes up to the standard set yesterday (that was a good one, I thought….), but, hey, it’s got six paragraphs, or more, so, it’s legal, and that, as you know, is all I really care about…. In fact, having thus completed the obligatory number of references, we can now do this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Damage control is easy. Reading Klingon — that’s hard.” — Commander Montgomery Scott, Star Trek IV, The Search for Spock

(It was Ralph Waldo, the Emerson, and the quote says, precisely: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” And, yes, I was totally wrong about the author’s nationality, though not the time period….)

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I am beset today by the onset of heat; the temperature here on the coast is supposed to go into the nineties this afternoon, and I’m NOT looking forward to it at all. I’m no longer the young stud I used to be, and can’t seem to tolerate the heat like I could in my younger days…. I used to go to Arizona in the summertime, when in my teens; if California wasn’t hot enough for me, I liked to go visit my uncle, in Tempe, spending time wandering around the desert, dodging snakes and Indian spirits, & soaking in the rays…

Now, these days, I don’t tolerate it well when it gets above 85º F, or so, and it’s supposed to hit 94 today. My intention is to either sit in a cool tub all afternoon, or go somewhere air-conditioned, and pretend to be interested in whatever is going on there…. for as long as necessary to avoid getting sweaty and/or miserable….

At this point, you may be asking yourself, “what does this have to do with a Pearl?” The answer to that would be, “not much”, but, enough…. It means that I’m not going to rant in this section, as I can’t find it in me to do so this morning…. It is already warmer than I like, so, I’m going to get this Pearl done as quickly as I can, so I can go seek out cooler pastures for the day…. Hence, the following seven-star pearl, sans parameters, our fastest product, construction-wise…. Enjoy, ffolkes, it should be a good one….

“Sometimes I think I understand everything… Then I regain consciousness.” — Smart Bee

“So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Pericles

—-> If you cut here, you’ll ruin your monitor. <—-

“Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 19

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

“The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

“Always tell the truth–if you want to make trouble.” — Smart Bee

See? Told ya….. (It’s all in the wrist….)

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

I found this poem in Smart Bee, hanging around in prose format…. I really like it, so, I tried to break it down into its poetic frames, or verses, but, I’m not sure I got it the way Rainer intended it to be when he wrote it… If you feel it should be different, feel free to leave a comment, showing how you’d do it; I’m sure somebody can do it better, and I’ve tried long enough… Enjoy, please, it’s a good one, even if the cadence or structure is a bit off…..

Again, Again!

Again, again, even if we know the countryside of love,
and the tiny churchyard with its names mourning,
and the chasm, more and more silent, terrifying,
into which the others dropped:
we walk out together anyway beneath the ancient trees,
we lie down again, again,
among the flowers, and face the sky.

— Rainer Maria Rilke ~~

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

This Pearl has turned on me a bit…. it’s taken me almost two full hours to get this far, and I haven’t ranted at all. Not only that, but, I still don’t have a clue as to what should go here…. I’m not filled with enough angst to produce anything worthwhile in the way of a rant, nor do I really want to let Smart Bee loose again; it might get the wrong idea…. What to do, what to do…. I know, I’ll take a short break, and see what comes up when I return…..

I’m back, and I’ll bet you never even noticed I was gone, did ya?… S’okay, I didn’t expect to be that long, but, got busy spending money online…. more’s the pity… Any who, I decided to go with an older rant, from a couple of years ago, about one of my favorite subjects, to wit: human intelligence, and/or the glaring lack thereof in today’s world…. Enjoy!….

From 6/26/2012:

IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

When I picked out this pearl, I had intended to write a piece exploring human intelligence. However, my brain had a different plan, and all of the thoughts that I had marshaled to use went into the wind, poof, gone….. Since I’m feeling a bit lazy today, I’m keeping the pearl, and writing something about it anyway, so there….

Ranting about human stupidity is an endless challenge; there is so much of it to pick from that the choosing becomes harder than the actual writing. Every day’s news brings more examples of how dumb folks can be, and finding just one that is acceptable is merely a matter of deciding which is the better choice from a humorous view, or a serious view, or whatever viewpoint from which we will write. I’ve yet to see a single day when there weren’t at least four or five instances of stories that illustrate how talented people are at finding new ways to show how stupid they really are…..

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

We’ve all seen this one, I think; if not this one by Robert Heinlein, then one from another author or philosopher. It’s a pretty common theme, after all. Often, examples can be found on the front pages, especially during election years. But the back pages also carry numerous examples, taken from real life…. such as this one….

Back when I was attending the University of Utah, The Daily Utah Chronicle ran a joke ad for a debate between Phil Donahue and Whiskers the Lamb. Over 30 people showed up. (what they were expecting, God only knows.) — Smart Bee

In order to further prove my point, here is an example taken from today’s news….

http://www.fark.com/comments/7182500

This link leads to a very short article from Yahoo news, and is a perfect example of how the world is going mad, step by step….. I’m not even going to comment on the article, as it’s already too hard to think about it without laughing at the absurdity of the whole issue…..

Okay, I think my point is proved. The human race is pretty stupid, and getting stupider all the time. Sure, we’ve got men in space, we’ve raised the average age to 72 with medical advances, we’ve been to the moon. But we also are still making war on each other. We still abuse animals, and women, and children, and any thing else that is weaker, and will stand still. We are still killing ourselves, and denying that it is even happening.

My only hope at this point is for something to happen to change human nature, to turn us away from this path we’ve chosen to walk. I hope it will happen, but I’m afraid the power of stupidity may just be greater than the power of hope….

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

Well, there you have it, such as it may be…. I’m certainly not going to do it again, at least, not until tomorrow, when I flog myself once again. to get up at this ungodly hour, while my frail old body has a modicum of use left in it, and do this all over, but, different… I hope. Until that time, I bid thee adieu….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Not the whole egg!! Just use the yolk….

Posted on April 24, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

This one’s going to be a tough one, ffolkes, I can tell already….. I got beau coups sleep, and am up a little late, but, not too bad; that isn’t the issue. The issue, damn it, is my brain, which seems to have decided to take a holiday without any notice, leaving me in the lurch for this morning’s Pearl….

Yep, I have very few, if any, brain cells that are functioning as anything other than space fillers; whenever I try to think of something to put onto the screen, all I get is fuzzy static, with no ideas, with no fresh phrases bubbling up from my creative wellspring, such as it is…. It’s not much, but, it’s mine, and it’s not working!

Okay, I won’t panic….. Let’s just see if there’s something else in there that will serve to get us down the page a ways, at least to the point where, perhaps, Murphy will take pity, and let my brain back in from wherever it went. If he doesn’t, well, we may just have to resort to the archives again….. at least for one section of today’s effort, if not more. I can already tell that section three might be of that ilk, as even collecting pearls for an old-school variety may take more brain power than I am currently able to muster….

Of course, there are those who would probably say that what you’re seeing today is nothing new for me; they are liars, of course. We ALWAYS have things under control around here, and I NEVER suffer from writer’s block….. And, to borrow a phrase from Lazarus Long, if you have the kind of mind that can believe that statement, then I have a wonderful deal for you, in a bridge. Cash only, no checks….

Let’s try this…. No, better not….

Okay, how about this?….. No, wait, I’m out of those…. sorry, I’ll try one more time….

How about them Giants, eh? Grand slam walk-off last night in the twelfth inning in Colorado, as the offense finally broke out after six games of non-production, to provide enough fireworks to win an official Coors Field game, 12 to 10 (an official Coors Field game isn’t over until both teams have scored 10 or more runs…), after five games of wondering just how many millions of dollars are needed to get somebody to not have slumps….

But, then, that’s baseball, especially in Colorado, where the game is different…. You may note, it is also an Excellent Example of a run-on sentence, perfect for the classroom full of budding young writers in need of a bit of education re: style, and/or the lack thereof…..

Well, that was a LITTLE better, but, I don’t think it’s going to fix this intro…. In fact, I’m pretty sure that by now, there is no further hope that this will EVER get to where it needs to be, so, I may as well just apply emergency method #4, and get on with the rest of this mess… In fact, that is what I’ll do…. now…

Shall we Pearl?….

Zeb: “Tomorrow I will seven eagles see, a great comet will appear, and voices will speak from whirlwinds foretelling monstrous and fearful things. This Universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract”. — Robert A. Heinlein, 666, aka “The Number of the Beast”, his final indulgent paean to solipsism….

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

As I noted in the introduction today, my mind is NOT in its sharpest state today…. which means that ranting, as such, is pretty well out of the question. I’ve been known to hurt much more than just myself when I rant in this state; I’m not going there today. I have to do something, though, so I’ll do this…. I’ve found some good articles, and a literally unbelievable quote from a modern film producer, links to which I will provide below, along with a couple of comments, which makes this one of the new school pearls I’ve been working on…. Let’s give it a whirl, shall we?….

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/04/22/stand-up-or-die-trying/

This one really hits me where I live…. Mr. Morford speaks here of a syndrome of physical symptoms, including the ever-popular back spasms that hit about 12 on the pain scale of 10, that can be brought on by periods of long term sitting by humans, and talks about what a revelation it is for a healthy, well-conditioned human to suffer severe back pain, merely from having sat in front of a computer for too long…. which is a perfect description of ME…. Well, at least, a description of how I USED to be, up until my fortieth year, or so, when I first began to notice how my body was falling apart….

The article was written in Mark’s unique style, using far more of the dictionary than most columnists realize exists, which I appreciate greatly. His logical take on this issue, one near and dear to my heart, offers some new and uplifting points for consideration, and I found it to be quite a good pep talk, relieving me of much of my self-imposed guilt over having lost my physical prowess, upon which I depended heavily. I can relax a bit now, knowing there was little I could have done to prevent what I now experience, which removes some of my guilt, always a good thing….

For they starve the frightened little child
Till it weeps both night and day:
And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool,
And gibe the old and grey,
And some grow mad, and all grow bad,
And none a word may say.

Each narrow cell in which we dwell
Is a foul and dark latrine,
And the fetid breath of living Death
Chokes up each grated screen,
And all, but Lust, is turned to dust
In Humanity’s machine.

And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword.

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

Next, we come to an article in Rolling Stone magazine, which consists of an interview with a film producer, one George R.R. Martin…. The article begins this way…. I lost the link, but, if you go to the other article from the magazine, you could find the whole thing…. All I’m concerned with in it is the following quote….

“George R.R. Martin sits in the Santa Fe theater he owns, watching the Game of Thrones episode in which Ned Stark is unexpectedly beheaded. “As many times as I’ve watched this,” he says, “it still has great effect.” — from the Rolling Stone interview

Excuse me? I am fairly certain that I have never heard of an unexpected beheading described as “a great effect” so casually, as if the experience of witnessing the excessive gore, the blood and guts, as well as the extreme emotional impact of a sight such as this, were an everyday occurrence, as normal as any other sort of event that we perceive. I’m certain, in my own mind, at least, that this kind of acceptance of such violence is a sure indicator of a society-wide loss, of the ability to be shocked by this kind of violent behavior…. It is as if such an event is normal, and only valuable as a form of entertainment…

Now, I don’t know about y’all, but, I don’t ever wish to get to the point in my own mind where the sight of a beheading does not shock my sensibilities in a negative way; even the lack of ANY response, of ANY compassion at all for the victim, even if fictional, is an emotional state in which I would never wish to find myself….

I haven’t watched any of the Game of Thrones TV shows; now, I know why…. I’m not going to pretend that I find the glorification of violence, treachery, unbridled avarice, and rampant violence used as a means of securing power over others, to be an entertaining way to pass time…. I believe the entire series to be a clear indicator of how little ethics and morals are a part of the modern world, and a sure sign of the decay of civilization…. Shows like this can be directly correlated to the Roman circuses, held to keep the masses happy, while those in power go about their lying, cheating ways…..

