Acres and acres of obsolete dreams….

Posted on February 26, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Patterns of light, both bright and fearful chase each other madly ’round and ’round, mad peals of laughter shrieking through the cool night air. Ghostly figures of unheralded regrets vie for position closer to the oddly shaped harpsichord in the foyer, while the thief of lost hope and his cohorts silently steal away. As the outer walls grow nearer, madness fades, and the silent myrmidons forge ahead, further into the day, further from the night’s insanity, until reality assumes a more familiar form and face, and faded regrets hold no more power over the hearts of the unmindful……

As is often obvious, reality can be pretty fluid in my world. I don’t insist that it stay in familiar patterns just to make me more comfortable; that never works in any case. Also, I find that reality becomes more palatable, more amenable the less one tries to have any influence over it; it seems to resent, and resist, any such foolery, and has been known to revolt altogether when attempts are made to make it conform to any preconceived notions. And to be honest, I don’t blame it at all….. let’s see what’s in the hopper for us today, shall we?…..

“Some people write to please, to soothe, to console. Others to provoke, to challenge, to exasperate and infuriate. I’ve always found the second approach the more pleasing.” — Edward Abbey (Me too! Obviously….)
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Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
— John Dryden (1631-1700)
— All for Love, Prologue

When I first thought about what to call the results of this process that I put myself through to create the email Pearls, and now the blog posts, I had a hard time finding an appropriately accurate yet whimsically irreverent name. Letting my subconscious mind loose on the problem finally produced the title I have kept now for over 12 years, to wit: Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, considered as a subset of the ongoing experience of Exploring Consensual Reality in which I engage. Now I can see where the inspiration for that had at least part of its roots; it is entirely possible I must have come across this sometime in my wanderings through the Unending Forest of Books. No matter, really, I just got a charge out of finding it again, as it’s one of those wonderful little nuggets of truth that make such an addictive snack for the ever-voracious mind I call home. Short, sweet, and deep as the deep blue sea…

Since I’m in the mood for whimsy, here is some, attached to a nugget of truth…..

“A person is not given integrity. It results from the relentless pursuit of honesty at all times.” — Anonymous, aka Unknown

Anonymous was a Greek philosopher extraordinaire, often confused with Aristotle, who lived during the same period of history. This was written, according to the crumbling document upon which it was transcribed, in the year 89 B.C., Thursday about supper time, in the early spring… or so it says. Honest…. that’s what it says. What do you mean? Why would I make it up?….. Trust me…..

Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. (Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.) — William of Occam, Occam’s Razor

Just in case you ever wondered where it came from…… okay, end of this segment of silliness in the guise of wit. Back to the serious stuff….
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“Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to believe.” — Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)

I wish fundamentalists and proselytizing sects could, or would, understand this point, and not take it so damn personally when their faith based platforms are not accorded privileged status in someone else’s world view. I mean, it’s not as if hordes of agnostics are going door to door, trying to destroy anyone’s faith, or convert anyone to their own beliefs. Nor are they taking out ads espousing agnosticism, or actively recruiting anyone to join them in their interpretation of reality.

But for some reason (not unknown, merely not pertinent here), they cannot do that; it is beyond their capability to entertain two separate concepts at the same time, without making a judgment on both; yer either fer us, or yer agin us….. there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground between their reality and that of anyone else. I’ll confess, I’ve never been able to understand, or get on board with, this particular brand of denial. I’ve found that reality is much more predictable and pleasant when taken as is, and not as we would like it to be. Fewer headaches, and no ulcers, ever…..
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Good-nature and good sense are usually companions.

I like that. It makes perfect sense, on the planet I inhabit. (Sorry, couldn’t resist…) If one takes a moment to think about what makes this statement true, and how it applies to reality, one comes to the illuminating notion that “balance is everything”. Knowing where one’s center is, and allowing that knowledge to direct one’s responses to the unpredictable nature of reality, is a valuable tool, one that is essential to a healthy approach to life.

