“Hey, buddy!”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t feel so good…Would you call me a doctor?”
“Sure, no problem…. you’re a doctor.”

Now, I’m sure you’ve heard or seen that particular joke at some point in your life; it’s too old, and too common to have missed. I kind of like these, even though I’m beginning to have a bit of trouble coming up with new ones…. I’ve run through almost all the really OLD jokes that would work, so I’m guessing it will take a bit of creativity to keep them going…. I’ll see what I can do about that; creativity is a finite substance here, so I have to ration it out with that in mind, or I run out completely….. Nobody wants that, as these Pearls could become distressingly pedantic, aka, BORING…

SIGH…. I don’t wish to complain, or seem like a whiner, but, it goes so well with the cheese plates! Oh, golly, no cheese plates? Boy, it’s getting hard to find good help these days; there were supposed to be cheese platters, with some savory crackers to go with, right there on the side table in the parlor, and, sure enough, there’s nothing there but some coffee, and a couple of stale croissants…. chocolate chip croissants, my absolute least favorite when stale…. (buttery golden flaky becomes crumbly greasy old baked flour, with stale chocolate chips….). It’s getting so I’m going to have to go back to a one-man operation, if I can’t find anyone with any common sense, some basic work ethics, and a memory longer than their nose….

Since there is no cheese, we can’t break out the whine, either….. Damn! Circumstances being as they are, it becomes a matter of critical importance to get this moving, requiring us (or, more accurately, ME….) to resort to another emergency method for getting past the intro section…. Hmm, which one shall we choose today?…. #4 is efficient, but we just used it last week, I think…. #7 always does the job, but the mess to clean up afterward is more than I want to deal with today…. We’ll have to go with #11, I guess, and just suffer the indignity that goes along with it….

Okay, ffolkes, since we’re using #11, I’ll have to ask you to fasten the extra set of restraints to your ankles and chest, and place the oxygen masks over your faces BEFORE we start to move, okay? Once the acceleration hits, G-forces won’t allow you to get it on, and the possibility of building up some significant brain-damage is high, if you don’t have that mask in place…. Everybody good to go? Okay, Captain Marty, fire that sucker up, & let’s go!….

Shall we Pearl?….

“We are the protagonists and authors of our own drama. It is up to us; there is no one left to blame. Neither the system, not our leaders, nor our parents. We can’t go out and hang the first amoeba.” — Rebecca McClen Novick

What is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place

— T.S.Eliot. ‘Ash Wednesday’ (1930)
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My original thought for this section involved a rant, but, I changed my mind (you wouldn’t believe how many words I just saved you by summarizing that thought, from what it was to, “I changed my mind”…. we might have been stuck here for days….). I was going to rant about the religious hierarchies here, just because it’s their turn, and I’ve been giving them a break of late, with only one rant on Billy G. so far this year (I think… I do lose track easily….), and that one was a blast from the past, itself…. In trying to pull together my thoughts, and in searching for an opening quote to use as a springboard for the discussion, I just got tired….

“A Senator, speaking of our current Vice President, whose name shall not be  mentioned (we don’t like hate mail written in crayon!): “I think if you put  his brain on the edge of a very fine razor, it would be like a BB, rolling down the middle of I-70.” — Smart Bee

“Faith is never identical with piety.” — Karl Barth

“As for the wealthy business owner and whether he ‘needs’ the extra dollars, I’ll simply relate the old adage of the man who said ‘I’ve never had my paycheck signed by a poor man’.” — Ron Paul (U. S. Representative from Texas, 2003)

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

“If the answer to crime was bigger prisons,and harsher sentences, then today the United States of America would be a Utopia.” — Canadian Justice Minister Allan Rock

“Administration maintains the status quo.” — Thomas L. Martin

Fill all the glasses there, for why
Should every creature drink but I?
Why, man of morals, tell me why?

— Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) — From Anacreon, ii, Drinking

On a scale of 10, this one scores about a 7 for obscurity…. that’s good, though, because the point, though subtle, is very sharp, and one should approach it with caution, as befits one so obscurely powerful in scope…. Or, conversely, it could all just be a figment of my own fevered imagination…. I’m afraid that’s been known to happen, too….
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Today’s Pearl is one that I’m not sure of, on ANY level of judgment, so one of my poems will have to do, because I don’t want any of whatever backlash might be generated to splash on anyone else’s reputation….. or their clothing…. So, here is one from MY past efforts, such as it is…. Actually, this is one of my latest poems, created in October of last year, and is probably one of my best…. Again, such as that is….

Okay, so, the gun control issue in this country is one that is never going to go away, not as long as there are laws that give the common man the right to have them…. The Powers That Be get too nervous thinking about having so many weapons NOT under their direct control, and continue the campaign they’ve waged for the past 200 plus years to repeal the Second Amendment, or at least gut it enough, it has no power to protect….