As always, if anyone has any evidence to the contrary, I’d be happy to hear it; that’s what the comment section is for, you know….

Next, I offer this final article from Rolling Stone…. This is an excellent breakdown of the most critical issues that are the operative reasons behind the loss of faith, and membership, being suffered by the modern Republican Party, as they continue to stuff their heads into the nearest piles of sand…. I’d go on, but the author of the article has laid it all out very clearly, so, just read it, & then we’ll talk….

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/six-studies-that-show-everything-republicans-believe-is-wrong-20140423?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Ffolkes, I’m going to be nice here, and NOT rant on this…. I could, very easily, as all of this is stuff I’ve ranted on previously…. but, it wouldn’t help make the points any clearer, and could conceivably drive away some of my more impatient readers….. So, instead, I’ll finish this off with a five-star pearl, which, I hope, will make a nice ending statement…. Smart Bee is usually pretty good at this, so let’s see what we find…

Well, it took me three tries, but, I think these will do…

“If we do not believe in ourselves — neither in our efficacy nor in our goodness — the universe is a frightening place.” — Nathaniel Branden

“It does take a perverse form of optimism to have any faith in the news media when almost every time they cover something you _know_ about, they get it wrong. Maybe they’re wrong that often covering subjects in which I’m not an expert? Naw, it just couldn’t be.” — Grant Edwards

Like a young eagle who has lent his plume
To fledge the shaft by which he meets his doom,
See their own feathers pluck’d to wing the dart
Which rank corruption destines for their heart.

— Thomas Moore (1779-1852) — Corruption

“Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster.” — Robert M. Pirsig

“Everyone talks about reality, but no one ever does anything about it.”– Smart Bee

See? It’s all in the wrist….

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

No ups, no extras, just a poem….

A Dubiously Soft Morning

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

As mentioned in the intro, even an old-school pearl could be trouble today; it worked okay for the five-star in section one, so, rather than push my luck in that respect, I’ll go with this old-school pearl I found in the archives, from a couple of years ago…. it’s a pretty good one, & I hope you enjoy it…. I KNOW you’ll like it better than any of the potential rants implied in the included pearls…..

From 10/21/12:

Okay, so there I was, cruising through Smart Bee, and these little gems popped up. Each one tempted me to begin a rant, or a discussion, but, none of them completely grabbed my attention enough to do the trick. They are all much too valuable to throw out, so I had this idea to include them as a “new-school” pearl….. Y’all can take the ideas herein described, and formulate them into your own pearl of virtual wisdom…. there is plenty here to work with; I’ve used many similar pearls myself to create unforgettable rants, or brilliantly funny forays into nonsense. (Sure I have….. trust me….)

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

“In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.” — Mark Twain

“In regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion, or in flight, but in courage. He who wishes to walk in the most peaceful parts of life with any serenity must screw himself up to resolution. Let him front the object of his worst apprehension, and his stoutness will commonly make his fear groundless” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays_, Prudence

“I figure that if God actually does exist, He’s big enough to understand an honest difference of opinion.” – Isaac Asimov

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat, but there ain’t no way to make the cat enjoy it.” — Jed Clampett

“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xii, Apology for Raimond Sebond

“Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

So, you should find it reasonably simple to do the same yourselves (creating a pearl, that is, not wearing plaid…) …. and if not, well, they are all fairly strong stand-alone dribbles of good advice/good observations, so you aren’t completely without recourse…. No refunds, though, we’re not completely without shame…. Remember, you get what you pay for in this world, right? TANSTAAFL….. (for the uninitiated, that is, There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch….)

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

Though the creation of this Pearl felt a bit choppy as it progressed, it seems to have come out okay; it will do…. To keep from pushing my luck, which has held together enough to get us to this point, I will take my leave, before anything untoward can take place…. See you tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Spirit lamps have been provided, and lit from within….

Posted on April 9, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

‘Tis a fortunate thing for all of us, Time…. Just think of where we’d be without it….. Days such as yesterday would go on forever, and we’d have no way to either stop it, or start again, or anything…. I’ve always liked to think of Time as being our most important gift from the universe…. otherwise, everything would have to happen all at once, and how icky would THAT be? It would get old in a heartbeat, for me, anyway….

Howdy, ffolkes… I’m back, and none too certain about what happened yesterday…. I’m not going to even think about it, as it was miserable there for the first while…. It all got better, as Uncle Sugar, as my friend Jerry D. calls him, sent my monthly stipend, for which I slaved away my youth, scavenging pennies for my old age, dutifully, (though with little choice…) depositing a portion of them into the SS bank, so kindly thought up for us by ol’ FDR, that master slave master with the big heart….. Having thus been forced by society to save my money for my old age, I am now reaping the rewards for that diligence, even if it was not my own, but enforced upon me by society….

None of the above is a complaint…. it only sounds as if it is, because I’m a natural grump, a curmudgeon in training…. It’s perfectly natural for me to sound that way, and, in fact, I can be cited for being nice to the wrong people…. Suffice it to say things got better yesterday as soon as I checked my bank balance online, and could plan the day’s events with that in mind and hand….. I AM a trained consumer, like everyone else, and it’s soothing to my capitalist soul to spend money….

Now, with all that having been said, I COULD go on to the Pearl for today…. but, what fun would that be, as I haven’t tormented the passengers yet, or issued any of the standard warnings, codicils, updates, or weather and terrorism bulletins ? (We’ve found the latter to be a very popular addition to the program…. everybody seems to enjoy hearing the latest warning statements issued by Homeland Insecurity…. they always get the biggest laughs of the program…) Indeed, we have yet to even board the gigoid-mobile, which we cannot do until they bring the damn thing here from the hangar….

I’m going to pretend it’s already here, though, and just get on with it…. I don’t think we can afford to take the time away from our schedule to wait for the vehicle we’d planned to use; they’re already late, and nothing is in sight…. Can’t call to see, as everyone involved is busy moving the plane….. but, that means they’ll be here in time to dive, so, I’m going to issue the face-masks, body armor, and box lunches, so we can board as soon as it shows up…. which means we’ll be on our way shortly…. Whew, good thing, as I don’t think I could fake this much longer…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“And this,” said Caesar, “you know, young man, is more disagreeable for me to say than to do.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Caesar

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

WARNING: The following pearl grew beyond all reasonable boundaries, until I finally had to use a variation of Emergency Method #6 to get quit of it…. I’m putting in a disclaimer so you may skim over it to the poetry section, if you wish…. but, I wish you wouldn’t, as it’s a pretty good rant, all in all….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/USAID-chief-to-face-questions-on-Cuban-Twitter-5384467.php

Ominous key phrase: “publicly launched shortly after the 2009 arrest in Cuba of American contractor Alan Gross. He was imprisoned there after traveling repeatedly on a separate, clandestine USAID mission to expand Cuban Internet access, using sensitive technology that only governments use.”

I almost missed this little “tell” from the media lackey who wrote this, shall we say, LESS than unbiased report…. Sensitive technology that only governments use… What was that? That only GOVERNMENTS use? When did a government become NOT a person with a laptop? What does this mean, that “only” governments use some kinds of technology?

Does this imply to you, as it does to me, that there are things they aren’t telling us, in terms of the available technology in certain fields? You mean the government is, GASP! , LYING TO US? They’re keeping advanced technology away from the public? Why, I’m shocked, I tell you, simply shocked…

What the hell ELSE could it mean, ffolkes? Apparently, the government(s)(!!!) have technology the rest of us aren’t allowed to have, if any of this is at all accurate…. and, I’m guessing it is. (!!!) There you go, ffolkes, they’ve let the cat out of the bag, and it is now clawing its way up your leg toward where you keep you wallet, to snag its contents for the corporate masters who assign the tasks for their government myrmidons to carry out…. clandestinely, with the technology they’ve kept hidden from us….

This whole scenario, all this noise about more instances of spying by the government, by the way, is just MORE BS, a big smoke screen being thrown up to distract the public from matters of greater importance, in those areas where the actions of the government require the darkness that is provided by pulling our attention to other matters….. The hullabaloo in this issue goes right along with what is taking place in the article listed just below, which we will now proceed to address….

Nothing much more to say here, except, ffolkes, you’d better keep a sharp eye on your perimeter, and stay aware of whomever is lurking about…. Then, take measures to protect yourselves from your own government, who are among those lurking about, looking for anything they can steal, or get their fingers into…. and, now, we know they’re also trying to hook your kids up to some sort of techno system that will farm your information for anything that will further their cause….

“As you grow older, you’ll find the only things you regret are the things you didn’t do.” — Zachary Scott

I can relate…. I’ve spent many hours of regret for NOT having spent more time randomly shooting politicians, bankers, and/or preachers until I ran out of bullets…. Let’s move on to the next issue that prompted this outburst, which began two or three days ago, & is only now coming to fruition….

Yesterday morning, I felt like crap, without ever finding out why…. It passed, but not before abandoning this series of thoughts, which had been collecting in my head, and on this screen, for several days,, stimulated each time by each new outrageous news article I found, that could be identified as part of the government’s ongoing campaign to fill the heads of the public with useless, misleading information, or something that LOOKS like information, but, is actually just fluff, that will fill up their heads for a cheap price….

Below you will find the link to an article re: the continuing saga of DiFi and the CIA, (sounds like the name of an indie band, or a really bad, way-off-Broadway play…)…. which is followed by some of the key phrases I noted while reading it, with my comments appended where appropriate….. Just to keep y’all busy, some of what I said is in parentheses, and some isn’t….. Even after proofing, I’m uncertain as to which should be which, & it’s too late to go back and figure it out, so just deal, okay? Thanks….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Dems-slam-CIA-ex-boss-over-Feinstein-criticism-5382997.php

Key phrases in the article, taken from each side:

CIA: “We’re safe now, the CIA is here!” — Famous Last Words

(Okay, it’s not really in the article…. but, it fits, so it should be…. which is why I put it there….)

Hayden: “Hayden could not be reached for comment.” (Mr. Hayden is the CURRENT Director of the CIA….)

( This WAS in there…. All I can say is, well, I guess he would’t comment for this article, so they used stuff from another interview from earlier in the week, when he said the stuff that WAS included in today’s brief, such as the following….) (All excerpted portions from the article are in quotation marks….)

(The report…) “may show deep emotional feeling on the part of the senator, but I don’t think it leads you to an objective report.” Regarding Feinstein, he said, “When she gets an idea in her head, she’s very focused” — in much the same manner as current CIA Director John Brennan. Hayden said Feinstein’s report, however, was “designed to discredit the (interrogation) program and those who said this provided useful information.”

(I don’t know about y’all, but, those statements have a distinct tone of “nyah, nyah, nyah”, as might be heard on any third-grade playground….)

From the other side of the aisle, we have the statements on the issue by the Senator, and her supporters…. most of whom are Senate Democrats:

Feinstein: “Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement that declassifying the review of CIA’s detention and interrogation program after the Sept. 11 attacks “would ensure nothing like it happens again.” She called Hayden’s reference to her emotions “nonsense.” “The report itself is objective, based on fact, thoroughly footnoted, and I am certain it will stand on its own merits,” Feinstein said.”

(Duh! What the hell else would she say? I don’t think she could say what ACTUALLY was true, such as ,”Oh, they’re right, the report is just another way of making noise, by accusing them of chicanery over here in this issue, so the public won’t look at what the White House is REALLY doing about all this….” That would go over real well over on Pennsylvania Avenue, ya think?…. Probably not….)