By healthy, I mean it is a natural and sustainable condition, which fosters a continuous state of growth in one’s strength, integrity, and compassion, improves the chances of survival, and teaches eloquently the importance of choice, of not letting fate have everything its own way. In other words, our world is what we make of it, and that kind of freedom allows good sense and good nature to co-exist in harmony, makes food taste better, can sometimes get you free tickets to Disneyland, and is guaranteed to turn you into a chick magnet…. well, maybe not the last two…… Sure would be cool, though, huh?…..
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If thou are rich, thou art poor;
For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear’st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee.
— Shakespeare (1564-1616) — Measure for Measure, Act III

As I’ve said before, Shakespeare isn’t one of my favorites; though I acknowledge without shame that he was a sheer genius at what he did. As such, he occasionally comes up with something that meets all my standards, and compels me to include it in a post. This is one of those that jumps out and administers a ringing blow to the side of one’s head, as reality is wont to do. It’s a simple concept, but one not designed to create any feelings of empathy for the trials of the rich, or sympathy for the suffering of the poor; it merely reminds us of how our own mortality makes all our stature and posturing irrelevant.

I’m reminded of an aphorism related by Alan Watts in one of his books, which says: “If you wish to have a lifetime of trouble, fill your house with treasure.” Young as I was when I first read it, the clarity and truth in the saying was obvious, and it has stayed with me through all my life, allowing me to enrich my life with love, compassion, and good memories, rather than gold, silver, or precious gems….
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God’s Problem Now:

His wife’s graveside service was just barely finished, when there was a massive clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous bolt of lightning, accompanied by even more thunder rumbling in the distance. The little old man looked at the pastor and calmly said, “Well, she’s there.”

Priceless….. any man who has been married for more than say, 10 years or so, can relate perfectly, on at least one level…..as can many wives married the same amount of time….. at least, the ones with a sense of humor can; humor is a characteristic of wives that is not consistently present; a significant number of them end up without one, or lose it in the hustle and bustle of modern existence. According to a friend, and fellow WordPress blogger, Linda Vernon, those women all tend to work at Pottery Barn.

That might be true, I don’t do either gardening (completely black thumb), or knick-knacks, so I can’t hold an opinion about that; I do know that I can always spot the ones who didn’t get one, or have lost the one they were issued, by the unique expression they wear in public, sort of a demonic, red-eyed, clenched jaw sort of look. Dead giveaway, if you know what to look for…. and trust me, 23 years of marriage to a woman with a powerful personality left me with a very keen eye for the signs of developing trouble in the female face.

And they all share that face; I’ve seen it elsewhere as well, on the faces of other women in a relationship. It’s hard when people lose their sense of humor; they tend to lose connection with the positives, and concentrate on the negatives that are part and parcel of any human interaction, ultimately driving away the very person they formerly wanted to stay…..
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So much for that….took a lot of effort today, but, hey, I had nothing else to do this morning. Funny, I’m in a semi-fugue state, mere millimeters from complete unconsciousness, yet the visual world is bright and clear in my eyes, the refrigerator noise is as loud as ever, and the chair hurts my butt as usual. Odd feeling, to be sure….. I’ll go feel my way into the day now….. y’all take care out there….

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Not all pundits are bellicose….

Posted on February 21, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
If it hadn’t been for Nosy’s dog, the aliens might have enslaved us all. He (Nosy, not the dog) always said that Useless wasn’t a normal dog, but we figured he was just saying that to make Useless feel better. And who’d a’thought a dog that wouldn’t even chase cats could be a hero? Goes to show, I guess, you can’t never take nothing for granted…..

It was one of them days in the desert when even the wind was too hot to blow. Shimmering waves of heat were coming off the packed dirt surrounding the old shack that housed the only gas station and general store for 100 miles in any direction. Pop Doolan and Bill Watson were in their standard positions, perched on chairs that were old & battered when they were boys, puffing away on a pipe and a cigarette, respectively. As I strolled up toward the door, Pop hailed me, “Hey, boy! When you goin’ to start shaving?” Since he knew as well as me I’d never have to worry about that (long story), I just grinned, waved, & stepped on inside the screen door…..

Hmm….. and interesting little opening. I wonder if it will go anywhere? We’ll find out another time; right now it’s time to rein in the horses, and buckle down to work….. seems a shame though; I was kind of interested to see how Useless saves the world…..
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Amor, ch’al cor gentil ratto s’apprende,
prese costui de la bella persona
che mi fu tolta; e ‘l modo ancor m’offende.
Amor, ch’a nullo amato amar perdona,
mi prese del costui piacer si` forte,
che, come vedi, ancor non m’abbandona.
Amor condusse noi ad una morte.