This campaign will continue until either the guns are under the control of the Asininnies, or the world comes to an end, whichever comes first…. I’ve given my take on it previously, but, it bears repeating now and again, because if no one else does, the Asininnies need reminders that we still have the means to keep our own rights intact, and we are still alert to the efforts they make to take them away…. All of the following remains valid, and true to the best of my knowledge…..

From May 16, 2012:

“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the _real_ object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” — Patrick Henry

Here is the question that those who would get rid of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution would like to convince us to ignore. There are a large number of people, otherwise nice, intelligent folks, who have decided that the American people shouldn’t have guns available to them. Because they’ve been indoctrinated to believe that they are incapable of protecting themselves from random violence, these weak-minded, cowardly individuals fall right in with whatever some pundit on TV says to play into those fears….

Their apparent justification is that too many criminals have access to more firepower than do the police forces in each community, while their preferred solution is to make it illegal for anyone except the police and armed forces to carry weapons of that nature. Hell, it’s already illegal to carry a knife longer than 3 inches, because the PTB are afraid someone might stab someone. GASP! You mean there are bad people out there? People who would be less than nice to everyone else? What a surprise!

In case it wasn’t clear, those last three sentences, or queries, should be infused with heavy sarcasm if read aloud. Sarcasm is one of my natural responses to being taken for a fool, especially when it comes to human nature. I have discovered a couple of things about human nature in my time on this planet, things that may come as a surprise to some, though I don’t see why…. All I’ve done is look around me, and see what there is to see….. Anyway, I have some news for those who want to deny the truth….

Humans are violent. Period. It is in their (OUR) nature. Anyone who cannot acknowledge that fact probably still believes in the tooth fairy, and is a sure candidate for early Alzheimer’s disease, because they have a very strong sense of denial. Guns are NOT going to go away; they just aren’t. Believing that banning the public from possessing them will stop violence from happening is the same sort of logic as refusing to breathe because there is smoke in the air….

The tendency for humans to react with violence to what they perceive, or experience, is a FACT; trying to deny it, or even trying to pretty it up, by calling it a “tendency” just makes those people who indulge in expressions of violence that much more dangerous, because it means there are so very many idiots, out there running around in the world by themselves, who are NOT EXPECTING the violence that can happen at any time,…. And yet, the scariest part of the whole gun issue for me is the insistence, on the part of the police, and those Asininnies who want the guns taken away from us, that THEY can be trusted to use their guns rationally, and ONLY with honorable intent….. They assure us these sterling characters, who wear the uniforms of the trusted myrmidon, will always act within the limits of law, whereas the general public cannot be trusted to do so….

Now, I will ask you to think about that for a moment…. Don’t hurt yourself, but try to hold those ideas in your mind without judgment for a moment or two…. Now, can you think of any historical period, or any culture anywhere in the world, that demonstrates any sort of support of that assertion? Has there ever been an entirely trustworthy group of policemen, or politicians, or generals, anywhere? If so, please name that group for me, and I will add that information into the discussion.

I feel compelled to warn you, however, I’m pretty widely-read, having studied world history and culture most of my life, if only informally part of the time…. Yet, for all my study over the years, I cannot think of a single time in history, up to and including today’s world, wherein the police, or the government that controls them, (This include the armies, who are merely police who serve nations rather than cities….), could be considered more trustworthy than the populace. In fact, most of history proves the exact opposite, with most records providing evidence that the mere act of becoming a politician, judge, or police officer tends to corrupt those who are accepted as such…. Having such positions in society is a form of power over others; as such, they are guaranteed to attract those who are drawn to power for its advantages.

No, I’m sorry, I can’t place any credence at all in the assumption that the police, or the government, should be considered trustworthy, much less to believe any of them, just because they are what they are, are MORE trustworthy than the average man…. I can’t do it, not when there is NO evidence anywhere, or any when, that would indicate any such thing. The facts of the matter, and the evidence of recorded history, provide innumerable examples to show how UN-trustworthy most police and political armies are, and trying to say otherwise tends to give me cause to place that person squarely in the camp of the unmitigated LIARS who are always looking for ways to take advantage of other folks.

Our country’s founding fathers spent their time, their energy, their blood, sweat, and tears to ensure that we would not have to put up with that sort of situation, and anyone who tries to get rid of the Second Amendment, for whatever reason they claim as justification, brands themselves a traitor, in my eyes…. I believe the law calls for traitors to be shot, if I am not mistaken….

“Wars kill people. Governments cause wars. Let’s ban government!” — Smart Bee

There, I’ve ranted…. gigoid has spoken. So be it….
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I suppose this means there is hope for me yet…. I’ve finished, and in excellent time. How’d it come out? Dunno…. I’m not sure how, or why, but, not bad, not bad…. Good enough to get done, and be gone…. 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.