But, she had to say SOMETHING, didn’t she? Can’t leave a media hound without a sound byte….. It just isn’t done …. Plus, if she’s telling any truth at all, it IS all footnoted, thoroughly….. or so she asserts, anyway, so that’s something, right? That will scare them, boy,…. we all know how dangerous those footnotes are…. Shoot, the way she said the words, “thoroughly footnoted”, like their mere utterance was some sort of magical proof of truth, just MAKES me HAVE to read them, if ony so I can see what “thoroughly footnoted” means…. to them….

Udall: ” Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat who serves alongside Feinstein on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the reference to Feinstein’s emotions a “baseless smear” that Hayden wouldn’t make against a man. ”

Others: “Does this sound like a person or party that respects women?” Reid said. Of Feinstein, he said: “She has been fearless. She has been thorough and fair… She’s being too emotional? I don’t think so.”

Good job, dudes…. Senators Reid and Udall chimed in to show the unity of the Dems in the Senate…. They wanted to be supportive of their colleague, plus, it was an opportunity to slip in one of their Party’s best strategic talking points, dragging down the Republicans about their views on women…. which, by coming to her defense, as if “the little lady” needed it, shows complete disdain for women, while simultaneously highlighting their own misogyny…. Utah must be proud….

Besides, thinking of Dianne Feinstein as a “little lady” is more than just stupid… the woman stands over six feet three in heels, and is built like a left tackle….. I know, I’ve seen her in person, in close proximity…. I’m not tall at 5’8″, but, I’m a wide-body, built like a fire-plug, or a linebacker, and don’t usually feel dwarfed by any woman, no matter how tall, but, she was BIG…. Scary, especially when one remembers she’s married to SF financier Richard Blum, a Chuck Schwab type of guy, who is definitely NOT a huge fella…. He was there, and is only about my own height and weight….

You’ll note, please, that I am confining myself to minor pokes and prods, without becoming overly vituperative…. This is because I am writing this ahead of time, and feeling quite glib right now…. thus, I am taking advantage of my momentary glib facility to get in some good licks from my sardonicism, and its ever-present side-kick, sarcasm…. hopefully, a bit of shameless guilt-tripping is getting through, as well…. But, no real ranting thus far…. I decided, here at the last, to rant no further, since this has grown beyond all reason….

Not only am I not going to subject you to a full-on, pedantic, pompous episode of ranting, at least, not any MORE of it, I’m going to stop my sharpshooting now, and finish off this epic section with a five-star pearl, with the expected parameters…. Enjoy, and I’ll see you in section three….

“He who reforms himself, has done more towards reforming the public, than a crowd of noisy, impotent patriots.” — Lavater

“The streets are safe in Philadelphia, it’s only the people who make them unsafe.” — Frank Rizzo (ex-police chief and mayor of Philadelphia)

(Typical attitude of an elected psychopath….)

“There are some remedies worse than the disease.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 301

(Yep…. such as any remedy for social ills proposed by a POLITICIAN, who, by nature, has no invested interest in ever solving any social issues, other than for the purposes of their own aggrandizement, thus, only in the interests of self-service….)

UN-AMERICAN, adj. Wicked, intolerable, heathenish. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

(Typical…. Just ask any redneck, conservative, or anyone else who calls themselves a “Patriot”, those of the “My country, right or wrong” ilk….)

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

(Oops! How did THAT get in there…. That won’t go over well with an elected official; like George Carlin pointed out, such words make a lawyer or a politician feel uneasy; they know they take the risk of choking on either word, if they try to apply it to themselves…. Let’s try for another closing pearl, that will say something along the lines we’re seeking here today….)

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people are so full of doubts.” — Bertrand Russell

That will do nicely…. NOW we can go on, with confidence we’ve kicked the shit out of THIS section today….. Even though it makes me a liar, (count the number of pearls herein…..) I’ll leave you with this final thought, from one of the designers of our modern government, as he comments on the already-suspect behavior of those who inhabited the halls of our government, even back then, in his time, and, speaking with a degree of clairvoyance he never knew, eerily describing the Beloved Ruling Class, as it exists today…..

“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress.” — John Adams, (1735-1826) in 1776

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WordPress recently began placing suggested related posts at the bottom of our blog pages, referring readers to older, archived posts with similar material for them to peruse… In doing so, yesterday or the day before, I came across the following, from From February 2, 2012…. I like it a lot, so I decided to format it into verses, whereupon it turned into a poem I think I can be very proud to have created…. Well, I like it…. Here then, is the original prose version, followed by the resultant poem….

Written 2/2/12:

But you shall not escape my iambics.

Soft, sinuous patterns of unearthly beauty blithely commune with sinking stars, as pale shadows of former virtue hover near, ever clean, ever tolerant. These unbidden habits are worn with age and care, ready now for dissolution, welcoming gladly the kiss of death’s handmaiden. Unknown to all, the child stands aside, and weeps for the lost days of youth, days that now shall never be, nor yearned for ever after. Only darkness shall lay upon the landscape, cold, hard, and eternal. Such then are the signs and portents as we enter into the unknown future, and they are grave indeed. Uncertainty will be our sole companion, as the search for hope yields no result. The lamentations of the gods shall sound the elegy for Man, who never learned to see the gift that was made, so many echoes ago, in the hopeful past; thus will we pass this plane of existence as we came, baffled and afraid…..

Well, sorry….this was supposed to be a poem, but it just ran away with me there for a few minutes. I’ll have to come back later and look at it with fresh eyes….. Okay, so it’s not bad, as a not-poem goes. I’ve certainly created worse…..I’ll just have to put it out there, and let it fly or not, as it chooses… (I do tend to anthropomorphize fairly often; its a gift…..)
_____________________________

This is how it looks as a poem, complete with brand new title:

Gently Came a Wounded Child

But you shall not escape my iambics.

Unknown to all, the child stands aside,
weeping for the lost days of youth,
days that now shall never be,
nor yearned for ever after.
Only darkness shall lay upon the landscape,
cold, hard, eternal.

Such then are the signs and portents
as we enter into the unknown future,
they are grave indeed.

Uncertainty will be our sole companion,
as the search for hope yields no result.
The lamentations of the gods
shall sound the elegy for Man,
who never learned to see the gift that was made,
so many echoes ago, in the hopeful past;
thus will we pass this plane of existence
as we came, baffled and afraid….

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Well, I’ve made it this far, I may as well finish up…. This will be a standard old-school pearl…. I’ve ranted QUITE enough for one day, above in section one, so you probably knew this was coming… S’okay, I expected the regulars to figure it out, and the newbies, well, they have to take what they get, don’t they? I’m not trying to be smarmy, or anything, I just figure since we’re mostly done here for the day, I could get away with a touch of smarm, if I had to…. Okay, I won’t then…. Be that way….

Instead, I offer, then, for your viewing pleasure, a random, harlequin pearl, with parameters set to describe “a life lived well”…. or, maybe that was, “well, living life”…. Yeah, that was it…

“Don’t blame me–I was raised by humans” — Smart Bee

“A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.” — Albert Einstein

” ‘He deserves death’. ‘Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them ? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.’ ” — J. R. R. Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” — Frederick Douglass

“All of the animals excepting man know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.” — Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

“Mongo only pawn… in game of life.” — Alex Karras in “Blazing Saddles”

Okay, to end this, here is a statement of reaction to the above that is a perfect example of Art imitating Life imitating Art imitating Life, as perfectly highlighted by the immortal words of George Peppard, when he said, at the end of each episode of The A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together!”…. Serendipity is a wonderful thing….

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Go, forget me! why should sorrow
O’er that brow a shadow fling?
Go, forget me, and to-morrow
Brightly smile and sweetly sing!
Smile,–though I shall not be near thee;
Sing,–though I shall never hear thee!

— Charles Wolfe (1791-1823) — Go, forget me!

Actually, it would be rather nice if y’all DIDN’T forget me just yet…. After I’ve gone to my next appointment in the reincarnation cycle, THEN you can forget me…. Of course, my words will still be here, and one or two of them are, if not unforgettable, hopefully, at least, memorable…. On that note, anything other than tootling “ta-ta” would be anticlimactic at best….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Hardly softened, barely covered, finally started, & completely unfinished….

Posted on March 1, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Darling!”, cried the woman at the next table, “You look fabulous! Where did you get your hair done?” As she continued to gush at her companion, I tuned out her voice, while looking toward the door, hoping to see my own appointment waiting there. No luck there, so I let my eyes scan the dining room of the very upscale restaurant in London’s East End, idly noting the few other early diners at tables around the room, several of which sat in front of windows overlooking the busy street below. Catching the eye of a roving waiter, I ordered a drink, and sat back to await the arrival of the man who was going to provide me with the means to destroy millions of people, over a very fine dinner…. I couldn’t wait….

Well, that’s quite enough of THAT….. I’m no more impressed than you probably are, or aren’t…. Not my best effort, to be sure, in spite of the copious amounts of blood that accompanied its creation…. That one HURT to get out, and, after reading it, I can see why…. My sub-conscious mind, having already made its judgment of this little piece of crap, tried to clue me in the entire time I was writing, but, I was determined to finish it, with the result, as you can see, that I’ve managed to completely waste my time, and possibly yours…

S’okay, though, we’re all good…. Even though my morning routines seem to have been wiped out, and I’m operating totally on instinct today, I’m sure I can fix this, and make it into what will someday be called an ordinary Pearl…. I say ‘ordinary’ because it will have 1500-3000 words, with some ranting, a poem, and some pearls of virtual wisdom to chew on…. The quality of that content is, as you know, subject to a wide range of both good and bad, and, since such judgments are entirely personal, anyway, I won’t even bother to consider that when performing the fix….

How, you may ask, am I going to save this? I’ll admit, it won’t be easy, or simple, and it may just leave me with a lot less blood than I started out with today…. But, I’m committed, and ready to make any sacrifices I must, to save this Pearl from becoming just another blog…. Of course, this may mean y’all will have to walk home, but, I don’t mind sacrificing the Reality-Mobile, if we can get this Pearl to breathe again….

Oh, wait, that’s right, I forgot…. Y’all could take the zip-lines back to the mainstream, if you have the cojones to zip five miles from the heights of reason down to the mundane flats of complacency….. The lines are free to all, they’ll supply y’all with free gloves, and there’s a shuttle to the top of the line from here…. it’s not far, only a couple of miles up the mountain….

There, with that taken care of, I can now concentrate on the delicate matter at hand…. While I do this, please stay back a few feet…. even the noise of your heartbeats can frighten the ‘puir wee beasties’, and they’re skittish enough today…. Okay, here we go…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I don’t mind occasionally having to reinvent a wheel; I don’t even mind using someone’s reinvented wheel occasionally. But it helps a lot if it is symmetric, contains no fewer than ten sides, and has the axle centered. I do tire of trapezoidal wheels with offset axles” — Joseph M. Newcomer
_____________________________

“The truth is on the march and nothing will stop it.” — Emile Zola (1840-1902), “J’Accuse!”

I found the following article in the news a day or two ago, and set it here to form the nucleus of a rant I planned to write, on gun control, and the 2nd Amendment issue at large…. However, while waiting for today to arrive, I found the following rant from last year, and decided it says part of what I wish to say very well, so, I’ve put it immediately after, as a prelude to any fresh comments…. if I can find any in this less than completely cooperative text editor I call my mind….

For now, please read the article, keeping an open mind about both sides of what this implies…. If those sides aren’t clear to you, the key words to look for that will identify the players for each team are words such as “critics” or “supporters”, or more simply, “cops”, and “victims”….. (Sorry….. please, DO try to keep an open mind, even if I tend NOT to practice that myself, quite so well as I may preach…. a perfectly human habit, I might add…)….