Love, which is quickly kindled in a gentle heart,
seized this one for the fair form
that was taken from me-and the way of it affects me still.
Love, which absolves no loved one from loving,
seized me so strongly with delight in him,
that, as you see, it does not leave me even now.
Love brought us to one death.
— Dante, La Divina Commedia: Inferno V, vv. 100-106

I’ve never taken the time to delve deeply into The Divine Comedy; there were always reasons not to read it whenever it crossed my path, usually taking the form of books more in tune with my tastes. It may be the subject matter, or maybe the style, I don’t know, or much care. But I can recognize quality and talent when I see it, even if it doesn’t appeal to me particularly. I get the same reaction to William F. Buckley and Ayn Rand when I try to read their work. It’s okay though, there are plenty of other reads out there, and I can thus enjoy and appreciate snippets from these works for their artistic flair, or their relevance to reality.

In this case, I included this excerpt for the sheer beauty of form and content it exhibits; the Italian poem reads so well it engenders an audio image of great power and majesty. It is also impressive how well the translation of this piece, and of the others I have seen, mimics the original so closely, in both tone and grandeur. It almost makes me want to go pick up a copy and dive in….. nah! Too much work….. but, it’s a good one to remember for the next time I’m hard up for something to read….. that’s the nice thing about the Classics. There are so many of them, you can always find one you’ve never tried before, and be virtually guaranteed that it will be a good read……
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“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” — Edward Abbey

Sad, but true. And even more relevant in today’s political climate, which often resembles a carnival sideshow on Mental Health Day. As an American patriot, I have become inured to the constant lies and grasping avarice common to the current species of candidates. Don’t get me wrong, now; I mistrust the Democrats just as much as I do the Republicans. It’s just that the news and media is always full of the GOP right now, due to the feeding frenzy they call the caucuses, or some such euphemism for circus.

Every day, we are assaulted with reports of the latest gaffes, misstatements, outlandish claims, prophesies, and the random reasoned response (usually from some man-on-the-street), all of which are examined, re-examined, and speculated on endlessly. By the time the relevant election gets here, in November, I, and every patriot with a lick of common sense, will probably either boycott the election altogether, or find an empathetic psychiatrist to deal with the rage, one who can persuade them (us) not to shoot at the poor little candidates, at least not with live ammo…..

“It is of some small consolation for you to know that we have survived every President the electorate has thrust upon us.” — Anonymous

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.” — Gore Vidal
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Some days, pearl diving is an occupation fraught with frustration; other days, like today, quotes on a particular subject just keep jumping into my lap. I had intended to write about the Bill of Rights, and how it is under attack by the PTB, otherwise known as our beloved ruling class, so I had that as a thought in the back of my mind when I dove in. Et voila’, quotes galore…. now I don’t need to write about it, because these say all I needed to say….

“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

“…it is hard for me to see how one can argue that circumstances have so changed as to make mass disarmament constitutionally unproblematic.” — Professor Sanford Levinson, — The Embarrassing Second Amendment, — The Yale Law Journal, Vol 99, No 3, December 1989, p637.

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” — The Constitution of the United States of America, Amendment 2, 1791 (That pesky Second Amendment….)

“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency… Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” — General Douglas MacArthur, 1957

“Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Avert misunderstanding by calm, poise, and a .44 magnum.

I think that about covers it….. stay alert, ffolkes, the world needs more lerts…..
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“People are divided into two groups – the righteous and the unrighteous – and the righteous do the dividing.” — Lord Cohen

People are funny, aren’t they? Lord Cohen (another royal I’ve never heard of…) has hit squarely upon one of the more perverse qualities common to the human spirit. It always struck me as pretty hilarious (as well as hypocritical) that the people in the world who make the most noise and trouble over insignificant cultural or ideological differences are the same people who lay claim to being the only true devotees of the Great Redeemer, the only ones who really see the light.

It says right there in every translation of the Bible, even theirs, that the core of Jesus’ message is “Love thy brother as thyself”; he spent his whole time on this planet teaching compassion and encouraging diversity. But that’s not good enough for them, so they just pay lip service to that part of the Bible, and base their fundamental cruelty on interpretations of the Old Testament that serve their bigotry and ignorance. Too bad…. the world could use a few more good Christians, to help offset the karmic imbalance created by those who choose to fear the unknown, rather than embracing and understanding it…..
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politics, n: From the Latin ‘poly’, meaning many, and ‘tic’, meaning little bloodsucking insects.