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/6-San-Francisco-police-officers-indicted-5273906.php

From April 20, 2013:

Quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? [Who guards the Guardians?] — Smart Bee

This is the perfect opening for a discussion of gun control, for me, as I believe strongly this is the bottom line issue for that particular subject…… Sure, taking guns out of the hands of people who are insane is a good thing; nobody, I think, can argue that. The problem lies in figuring out WHO gets to decide what sanity is, the same issue that comes up in discussing getting rid of firearms altogether.

You see, I’m sorry, but, I just can’t bring myself to trust the Beloved Ruling Class to decide who is sane, and who isn’t. Part of this stems from the fact that I don’t consider anyone in public office to have a very tight grip on sanity to begin with…. How effective can it be to have insane people making the rules for deciding who is insane? Not very, I suspect….

Yet, I read many articles that profess the belief that the police, and the army, who naturally would have to have guns (Why? If nobody is supposed to have them, why would they need them?), are more trustworthy than the common citizen. I’m sorry, but, just what planet did you say you came from? It certainly isn’t Earth, because, last time I looked, here on Earth, all the police, and all the folks in the army, and the folks who tell them what to do, are all PEOPLE, just like anyone else…..

They’re all suffering the same fears, the same delusions or preconceptions, and the same lack of morality, as does the average joe on the streets. In fact, in light of my experience observing and identifying psychiatric symptoms common to the insane, I can honestly state I see a higher percentage of police and military personnel who display a distinct lack of a strong, internalized moral compass, based on a rational compassion for others, than I see in the general public.

Part of the problem is exemplified by what I DO see, which is, police and military institutions, as they are organized and run, become attractive to the type of person who enjoys having power over others, whose self-image requires them to be in a position of authority, in order for them to be able to view themselves in a positive light, to see themselves as successful individuals. They equate money, and the power to control other people, with the concept of success, thus gravitating naturally to those sectors of society that deal in those commodities.

Normal, stable personality types seldom need to exercise power over others, and never do so out of a personal neurotic need, and so avoid such pastimes as bullying, or aggressive interactions as a rule of thumb…. To the selfish, and the sociopathic, however, the police and the army are seen as a path to what they term as success. If you see a flaw in this logic, please, enlighten me…. Until I see some evidence to the contrary, though, I find this to be a valuable, and accurate summation of the situation, thereby affording myself the opportunity to avoid the majority of their machinations, at least in a directly personal sense….

We all have to deal with them eventually though, so it’s good, I think, to be aware of the above arguments, as it will forewarn anyone who absorbs it, and takes it to heart, allowing them to defend themselves from the worst of the BRC’s attempts at repression, or oppression, if not all. Maintain a high level of doubt when considering announcements and decrees, stay alert to the news, and the meaning behind what you see there, and be ready to jump when the balloon goes up.

Things out in the Big Blue Room are getting a little bit pretty damn serious in spots, with potentially disastrous possibilities being threatened on a lot of different fronts, so, for those of us who wish to survive, it would be a good thing to be ready for whatever may take place, no matter how insane…. And remember, guard yourself, against the Guardians themselves, if need be…..

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We return now to the Consensual Reality currently in place today, March 1, 2014….. no better, and much worse off in general, than we were when this was first written, eleven months ago….. If I were to begin here, taking this rant to the places it conceivably could go, we’d all be here far longer than any of us wished…. Me, because I’d have to speak to the other implications of gun control, and I’m already burnt out for today…. and you, because you, too, have, no doubt, had quite enough of this, thank you very much…. One can only be serious so long before one requires a bit of a break, what?

Well, I do….. require a break, that is…. So, onward…. Stay alert, ffolkes, and keep your powder dry, because you just can’t trust ANYONE who SAYS they have YOUR best interests at heart…. unless, maybe, it’s your mum, dad, brother, or sister, or loyal lover….. and they could still get it wrong, right?…. Nobody’s perfect….

“We make so much sense around here it’s frightening!” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

I’m afraid y’all have pulled my covers, but, only because I’m such a shameless egoist I encourage such humiliations; I consider it part of curmudgeon training, adding just the right tones of bitterness and resentment on my part, and righteous indignation and disgust on yours…. which hopefully does not also get on your shoes…. There, now you can’t say I never make myself look foolish….

Staying with that theme, I now present to you my entry for the 19th day of April last, during the National Month of Poetry Challenge, when writers all over WordPress, and other blogging sites on the Web, all committed to write and publish a poem a day for the entire 30 days…. I missed a day or two, but, managed to write a lot of not-too-shabby poems, and several excellent haiku, if I do say so myself…. which, obviously, I have just done…. duh….. Enjoy, please….

From April 19 , 2013:

Haiku VIIThe sun has come up,
once more we rise, and then shine.
Standard issue day.

~~ gigoid ~~

Fatal Supplication

But what becomes of our deepest dangerous dreams?
Does fantasy rescue any part of life’s imperiled favor?
Reality becomes but silvery pairs of mismatched teams,
Dining with affable elegance, such diffident waste to savor.

Who decides what sorrows to carry bravely to term?
Will fragrant moments of sanity make hasty manifestation?
Only Time’s patient mutability sends messages so firm,
Yet salient impersonal vexation lends credence to ripe imagination.

Can folly bring out sadness and rampant visions of beauty?
What kindness can be found in distant open relations?
With countless faces the dead disturb with dire impunity,
From separate caches of wisdom come simple stylish privations.

Shall shallow emotion serve to provide such explanation?
When does avaricious intensity assume primary focus?
Plain answers slide softly through with multiple mitigation,
While conceptually indignant concepts engage a fatally personal locus.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

The die is cast, and reality has taken the shape it will hold, until it changes again…. All we can do is go along with what the universe has in store for us, helpless to make changes anywhere but in our own minds, to our own character…. Reality itself, in spite of our delusions to the contrary, is NOT amenable to our desires, and only matches them randomly….

It’s best to learn to get along with that piece of information, because it is one that isn’t going to ever change…. In fact, our own inability to change reality may possibly be the only thing in the entire universe that is NOT subject to change… Hmm… That will take a bit of deeper thought, I think, before we can call that one a truism…

Philosophical, and/or metaphysical, or even metaphorical, considerations aside, it’s time for an old-school pearl, if for no other reason than my own wish to keep from having to rant overmuch…. I’m trying to cut down, for my health… so to speak…. For now, let it suffice to say, shall we dive for some pearls?…. I think it would be for the best….

“Within the oyster’s shell uncouth
The purest pearl may hide,
Trust me you’ll find a heart of truth
Within that rough inside.”

— Mrs. Osgood

“I don’t want to die! Existence is one of my stronger points!” — Ron Warren Evans

Remembrance and reflection how allied!
What thin partitions sense from thought divide!

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 225

“Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.” — Charlie Chaplin

It’s got to be the goin’,
Not the gettin’ there that’s good.

— Harry Chapin

“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” — Mark Twain

Are there not, dear Michal,
Two points in the adventure of the diver,–
One, when a beggar he prepares to plunge;
One, when a prince he rises with his pearl?
Festus, I plunge.

— Robert Browning (1812-1890) — Paracelsus, Part i

Perfect! A pearl, book ended by two pearls about pearls, creating a pearl of pearls, with the power to cause ecstatic cognitive trance states at the drop of a metaphor!…. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did….
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Well, THAT was fun…. sort of…. Actually, I did have a bit of fun today, and nobody got hurt, that I can see…. I call that a good day of writing. Whether or not that is something that reality can agree with is, at this late point in the process, rather moot…. Which, convoluted as it may or may not be, is merely another way of saying, it’s done, and, I’m outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, most likely….

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

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

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.gigoid the dubious

Put down the matches, sir, & step away from the dead clown….

Posted on February 17, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Okay, now my feelings are REALLY hurt….. Well, not actually, but…. for the first time since I began this blog, which began in it’s current location on WordPress in August of 2011, as I sit down to write this morning, NOBODY…. that’s nobody at all, came by to read yesterday’s Pearl…. If they did, they didn’t like what they saw, and left without a comment….

If I cared much at all about whether or not this gets read, I’d be truly upset, or hurt, or some such reaction that would show how much I put into this, and care about what I write…. But, since that isn’t the case, I can’t say I’m upset, but, I’m definitely not sure WHAT to think….

I no longer HAVE to write this blog, as it no longer matters to me whether or not I stay sane, per se…. My retirement is all set, and all I have to do is keep breathing, stay solvent, and hope Social Security doesn’t get gutted before I get my share of what I put in there. So, the former, semi-original reason for doing this, to maintain my sanity while waiting for it all to sort itself out, is no longer valid…..

Plus, quite simply, I don’t much CARE any longer whether or not I appear to be sane, as the only one to whom it matters, milady Patricia, seems to enjoy my insanity, when it isn’t frustrating her trying to comprehend what I’m doing, or making her scramble to follow my often obscure trains of thought…. Come to think of it, my thoughts probably are more like a big room of cotton candy, dotted randomly with bourbon truffles, than a train…. Yes, I’m aware that’s a bit odd….

“Odd” doesn’t scare me, nor does “strange”…. I mean, it might bother me, if I cared at all about what people think, but, I learned, from cats, long ago, how to NOT give a shit about any of that….. Seriously, if you want to know how to not give a crap about what people think, just watch your cat. They’ve been perfecting their manner of ignoring people for many, many generations, and have become the acknowledged masters of the cold shoulder, and the complete indifference that so annoys other creatures….

So, in the final analysis, I don’t much care if nobody likes my work….. Realistically, that may merely be a function of the material about which I write, and the unpalatability of such difficult subjects as politics, religion, human nature, and global warming…. All of those tend to bring out passion in people, so I can see why many might not wish to deal with it every day…. Plus, my opinions generally run to the pessimistic, as I don’t have a lot of faith in human nature to be anything other than stupid and coarse, and to display every weakness of morality that we have identified….. Well, sorry, but, I’m just playing the odds there…

The part that bothers me isn’t my own ego-driven desire to be liked, or appreciated; those are issues I resolved a long time ago, and they don’t cause me any pain…. No, what bothers me is, the message I’m putting out there, about the BRC, the bankers, the politicians, the police, the judges, and the mundanes who support them in oppressing the rest of us, is not getting the distribution and attention that it deserves, or that people need, if we are to ever save our asses from our own stupidity…. I don’t care at all if people don’t like, or don’t agree with my take on most things, but, when it comes to the effects we are seeing of global warming, it is NOT something that ANY of us can afford to ignore…..

No, I wish I could figure out how to get somebody to start distributing what I’ve written to a wider audience, who might then be able to spread the word far enough that someone who can actually DO something will hear it, and be prompted to act…. It’s a bit frustrating to be saying all of this, to pour myself into what I’ve written, and then watch it die, in what for a literary work is an unnatural death, left to rot on the shelf, without being consumed…..

SIGH…. c’est la vie…. Perhaps, someday, my Prince will come…. (Maybe I should have used the word Publisher?….) Of course, a prince wouldn’t do much in the way of agreeing with me, or liking what I say, but, it sounds nice, doesn’t it?…. I suppose that’s all we have left, is to be nice to ourselves…. SIGH… Wanna come with me & eat some worms?….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Have no fear – I never attack lesser beings.” — gigoid the dubious
_____________________________

“What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” — Thomas Jefferson

In a pearl from a day or two ago, I mentioned a business deal that struck my eye, as being another example of how little the 99% in the world actually have in the way of resources, in contrast to the shadowy corporate entities that inhabit the other 1%….. The deal referred to in the article, I pointed out, was to be made to the tune of forty-five BILLION dollars….. an amount the human mind isn’t capable of grasping, really…..