I think this is self-explanatory. It’s here merely because it fits in so well with my raison d’etre, my modus operandi, my….. my very real and unrelentingly hostile opinion of the type of human who enters the political arena in today’s society. I make no secret of my repugnance for those who seek power over other people, on any level, but especially in the political level, whether local, state, federal, or foreign, Democrat, Republican, Independent, whatever. Doesn’t matter to me, they’re all certifiably insane.

Even those who retain even the slightest shred of human decency are made irrelevant by the sheer weight of numbers. The corporate thieves, the sociopathic manipulators, and the deluded fundamentalists outnumber any such foolish milquetoasts to a degree that makes them ( the altruistic idealists) completely meaningless, and effectively powerless.

The picture is bleak enough that I, who swore never to own a gun, have decided to arm myself as soon as possible. The Second Amendment, one of the branches on the Tree of Liberty, may need to be protected and nourished, by the blood of patriots, and tyrants…..
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Having thus purged myself of a large buildup of angst, I can now face the rest of the day with a more cheerful mien. So, that’s what I’m gonna go do…. Y’all take care out there……

—

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Dramatic scenes of pomp and circumstance….

Posted on February 15, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
I’ve been sitting here, staring at the screen, waiting for inspiration; it seems to have taken a wrong turn somewhere, and no random ideas are floating around in my own head that would be worth writing about. Thus I have turned to the old trick of just putting down thought processes and ideas that are at the forefront of my consciousness. Sometimes, in the middle of this type of elocution, an idea will strike, and suggest a direction to take. Other times, like so far today, my mind becomes a vast, empty plain, with a hint of shiny sparkle way off in the distance. That sparkle is my inspiration. I can see now that the vast, empty plain is all around me, and inspiration is not going to come any closer this morning. Such a pity…I had high hopes when I rolled out of bed; hopes for a brilliant opening statement, that would set a high mark for the rest of the pearl to match. But, it is not to be, and such is Life. I suppose unpredictability is normal, so there isn’t much I can say about it other than….. let’s boogie…
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“The axioms of reason are non-demonstrable assumptions. Why should faith not be granted the same privilege? The denial of the truths of faith is, in the last analysis, no less a faith than faith itself, for it rests on personal assumptions which are apart from scientific necessity. In other words, as the truth of reason carries its own evidence, so also with faith. To the mind to whom the axioms of reason are not self-evident, they cannot be proven. So also in the case of faith: for the mind that is not enlightened by faith, the evidence of faith is ridiculous. But for the man whose eyes have been enlightened by the Spirit, faith has its proper evidence, though different from that of reason.” — Paul K. Jewett, Emil Brunner’s Concept of Revelation

I swear, this is the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever seen in one pile. Yet it can serve as a lesson, in how logic can be perverted to support the most ridiculous concepts. The author makes several assumptions that are just not true, starting with the first sentence, and, reasoning from that point comes eventually to rest on a conclusion that has no demonstrable place in Reality. He maintains that the assumptions of reason cannot be proved; this is a false assumption.

Reason does not adopt any assumption until evidence has been gathered in sufficient quantity to demonstrate proof; only then will reason use that assumption as fact, which may then be used to reason further. Faith is based entirely on assumptions that have no demonstrable evidence of proof; as such, they must forever remain assumptions, and may never be used to reason any further, for any conclusions based on false assumptions can only be false.

This is an immutable law of reality; there is no possible argument, as it is demonstrated time and time again, as people who can’t understand or deal with reality in its natural state continually come up with nonsensical reasons to disregard reality in favor of faith. The results are predictably unfortunate, both for those who rely on such faulty reasoning, and for the rest of us who must suffer their proselytizing……

“If we really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.” — Krishnamurti

“One of the most frightening things in the Western world, and in this country in particular, is the number of people who believe in things that are scientifically false. If someone tells me that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, in my opinion he should see a psychiatrist.” — Francis H.C. Crick
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“The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something that can be learned in no other way.’ — Mark Twain

I love this quotation. Mr. Clemens must have edited it to some degree as his career progressed, because I have also seen it quoted this way:

“The man who carries a cat by the tail leans a valuable lesson; he will never be dim, or doubtful. Chances are he won’t carry the cat that way again. But, if he wants to, I say, let him!”