It’s more money than all of the 99% here in America typically has to spend in one day, (I did the math…it’s $136 for each of the 330 million of us here in the USA, not counting the 33,000 or so who don’t need any at all, because they’re in the other 1%) approximately; this huge amount of money is, no doubt, being spent, out of Comcast’s “petty cash drawer”, dipping only lightly into actual profits, to purchase the next biggest cable system besides themselves, thereby cornering more than 33% of the cable market for itself….

Read the article, then we’ll talk….

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/02/14/follow-the-money-to-congress-on-comcast-time-warner-deal/

ECONOMY, n. Purchasing the barrel of whiskey that you do not need for the price of the cow that you cannot afford. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

First, let’s look at what Comcast had to spend bribing Congress, on the political tools they wish to cultivate….. According to the above article, Maplights says the amount they contributed to various members of Congress over the past two years, since this deal has been in the works, is $835, 525. That probably sounds a bit low to you; I know it does to me, until I realized that this is the amount they REPORTED, not the actual amount given, which, I’m sure, is much more cleverly hidden than the numbers they actually let us see…. Plus, this amount represents the CASH contributed, not any perks, or favors that were also tendered…

Still, it’s almost a million dollars, in cash, which you know they spent without even counting the cost, as money well-laundered, and well-used, to secure favors (to wit: votes to approve the deal)…. For that measly million bucks, they’re allowed to spend their “spare” 45 BILLION, to ensure that they continue to have the power and resources to continue to supply the public with the bread and circuses that comprises the TV and Entertainment Industry….

TV, now with the related usefulness of computers and the internet, is possibly the most influential industry the Beloved Ruling Class has, in terms of effectiveness in directing, and molding. the public’s attitudes….. These two communication tools form, together, a mega-industry which, as you know, includes the entire sporting world, and all the billions upon billions of dollars that people spend to vicariously re-live their youth, watching football, basketball, baseball, tennis, cricket, rugby, soccer, and all the other billion-dollar industries that each individual sport can generate, when turned into a professional competition, rather than amateur….

Hell, the cable companies even make money broadcasting the amateur sports, making an even larger profit, because none of the players are being paid! (…. on the surface….)…. If, like me, you paid attention to the little bit of history they teach in high school, you might remember the discussions on ancient Rome, and the public circuses they had in their era….. Most of the time, in the books and class discussions, the circuses were pointed out as a symptom of their dying culture, which subsequent events seemed to prove, as Rome’s culture declined, until it was sacked by barbarians not many centuries after the circuses began in earnest….

“America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.” — George Clemenceau (1841-1929) — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

In our own culture, we have television, movies, sports, and now, the Internet, all of which, the way they have evolved, are now used to augment and support the ruling classes, at the behest and direction of those who control society…. These are, collectively, nothing more than our version of the Roman circuses under Nero, effectively keeping the majority of our society quiet, content to laze around, peacefully watching Sex In The City, or the Olympics, or, googling gossip about their neighbors….

Okay, since nobody will probably read much of this, I’m going to save some of my angst, and conduct a test, an experiment, as it were…. I’m going to ask a couple of questions now, to see how many people it might stimulate into answering, in the comment section… The questions are such that I hope will make y’all think, at least a little…. then, if you have the time, let us know what your response might be, in your own inimitable style…. Me, I’m going to go find some pearls for section three, & a poem for section two, after which I’ll get out my candles, my chrysknife, and my amulets, to cast a spell of deep thinking, over whomever stops in to read, which will, if successful, MAYBE, give us something to discuss….

I’ve told you my opinions previously, at great length, so you know how I feel about these assholes…. What’s your take on any of this, eh?….. The question(s) is(are)….. Will Congress approve this deal? Or, will the money the shadowy corporate lackeys, the lobbyists who inhabit the halls of Congress alongside the legislators, spent on them have been wasted? If the latter, do you think it will matter in the long run?….

Finally, do you agree that the entire entertainment industry, including sports and movies, is merely one of the shadowy corporate masters’ techniques of crowd control, used for the most part to keep the populace quiet and content? …… Come on down, ffolkes, and let’s create an intelligent, stimulating dialogue…. Or, if you prefer, we can just grimace and call each other foul names….

Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And Learning wiser grow without his books.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book vi, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 85

“Me, I love the rich. *Somebody* has to love them. Sure, a lot of rich people are assholes, but believe me, a lot of poor people are assholes too. And an asshole with money can at least pay for his own drinks.” — Tom Robbins, “Jitterbug Perfume”
_____________________________

The poem for today is, as I sit to begin this section, an unsolved mystery…. I’m going to complete section three before I turn to that, so, we could end up with just about ANYTHING today…. I certainly hope so…. I’ll be back in a while, poem in hand (well, on the clipboard, anyway, ready to paste….)….

Yep…. I knew I could count on serendipity…. While searching for the pearls in section three, I realized I know the perfect poem for today’s theme, as it evolved (I’m trying to use that word a lot, to help people learn to accept the idea of things evolving…. maybe the general knowledge of that will leak over onto someone who actually needs it….)…. Any whom, here ’tis…

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 ~~

_____________________________

So, I’ve ranted, enough to suit me, and a poem has yet to be found…. (Remember, I did this section first, before filling in the remainder of section two…. Kind of like being a Time Lord, isn’t it?….) This puts me in a quite dangerous place, to be honest, as I’m liable to do just about anything at this point to get a laugh, or, at minimum, a chortle…. Hell, I’d settle for an amused expression….

One should never trouble a rogue philosopher who has nothing to read or talk about; ’tis a pastime fraught with peril dire, or, dire peril, if you prefer…. If you couldn’t guess, today’s old-school variety pearl is going to concentrate on funny, with humorous being the primary, perhaps only, standard of inclusion…. Let’s see how my own sense of humor is doing, when joined with SB’s dB, shall we?….

“Christian life consists of faith and charity.” — Martin Luther

(What? Not funny? It is, too! Why, I damn near fell out of my chair, laughing so hard I damn-near spewed my last swallow of coffee!!….. Well, I think it’s funny, because, hey, do YOU know any Christians who live like that? Neither do I…..MOSTLY, the Christians I see spouting off about their piety or religion are better described as entitled, selfish, and bigoted, CERTAINLY not charitable toward those not of their “faith”…. I’d wager even Martin Luther had a hard time saying this with a straight face, except, he WAS German, and they’re known world-wide as a dour people in general, often found to be without a sense of humor at all…. Okay, I’m done now….)

“The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a necessity.” — Oscar Wilde

(A bit pessimistic, but perceptive….) (That’s all, I swear…)

“I love cats…they taste just like chicken.” — Bumper Sticker

“God bless Atheism.” — Smart Bee, being a smart ass…

“The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.” — Jane Wagner

“You can’t cheat an honest man; never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump.” — W. C. Fields

General Custer: “Look at all those f%*king Indians” — Famous people swearing…

That will do nicely, I think….. I don’t know about y’all, but, I chortled….
_____________________________

Having thus humiliated myself beyond redemption, I should probably just sign off and go…. In fact, you’re about to witness an unprecedented event, as I take my own advice, and do that…. See you tomorrow, if I don’t just give up altogether…. Don’t worry, that’s not bloody likely….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

If it were only REAL cheese!….

Posted on February 16, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Now I KNOW there’s a conspiracy! The US news media has been overcome by an act of sublimely random kindness, as evidenced by their recent refusal to publish news that will depress people, or make them feel blue…. I’m pretty sure they show all the symptoms of having been infected with pronoia, the condition wherein a person is convinced there is a conspiracy by the world to make them feel good; in reaction to this infection of uncommonly good sense, they have been forgoing the publication of news that is critical, or gross, or gory, or anything marginally depressive, in favor of articles about cancer survivors, heartwarming Olympic back stories, kid’s birthdays, or other such positive crap….

I mean, it’s okay by me, mostly…. I really don’t mind not having bad stuff to look at all the time…. But, hey, we DO need to keep at least a weather eye on our beloved leaders, to ensure they’re not doing anything we wouldn’t approve of (as if THAT ever mattered to them!….). If the journalists continually refuse to even look at that, well, that wouldn’t be a good policy to continue, as it would make things worse than they already are….. We all know what wearing rose colored glasses will do in the long run…. and it isn’t pretty…

So, if you have the opportunity, talk to your local journalist, and tell him, or her, that while you appreciate their recent turn toward a more positive outlook on life, one must acknowledge reality, and reality dictates we keep the BRC and the rest of the Asininnies under scrutiny at all times, lest they come to feel an even greater sense of entitlement, if that is possible…. We don’t want to encourage them any more than is necessary to keep them under control….

Would that we, the people had that much control over our politicians! But, as y’all have probably figured out by now, this is all parody, and has no real connection to how the world really works…. It’s more of a wish, a dream of how things SHOULD be, or maybe, of how the world COULD be, if enough of us, who know the real score, were able to wrest back the control the BRC has clutched in their bony fingers for the last 5000 years….

Unfortunately, those of us who realize what has happened, and would be willing to try to change things, are too few, and too scattered to be able to organize effectively (besides being a bunch of independent assholes, who mostly don’t play well with others….).

So, the world will keep on muddling along as it always has, with the haves taking from the have-nots, and we’ll all dance the mambo down the path to Hell, wearing our fashionable handbasket clothes…. Well, most folks will…. Me, and a lot of ffolkes I know, we’ll just keep on keepin’ on, until the Grim Reaper comes to personally escort us to the other side of the River Styx…. Until then…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“There has never been an intelligent person of the age of sixty who would consent to live his life over again. His or anyone else’s.” — Mark Twain — Letters from the Earth (1905-1909)
_____________________________

I could, no doubt, under different circumstances, go surfing around the web, to some of the off-the-main-track, alternative sites for news, or to some of the international news sites, such as in Europe, or elsewhere around the world, to pick out some material about which to rant…. The US has their fingers into more than enough situations all over the globe to supply me with something about which to rant…. In addition, I have enough chops now, as a writer, I think, to be able to pick out almost anything, and write a few hundred words in exposition…. Howsomever, which is a word I just made up, I think, (well, Spellchecker never heard of it, that’s for sure..), what I don’t have is the wherewithal to sit long enough to do so…. An intro, and a paragraph, and I’m nearly at my limit…

Hence, the presence here, in section one, of an old-school pearl, freshly picked, but, without any particular standards or parameters to guide SB in the presentation process…. That way, I’ll get a wider list from which to choose the best…. That’s the plan, anyway…. Let’s be about it, shall we? I’m getting stiff…. not in a good way….

Have you ever wondered why you always run out of breath when you throw up? Ah, but a man’s retch should exceed his gasp, else what’s a heaving for? — Smart Bee

(Sorry, really, I couldn’t help it…. This was Smart Bee’s first entry today, and it caught me unawares…. I almost blew coffee out my EARS, laughing so hard without warning, and actually did strain a muscle in my jaw in grinning so fast and wide….. What do you expect, with no standards?….)

“I would have made a good Pope.” — Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994)

(I had an almost identical reaction to this one, which came mere moments later…. Too funny!….)

“Then again, e=mc^2 may only be a local phenomenon.” — Einstein

(Oh, I suppose one must keep an open mind, and not assume too much….)

“In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” — Old Testament — Ecclesiastes i, 18

(See? See? What did I tell you? They want us to NOT think, to NOT question anything they tell us!…. And you thought I was kidding….. Okay, I’ll shush now….)

“Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.” — Carl Sandburg

“Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.” — Affirmation from The Book of Law, an ancient sacred text….

“Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Laugh, about it, shout about it when you’ve got to choose–whichever way you look at it you lose.” — Paul Simon

You may have noticed that this pearl has eight pearls in it, rather than the obligatory seven…. This is because I couldn’t choose between the last two, both of which make a good closing thought for this group…. though I do lean a bit toward the one that is sung over the one that merely speaks its piece…. You can make your own choice, or, do as I did, and just throw out the first one, which pretty much stands alone, anyway…. There you go….
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Having, up to now, completely screwed this up, in terms of anything original, or even terribly interesting to think about, I think it’s best if I use my own poems, so as not to create any guilt by association for any other author, or poet…. Try to enjoy it anyway, ‘kay?….. Hell, y’know what? I’ll even make it a two-fer, by leading off with a haiku, written as part of the daily poetry challenge last year on WP, a world-wide writing challenge to write a poem a day for the month of April….. The poem below the haiku came another time, and speaks about my muse, with whom I maintain a passionate love/hate relationship….

Haiku II

An inner light glows
shining out of open eyes;
madness or wisdom?

~~ gigoid ~~

Dreaming of Calliope

La belle dame sans merci speaks aloud, through endless night,
torturing dreams, with powerful words and stentorian phrases.
Manifest visions, bathed in unbearable grace and light,
destroying all direction, standing lost, in unfathomable mazes.

Fate plays a part, one that will never face denial,
as fear and courage eternally vie for ascendancy.
Conflict becomes valid, gifting strength in open trial,
but honest emotion wears no costume so fancy.

Blood, sweat, and tears stroll on avenues of gold,
unlikely heroines heralding as in ancient lore;
Sharp, competent knives cut through tales untold,
eternally shifting reality past the naked shore.

Drifting toward origin, bereft of mandate or cause,
finished, nay, abandoned, tied with a figurative bow.
No simple gift from muses to give comfort or pause,
save that all we need to know, we already know…..

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

As noted above, my physical condition this morning isn’t compatible with long periods in the chair…. My time in the chair, of course, must be balanced with a caveat firmly in mind, to wit: I also cannot stand or walk around for very long, before having to sit, to stop the numbness that begins to affect my legs after a few minutes upright, with or without walking…. Even in a chair now, I have to consider my skeletal posture, to avoid pinching off some part of my spine or sciatic nerve, and getting numb…. SIGH…. some parts of getting old really SUCK, you know?….

Fortunately, I have now a backlog, consisting of a couple of million words of reasonably coherent, intelligent discussion, from which to pull something adequate for the purpose at hand, i.e., a politirant, for which we are overdue today (Well, I’m not counting the mild little fantasy rant in the intro….)…. Here, then, is another blast from last February, just prior to receiving the news of my impending award of Social Security benefits, which, apparently, kept my mind in a state of curmudgeonly agitation, if the Pearls from that period are any indication…..

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

From February of 2013:

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

The issue of gun control is currently a HOT BUTTON issue for a lot of people in this country…. (Sorry, didn’t mean to shout….) At least, it is for those who enjoy over-reacting to all the violence reported in the news….. They seem to forget that there are now significantly more than 7 billion people on this planet, with more crowding on every second; the increased violence we are seeing is a natural result of overpopulation, combined with stupidity, both of which exist in ample supply in our society…. The following is a piece I wrote in 2012, not long after one of the school shootings that occurred that year….. The piece, to my mind, pretty well summarizes my objections on this issue addressing the naive, foolish, unwarranted fear that has prompted the idiotic notion of repealing the Second Amendment altogether…. Here is my response to that idea….

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence… From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable…. The very atmosphere of firearms every- where restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” — George Washington (bogus?)(who cares? I don’t, it doesn’t make it any less true if it was said by someone else…..)

I hear a lot of people these days spouting off about gun control, which, to them, means that all guns should be outlawed, or, at minimum, made so difficult to acquire the normal person won’t bother. This is a viewpoint that I have never understood, because it makes a totally unwarranted assumption (more than one actually, but we’ll address one of the most critical….), i.e., guns cause violent behavior…..

This fallacy is generally accompanied by the unwarranted assumption that, if people couldn’t legally own them, unwanted episodes of random violence would stop. This is naive, and unreasonable, given that there is absolutely no evidence to support such a contention.

There is no evidence whatsoever that violence is NOT part of human nature; this is a psycho-social FACT of human nature, with so much evidence in support, it isn’t really a matter of debate. People have violent tendencies, and violence is the primary response of a great many people who have never learned, or had reason to learn, how to use their reason to control their emotions.

Though I’ve never owned or carried a gun, I am a firm believer in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, in its most literal sense. Without the right to bear arms in our own defense, we, as citizens, would be at the mercy of whomever was in office at the time, and would have no recourse at all to any redress of grievance against those officials, since they could not be forced to comply with law.

I do NOT trust any elected official to act in MY best interests; human nature also decrees that they will act in their OWN interests first, with no compulsion to even consider anything else. Making it a law that only police and government lackeys could legally be armed is a sure way to guarantee that the average citizen would be at the mercy of these so-called leaders, mercy being a quality that they have never heretofore demonstrated in any fashion.

As I said, I don’t own or carry guns, yet…. For much of my life, I’ve trained myself to be dangerous without the use of them, and feel no fear that I cannot deal with an armed man to my benefit; this is simply because it is the person holding the gun that is the danger, not the gun itself. Speed, power, and accuracy are the key elements to controlling a violent situation, along with some forethought and preparation, and the ability to keep a clear mind when under duress.

When a person is holding a gun, they feel ten feet tall, and invincible, but they remain human, and humans can be controlled with superior strategy and tactics. It does no good to hold a gun, when the target won’t sit still, or even remain visible….. and in these cases, that sense of being impervious becomes a liability to the gun-wielder, because, in reality, we are all nothing more than weak, slow, hairless apes, in comparison to most of the creatures on this planet. When dealing with a human trained to kill, the gun is only of use when the one holding it is of equal skill as the one at whom they intend to fire.

However, most Americans do not have this sort of skill set, nor the state of mind that makes it work. In the hands of a skilled warrior, a gun becomes a dangerous weapon indeed, for it will be used to achieve the warrior’s goals, as any weapon would, and not employed to merely bully others into doing what is desired, which is the usual use of these kinds of weapons in the hands of the ignorant and deceitful. Politicians, by the very nature of their sociopathy, do get rather deceitful in the pursuit of their self-centered ends. The desire to be in public office, to me, is a sure sign of a sick mind, since a healthy one has no need to assume power over others, being content to be in control of themselves.

At this point in the narrative, I feel I’m about to become a bit sarcastic, placing myself in jeopardy of becoming caustically so, even if I am justifiably directing my ire toward those shrill advocates of this kind of legal oppression, to wit: laws that attempt to legislate morality…. a pastime known to be fraught with proven danger…. So, I’ve unilaterally decided (Hey, if Barry O, the pOTUS can, I can, too!….) to stop this rant here, to avoid offending anyone unduly (Probably not why Barry does it…).

I agree with the need to tighten the regulations regarding assault weapons, in terms of keeping them out of the hands that have the most likelihood of misusing them, but, not NEARLY as far as is wanted by the fear-mongers. I think it is a good idea to keep guns out of the hands of children, (without proper adult supervision and training….), and people who have demonstrated the lack of emotional control needed by a free citizen of this country, to own and use a gun appropriately, i.e. the mentally ill, who are characterized by a lack of impulse control, or those who have previously shown their own lack of, or unwillingness to use, the necessary control, by having used guns in the commission of previous serious crimes…. None are good characteristics to see in someone with a gun in their hands….

But, once again, I must caution people to examine any laws that DO get passed, closely, paying attention to the details, to ensure they don’t go farther than is necessary, which the people in charge have a tendency to do; it’s part of their nature to attempt to slip stuff by the public…. I’ll try to wake up your precautionary instincts by asking this…..

If the insane are not to be allowed full rights as a citizen, who is it that gets to decide who is insane? The same issues of trust are present, or absent, in that idea, as in the assumption that the Beloved Ruling Class will act in our best interests….. They can be trusted to act in their own interests first, and we all would do well to keep that in mind….. I’ll ask y’all to think about this, ffolkes, and remember what we all know about what happens to those who ignore history…..

“1935 will go down in History! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead to the future!” — Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), prior to confiscating all civilian firearms

“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.” — Bob Dylan

Note from February, 2014: Just so it’s clear…. All of the above is true and complete to the best of my knowledge, accurately representing the opinion of gigoid the dubious, today, just as well as it did a year ago…. So be it, gigoid has spoken….

“I am not being paranoid. Paranoid is being afraid of things that aren’t there… trust me, I should know.” — Lauren Alexander
_____________________________

Well, this has been a productive morning, all thing considered, so, I’m going to trust my luck up to now, and beat a hasty retreat, before anything untoward has an opportunity to throw a metaphorical wrench into the works…. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Crash test dummies don’t do it….

Posted on February 2, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I stood
Among them, but not of them; in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iii, Stanza 113

This excerpt is one I’ve used previously, in a Pearl from long ago… Other than not knowing the title of that particular Pearl, or what was in the pearl in which this was used, I remember it very well, in that, the verse held the same meaning for me then, as it does now. In essence, this expresses how I feel a lot of the time, when I consider myself in relation to my fellow man….

Often, I feel as if I am seeing something in the what the world presents for our perception that they don’t, that I am perceiving more details than most people….These perceptions, because they are different, and more extensive in many cases, cause me to entertain thoughts and ideas that always seem to shock or surprise others, because of their dubiously exotic, yet obviously valid nature, which is, all to often, in direct contrast to their own perceptions and thoughts.

The most common reaction I get from folks when I offer an insight into an issue out in the BBR somewhere (in line in a store, in a restaurant, etc….) is a puzzled expression, and/or a question about either “why” or “how” I came to the conclusions I’ve offered…. In many cases, I’ve learned to just stay out of situations where I could possibly help, because people get upset when it is offered; I guess they think that accepting the offer of help is tantamount to giving up, or seeming incompetent, so they get all grumpy and sober, insisting on fixing whatever the problems without assistance.

This little behavioral fillip is one that most humans have, to one degree or another, when their own mental acuity is put into question, either by circumstance, by someone’s tactlessness or cruelty, or by the bozoid nature of their own efforts….

Me, I just keep tumbling along the road to freedom, wherever it may lead me, keeping my thoughts mostly to myself, as I’ve found the public doesn’t want to hear it, unless you’re wearing a power suit, a red tie, (with stripes is good…. blue, if you can get ’em….), and a flag pin, while talking on TV…. Now, dress up like that, get on TV, speak nicely to them in small words, and they’ll believe just about anything they’re told….

Tell them face to face, in words of more than two syllables, and they will slam shut the doors to their minds like the closing of a bank vault; at that point there is no reason, and no rhyme, they will ever allow in…. Change can be scary, you know; people are well aware that when they allow themselves to learn something, something always changes on them…. and they don’t like it….

Perhaps this is why I find this blogging experience to be cathartic…. It allows me to say what I have to say, that would otherwise sit inside me and cause trouble, without it getting to the point of being burdensome, while at the same time, offering to the world some of the diligently imprudent, yet occasionally wise thoughts that have passed through my head over the years…..

Some of it is pretty good stuff, very helpful in living a life well lived… Other parts of it may not be quite as useful, or particularly attractive to those who don’t enjoy using their minds for anything other than finding food and companionship, but, hopefully, what I create will entertain and/or amuse y’all as much to read as it does me to share….

And, if not, well, there’s always the pearls to get you through the day…. They’re pretty infallible in their wisdom, you see, having been around long enough to have withstood the test of time, having long since proved their worth, as good advice, or solid logic…. or, merely as beautiful…. Whichever it may be, these pearls, and the Pearls that they form, will be here long after I am, and I hope they give someone pleasure to read, as they do me to write…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“All I kin say is when you finds yo’self wanderin’ in a peach orchard, ya don’t go lookin’ for rutabagas. — Kingfish
_____________________________

A year ago, in January of 2013, my life was much different, in several ways, too numerous to mention now, obviously, or we’d never get anywhere…. However, if we use the following old pearl from a Pearl I posted early in that month as an indicator, one can see my thoughts haven’t traveled far in a different direction at all…. This sortofarant is one I wrote the second day of the month…. I was pleased with it back then, and am even more so now, for it saves me a shitload of work this morning, and my back, in its current state, thanks me…. I hope you enjoy it, too….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From 1/2/2013:

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” — Oscar Wilde

One can always trust Oscar Wilde to display both elegant wit and intelligent insight, though, to be sure, many of his most closely held views were somewhat divergent with what was commonly held to be true, philosophically, by many in the mainstream of society. This divergence was, I believe, mostly deliberate on his part, as he tended to mock that which he did not respect, and he never had much respect for…. well, anything to do with human nature vs. reason and rationality. He mistrusted most people to act morally, and was unafraid to say so; this, of course, made him both famous, and infamous….. His infamy, I’m sure, ultimately was his undoing, much to society’s loss; as is said so often about our brightest minds, “only the good die young….”

I often wonder, (well, maybe not so often, so much as I’m wondering now…) what the world today would be like, if somehow, some of those bright stars in history had lived to an age where their accomplishments, in relation to the advancement of human thought, and the betterment of the human condition, had a broader, and more lasting effect than their absence has left us.

What if Keats had written poetry until he was 85? How many more inventions would have come to us from Nicolas Tesla, had he lived long enough for the rest of the scientific world to catch up to him, instead of hounding him to an early grave? How much more good music, and art, and literature would be available to all of us, if not for this tendency for the best of us to live as a burning meteor, flaming brightly through the sky, until burned out and lifeless?

It is a sad commentary for society to know that it is often the very brilliance of these people that brings about their downfall, at the hands of the ignorant, and the avaricious…. What is even sadder, to me, is that this demonstrates another part of human nature that is responsible for almost every painful issue in human history, and current society, the issues that cause people to suffer pain, oppression, perpetual struggle, and will most certainly ultimately lead to the extinction of our species, on this planet, at minimum….. I’m pretty sure we don’t have time to mount any significant exodus to another planet, to save at least some of the species, before our own stupidity catches up to us, in a fatal sense….

That piece of our nature is the unfortunate characteristic, in a number of humans, to be able to put aside all conscience, to act solely in their own self interest. All of us, of course, possess this quality to some degree; it is an outgrowth of having a will to survive. To these few others, it is their primary modus operandi; they simply do not take other people, or their concerns, into account when deciding what they are going to do, and are not hampered by the consideration of any suffering they may cause other people, animals, or things.

As is patently obvious, to my mind, every elected official, every high level preacher, every corporate magnate, and a great many lawyers, are all of this ilk, and have, for nearly 230 years now, been quietly and efficiently plundering the pockets and rights of the American people (and those of every other country in the world, for that matter…. it is a HUMAN condition, not just American…. Ours are just some of the most obvious about it….), while simultaneously lying, cheating, and otherwise acting to secure their stranglehold on society.

(Note from 2014: In fairness, let’s add those criminals in the world who prey on the weak and poor, like the mafia, the drug cartels, etc…. We’ll include anyone who involves themselves in prostitution or the sex trade in any way, or otherwise abuses women and/or children out of their own misogyny and greed…. A lot of the poor, who are resentful at the treatment at the hands of those in the same category, who disguise their evil behind the public face of politics or religion, become of the same nature, losing the connection to their own humanity, using violence, and physical power over others to survive in the world created by the corporate masters, and their dupes and myrmidons, in the established powers that be….)

Anyone who disagrees with this assessment, quite simply, isn’t paying enough attention to the world around them….. Sorry to be so blunt, but the facts are all laid out, right there, almost every day in the news media, if one knows how to look at the larger picture it presents, rather than the individual facets of that picture. Focusing on the little shit is just what those in power wish for people to do…. It keeps them busy not noticing other, more incriminating stuff they are carrying out, in the darkness where they mostly live….

“… change depends on individual acts of courage and commitment. Most such acts are private, invisible, and uncelebrated. But some find a place in the public spotlight; and their influence goes far beyond mere example.” — Arthur C. Clarke & Michael Kube-McDowell, The Trigger, 1999

Each and every one of us, in the face of what we know about reality, is responsible in some way, and to some degree, for both the way things are, and the way they will be in the future. If you don’t believe that, well, discussion is, for you, probably useless, and little hope remains. For anyone with moderate insight, however, this is plain, clear truth, and we all need to accept it before any significant progress can be expected against those who are sociopathic, which I define, and hereby name, as homo suicidus, those who would kill us all…. But, it is imperative that we act soon, for the damage we have done, and continue to do to our world, is at a point where the effects are nearly irreversible, and even if we manage to wrest control from the beloved ruling class, we may find it is too late to save our lives….

It is my hope, small and pale though it be, that we WILL speak up, that the rational among us will rise up, and take back the control of our destiny from the hands of those who would see us all die, rather than give up their own control. It will only happen when men of courage, as defined by Mr. Emerson, stand up to those who would render us all impotent, for their own benefit. The only hope that exists for the rest of us lies in enough of us showing this kind of courage, and overcoming the fear that keeps us in thrall…..

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

Myself, I don’t want to die ignominiously, gasping for breath, because I didn’t have the courage to speak up, and to fight back against the immoral, avaricious assholes who dominate society….. Instead, let’s create a whole new world, without a beloved ruling class, at all….. Who knows? We might just find out that anarchy works!….. Worth a try, I think…..

And, if it doesn’t work, well, we can always try a technocracy, which we have yet to do in history….. With a bit of foresight and planning, it might just be what we need to survive our own foolishness… Maybe, Richard Brautigan had the truest prophetic vision, when he wrote “All watched over, by machines of loving grace….”

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” — Pablo Picasso

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

— Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning”
_____________________________

Again, to maintain integrity, rather than shuffle off any of the blame for today on anyone else, here’s another of my old poems, one that talks about the chronic pain, and the emotional lability that PTSD brings, that I live with…. a poem which, in its own sardonic way, expresses the joy those bring….. NOT… I’m pretty sure I wrote this when I’d forgotten to take any meds for too long, and was feeling the result of that….Or, it could have been a day when the meds weren’t working very well, or the pain was too much for it…. Either way, it’s real….. or, rather, it was real when written, a reality that remains, as it always will, a threatening potentiality….

Pieces of broken spirit….

Deep within the inner abyss, tears lay in wait
Ever on the verge, tending to infuriate.
Real moments of sadness cracking our need
Swift, deadly waves of appalling terror freed.

Memory hurts badly when visiting now
Leaving me alone, forgetting even how
Killing the sunshine still pouring over all
Darkening all spirit, holding it in thrall.

Knowing no blame seems almost to heal
Yet healing is blunted, plainly not real.
Innocence is pointless compared with pain
On the soul it tattoos an indelible stain.

Hours become days, days turn to a year
Serving up only a compendium of fear.
Blind groping for light finds only dark
In caverns of terror, angry and stark.

Trails of endless sorrow fill up the nights
Confounded at last by unfathomable sights.
No hope can find its way to the fore
Never to sail safely, lost forever more.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

For some unknown reason, today, my mind keeps finding reasons NOT to compose…. I suppose it might have something to do with the fact it’s Sunday…. Nah, that doesn’t make sense, as I often don’t know what day it is until after noon, when I look at my calendar, or happen to notice when I look at my phone…. Ah, I know, more coffee…. Hold on….

Okay, well, better, but still no burst of creative urges billowing up from my subconscious mind…. I guess we’ll have to settle here for an old-school pearl, or we’ll never get done…. (You KNEW that was coming, didn’t you?….) Let’s see what Smart Bee has for us today, shall we?…. Hey, cut the complaints! It’s this, or you’ll be sitting through a half-baked, ill-considered, badly written rant, to no particular purpose, which I will make sure to take AT LEAST two more hours to write…. So, settle down, or I won’t distribute the Valium until we’re in the air…

“It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.” — Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) — Natural History, Book ii, Sect. 20

“I don’t pretend to understand the universe–it’s much bigger than I am.” — Einstein

“If Shaw and Einstein couldn’t beat death, what chance have I got? Practically none.” — Mel Brooks

“Nobody ever complains that you are treating them like a child when you listen to their stories, encourage their dreams, and tell them how special they are.” — Callan Williams

“To certain individuals of small minds and overweening ambition, there is no greater insult than to be proved wrong.” — Thomas H Dyer 1984

“The most virtuous of all men is he that contents himself with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.” — Plato (B.C. 427?-347?)

And taste
The melancholy joy of evils past:
For he who much has suffer’d, much will know.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xv, Line 434

Well, who knew? A comment on Life at Large, its ever-present counterpart, Death, and, how to cope with both… Not bad for off the cuff…
_____________________________

In spite of factors that have precluded much fresh material today, I think this is probably done, anyway. Oh, right, we’re here at the ass-end of section three, so it HAS to be done…. because I’m not going back to do it over now…. With that little piece of deliberately factoidal wordplay as my excuse, I’ll just slip out this door over here… 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

I’d like to be made fully cognizant, please….

Posted on January 30, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“After all,” he said, with a small, sardonic smile, “it’s only a matter of time.”

“Of course it is,” she replied, smiling back in her sultry way, “but, whose time will tell the tale?”

Have you ever seen one of those big old, shuffling bears, with a red vest, and a silly top hat, that rides around on a unicycle, playing a squeeze box? No? Neither have I…. But, that’s probably alright, because I HAVE seen one of the other kind of bears, the kind that shits in the woods whenever the Pope’s existence gets confused with his own… Playground games have more solid effect on Reality than you knew, you know…. No soap, radio!…..

Now that we have established the proper tone for this morning’s episode of fun and frolic, otherwise known as pearling for dollars, not that we ever see any….. at least, not for this…. But, I do like to start with some nice, thick, obscure nonsense; it just gives something special to enhance the tenor of whatever comes out of my head, sort of like adding streusel to schnitzel. Plus, it makes for a better, more healthful start to the day, as all of what we’ve been so fortunate to offer up thus far has been organic in nature….

Yep, nothing but pure, 100%, government certified organic materials were used to construct the pearls you’ll see today…. It’s our newest product line, brought in to try to corner a piece of the vegan market, though the reason “why” escapes me completely. It has something to do with the diversification program the top management wants to put us through, to try to bring the bottom line up from 0, to some number that resides outside the negative realms where it typically stays…. I keep telling them, nobody will buy it, especially not here, but, hey, they’re committed to it…. probably, one of them married a vegan, and can’t get any at home unless he does this…

Now that we’ve prevaricated shamelessly (Silly readers, there’s no top management here at ECR…. there’s just ME!!….), I wonder what other kind of mischief I can get into before getting to the meat today…. I’m feeling a bit whimsical, as well as feeling like I want to bite someone (not sure as to WHY on that one…. just woke up with a stick in my ass, and SOMEBODY’s got to pay for that, right?….), or maybe dance a few steps of the Assholio on somebody’s head…. You know, the Assholio, those classic mambo-like moves guaranteed to take the skin off anyone… All I know is SOMEBODY is going to get an earful, before the day is done….

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

— T.S. Eliot
_____________________________

“Gentlemen, listen to me slowly.” — Samuel Goldwyn

On first attempt this morning to fill in this section, I wrote what is now residing in section three…. My intended material, presumably located somewhere in the semi-intelligent haze of thoughts that hovers around in my head at all times, which concerned the recent SOU by our beloved POTUS, apparently got lost in the shuffle….

In truth, it’s just as well, because, from what I could gather on first impression, the State of the Union he described in his speech had very little to do with the actual Reality of that State, or, for that matter, that Union, since he managed to leave out some rather important issues altogether, concentrating only on what he wants people to focus on….

This technique is common among prestidigitators, showing a shiny, squirmy object, in one hand, with some kind of feathers, metaphoric, or real, (real is good, they never fail to pull in the eye….), that draws the attention, while the other hand is hiding the actual important issues, perhaps even off stage, never referring to them, so as to not plant any unwanted ideas….

Now, I have yet to peruse the content of the entire speech, but, I’ve seen a couple of articles that touched on his high points, and there were … are a couple of what I think should be called glaring omissions…. For example…. no, can’t do it… I’d better go research the speech fully before I pick at a specific…. Be back in a bit….

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obamas-2014-state-of-the-union-address-full-text/

Well…. That was educational, to be sure…. Yes, I just read the text of the whole speech; you can, too, using the link just above…. go ahead, I’ll wait….

In the speech, there were, as I mentioned, a couple of important issues that received only minimal mention, in passing…. (I know, I said they were omitted… I was wrong, they were merely minimized, and hidden in plain sight….). There was only one paragraph on gun control, wherein he promises to “try” to “stop more tragedies”, with one quick reference to Sandy Hook (gotta get those talking points in!… Shootings at elementary schools always bring out the tearful emotions, which is the intention…. such emotions are much more easily manipulated….).

This is an issue that has gripped the public attention all year, but, isn’t worth mentioning, except in passing…. Instead, the POTUS will deal with this “on his own”, through the use of the concept of the “Executive Order”, to limit assault weapon accessibility, along with other issues on his agenda, in which he is being blocked by Congress, or the Constitution….

There is also only one short, vague paragraph mentioning the issue of spying, prefaced, of course, by mentioning the illegal war in Afghanistan, reassuring us the number of troops there is decreasing, (We’re all gone from Iraq, he says….. Sure, sure we are….)…. while simultaneously fanning the embers of fear, by then stating “For while our relationship with Afghanistan will change, one thing will not: our resolve that terrorists do not launch attacks against our country……The fact is, that danger remains. ”

This, of course, is the justification for the following complete wash on the clandestine spying issue that has been in the forefront of the news all year; he makes a passing, one-sentence statement on that…. ( The pertinent statement is in bold, and italicized….) ….”That’s why I’ve imposed prudent limits on the use of drones – for we will not be safer if people abroad believe we strike within their countries without regard for the consequence. That’s why, working with this Congress, I will reform our surveillance programs – because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad, that the privacy of ordinary people is not being violated.”

That’s it…. That’s the sum total of what he had to say about the single most reported and discussed issue in the public arena in the entire year of 2013…. ONE sentence. Oh, the drones, too… They are another seriously disturbing factor in the clandestine activities they AREN’T talking about…. but, they’re nowhere near as critical for the public as the spying that continues to take place, in spite of the “welcome public debate” created by the actions that exposed the chicanery by the administration….

Oh, also, was that a crushing silence I heard on the subject of Eric Snowden, probably the most important character, definitely the most important of the last year in America, to enter the stage in the morality play that is our government? Why, yes, yes it was a crushing silence…. Maybe the president was still in shock; perhaps due to learning that Mr. Snowden had received his first nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday?…. That must be it….

His statements on climate change and global warming, while pointed in the right direction, still show no better willingness to face the true issues involved, as he said nothing that would disturb the bottom line of the corporate masters listening closely…. The entire speech, as far as I could see, had a very imbalanced viewpoint of Reality, much different, obviously, from a politician’s point of view than it is for the general public at large, and for me specifically…. His viewpoint paints a much rosier picture, of the past, the present, and the future, than the one I see, all without really making a single promise, or offering up a single detailed plan of action.

I guess I should have expected as much, seeing as this POTUS is one who is adept at painting pictures with words…. Unfortunately, the pictures he paints really don’t reflect Reality…. They’re very romanticized, vague, idealized, and lacking in clarity….. which, I believe, is a deliberate technique, designed to soothe the eyes and minds of the public at whom it is directed, distracting them from the harshness of the Reality that they can see whenever they look away from his pretty pictures…. Can’t have the natives getting too restless, now, can we?….

I think, given the evidence of this speech, along with some of the other issues that I’ve seen the POTUS take up, this is a far more dangerous individual than I had imagined, not because he is promoting reform, but, because he is using that pose, of being a reform politician, to cover up his much more egregiously oppressive policies, such as in the areas of intelligence, and executive power….. He has expanded the power of the office of the Presidency to an extent heretofore unseen, writing Executive Order after Executive Order, at times when Congress is out of session, or just to circumvent their blockage of what he is trying to accomplish….

This administration has brought suit against more journalists, for publishing leaked material, than any previous administration, by a factor of 10; they have aggressively and ruthlessly pursued any and all attempts by the media to obtain his vaunted, and non-existent “transparency”, which he so glibly promised in his first campaign for the office…

There are times I don’t blame him for some of it, because of all the actual, real reforms he, and every other president in the last 60 years, has tried to get past a divided Congress, and had blocked by their intransigent ignorance, and partisanship…. Except, that’s not how the Constitution says it is supposed to work….

He is writing LAWS, which is an act reserved for Congress…. He has issued orders on gun control that, according to the Second Amendment, he has no right to issue, for they restrict the public’s access to weapons of certain types altogether…. Not, I will admit, that they’re weapons they NEED, but, the Second Amendment doesn’t allow for any distinctions as to type or quantity of guns; change part of that, and it all changes, of that there can be no doubt…..

So, yes, I guess you could say that, once again, I’m disappointed in this POTUS’s assessment of Consensual Reality, or, at least, of his stated assessment, as well as in his lack of transparency, and willingness to lie to the public…. Oh, yes, ffolkes, lying by omission is still lying; just because he didn’t say anything about an issue, doesn’t mean he isn’t DOING anything illegal in that area… it just means he doesn’t want us to know about it…. You can be sure of that…. He’s already proven that transparency is just a word to him, one he is very glib and confident in using, but, one he has no intention of ever actually providing to the public….

In looking at the entire speech as a whole, what I see is a long, manipulative set of words and phrases designed to get the public, and his cronies, thinking about just those issues he wants to address, without giving any real information on any of it, beyond the necessary key phrases that identify his talking points.

He uses a lot of examples of what he calls typical Americans from the middle classes to illustrate his points, shamelessly using emotional stimuli to direct the people to the attitudes he desires to create in support of his agenda. In truth, he’s an adept, efficient speaker, never confusing the issues with facts, preferring to use insinuation and/or vague references to factoids….Sadly, none of what he said had any solid connection to what is actually real….. Ah well, I’m forced to admit, I wasn’t expecting to see anything better, and, I didn’t….

“Never be angry when a fool acts like a fool. It’s better when fools identify themselves…it removes so much uncertainty.” — Lord Peace
_____________________________

Once again, I’m putting in one of my own poems, to maintain the level of personal responsibility that must be assumed for whatever one may call this entire mess…. So be it…

Unheralded Sagacity…

To many, who will not see beyond their nose
the world becomes a dangerous place,
a bullet in every gun, a thorn with every rose,
no magic comes to save us, reality leaves no trace.

Minds closed, wrapped tight in manufactured fears,
men become clay, easily molded into complacent form.
No chains needed, held in thrall for years,
lies become gospel, when dishonesty is the norm.

Shed the chains you wear in durance, in kind;
Oh, ye of little faith, and much doubt
Strength is found in an unfettered mind,
Cry “freedom” with a great shout.

No help from any gods can hinder so much
as our own lack of confidence;
finding the light within, knowing it as such
confirms us, becoming consequence.

Illumination…..

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

“We’re not into science fiction because it’s _good literature_, we’re into it because it’s _weird_. Follow your weird, ladies and gentlemen. Forget trying to pass for normal. Follow your geekdom. Embrace your nerditude. In the immortal words of Lafcadio Hearn, a geek of incredible obscurity whose work is still in print after a hundred years, “woo the muse of the odd”.” — Bruce Sterling, addressing a convention of SF writers

A few days ago, I experienced an epiphany regarding the solutions we need to find to the issues of global warming and climate change…. This statement is one that, though not exactly what I’m talking about, is in the right ballpark…. Finding answers to what is happening in the real world has been part of what science fiction writers have done, peripherally, for many years, in the sense that the stories they write explore the concepts involved in ways that demonstrate the questions, and can, hopefully, point the way to finding the answers we now need…

There have been many, many stories…. full length novels, novellas, short stories… all written over the last two hundred years or so, that talk about the most critical issue we now face, to wit: the climate changes produced by our insane pollution of the atmosphere. There has also been a lot of speculation and talk among the people who do the writing, and those who write about them, all discussing possible scenarios for possible futures….. Somewhere among all that talk and discussion, there MUST be an idea that we can use to turn the tide that we have so foolishly turned against us…..

In other words, in a metaphorical sense, we need to go out into the realms of fantasy and imagination, to find the elves, so we can benefit from the wisdom of their counsel…. Even though I already know what they will tell us…. The elves always give the same counsel…. we will need to find a Hero, who can step forward to assume the Quest to save mankind from the folly of his own greed and ambition…. Metaphorically, this is absolutely correct…. what it will translate to in real terms is yet to be seen, but, something needs to be done to find an answer, and soon, for the time we have to accomplish anything that will work is growing smaller rapidly….

“There is something inside all of us that yearns not for reason but for mystery… not for penetrating clear thought but for the whisperings of the irrational… not for science but for wizardry disguised as science.. not for rationally founded influence but for magic.” — Karl Jaspers

In the meantime, rather than ranting at you to get out there and try to find an elf, who can then lead us to his where his people have gone, far over the Western Sea,…. I’ll put together an old-school pearl, with some good advice and/or some snarky comments about the assholes who got us to this point in the first place….

“For me, all I can do is spit in the eye of my fears by living each day with as much passion and commitment as possible to what truly counts, such as love and justice. To give the into the fear and hopelessness would be to declare defeat, something I am not ready to do while there is still the will to struggle.” — Lawrence Paradis

“You shouldn’t think about *how* we’re doing this. You should ask yourself, ‘why?'” — Penn Jillette

“To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” — Agatha Christie

“A little folly is desirable in him that will not be guilty of stupidity.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Book iii, Chap. ix

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” — Oscar Wilde (1856-1900)

“Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?” — Plato

See? There is a perfect example of why I seldom make precognitive assumptions about a particular pearl, especially BEFORE it is constructed…. This is a grand pearl, but, no snarky comments to be seen…. ‘S’okay, it doesn’t need them….
_____________________________

All things considered, this didn’t turn out so badly as I had feared…. As I said above, so be it…. 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

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

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Only the freshest innuendo served here…..

Save the tangerines for Uncle Micah….

An Andorean warrior, curiously in mufti, stares in wonder….

Not the whole egg!! Just use the yolk….

Spirit lamps have been provided, and lit from within….

Hardly softened, barely covered, finally started, & completely unfinished….

Put down the matches, sir, & step away from the dead clown….

If it were only REAL cheese!….

Crash test dummies don’t do it….

I’d like to be made fully cognizant, please….

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