I think its much more powerful in the latter format; much funnier too. Since I haven’t really researched the etymology of the quote, I can’t say whether it is all Twain’s, or if some editor had him change it, or even whether it is truly his work. In my opinion, none of that really matters; it’s just too good as it is to fuss around trying to over-analyze. Just think about it (using the second incarnation from above) and enjoy……
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“Never commit yourself to a cheese without having first examined it.” — T. S. Eliot

Now, that’s something you don’t hear every day…… but then, T. S. made a habit of saying things no one had ever heard before. One of the surest ways to recognize genius is rooted in that very idea; genius makes a habit of exploring unknown territories of the mind. The paths of reasoning that they follow, which may be intuitive as well as rational, are generally paths of which the rest of us are not even aware. Or, if they follow a well-known path, they find that it goes much further than had been previously known.

All of us have a touch of this within us; I’m sure everyone has moments of lucidity and revelation that approach this kind of mental acuity. We just don’t live there, whereas the genius spends his entire waking life seeing things that others cannot. It can be a bit disheartening to the rest of us, when we see how simple and clear are the things that they come up with, but we always get over it, and benefit from their progressive thinking. Now, if we could only figure out how to get everyone else into the same boat, we might be able to figure out how to keep from killing ourselves off…..
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Beware of that person who is slow to anger. For when it is long in coming, it stays longer and is warmer and dies not so easily. Abused patience is a very strong fuel for a fire not easily put out by any known means.

I like this, probably because it reflects pretty well how I feel every day as I read the latest shenanigans of our beloved ruling class. They don’t seem to be aware of this truism, or they would be more careful, because I doubt that I’m the only person in society who feels this way. The pervading sense of entitlement so entrenched in modern society is blinding those in charge to the effects of what they are doing on the people over whom they hold sway.

The natives are getting more restless as time goes by, and eventually that pot is going to blow the lid off and spill all over the cooks. Being an impatient sort, I hope it happens fairly soon; I’m tired of clenching my jaw so hard. Perhaps this is why I am writing so much; I’m trying to stoke the fire…. and getting more pissed each day….. the beloved ruling class is going to have a hell of a time putting this fire out…..
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How dieth the wise man? As the fool.

Here is one that I think we all tend to forget, or possibly deny. It’s a hard thing to accept that death is not like life; we are accustomed to at least some degree of favoritism according to our own particular sense of entitlement. It must be a very disturbing thing for those who are very devout in their religion to consider that even the most miserable sinner, and the most repugnant pagan, have the same consideration given them by death as it does to themselves. Death comes to all, the wise, the fool, and the believer….. the ultimate democrat….

This may be, now that I think of it, the major reason for creating the concept of Heaven and Hell; the clergy needed some method to control and manipulate their followers. Giving them reasons to justify their sense of entitlement works very well; it sets up a dichotomy of purpose very powerfully, so that the believers all know that even when they die, they will receive favorable treatment from St. Peter. To me it is a particularly sad existence, to believe that one is better or worse than anyone else, when so much of reality proves it to be a false belief….. only the weak of spirit need that kind of crutch…….
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It was a hard-fought battle, but I managed to stuff the genie back in the bottle, at least temporarily. It shouldn’t give me any more trouble until tomorrow morning. I’m a little scared of going back over today’s missive to proof and edit; what I find, in the state of mind I’m in, could get thrown out entirely, necessitating a fresh start. Oh well, may as well get started….. meanwhile, y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Just the fax, ma’am……

Posted on February 12, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Learning to trust people can be a frustrating pastime, especially when it sometimes seems as if people don’t want to be trusted. Ah me, I sometimes forget my own name, so it’s not surprising that I would occasionally forget my own philosophy. This is actually an unwritten corollary to Peruaosophy which states: People should receive the trust they earn, but for those who are not trustworthy, nothing but the back of me hand is enough.

I do try to give folks I meet the benefit of doubt, and will trust them to a point; I find that most folks will give reason to trust them without much thought or effort, as most folks are fairly honest. But a significant number are not honest, and it doesn’t take long for their first lie to be put out there to see if anyone bites. I’ve been known to bite at times, for the lies they tell are often attractive, and have all the appearance of truth.

But, I can truthfully say that once I’ve seen through the lies, and I always do, well, lets just say that they don’t walk away whistling and counting their money. They tend to get carried away, and if they walk, they are hurrying to be elsewhere quickly. My father was a very patient man, and I’m the same; but you really don’t want to be around when our patience snaps; it isn’t pretty, and is often ugly; the Brits would call it a bloody send-up, I believe…..

“There’s none deceived but he that trusts.” — Ben Franklin

Now, if you would, just sit back and join me in a delightfully insane state of mind.
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Audrey Hepburn: This was written when asked to share her “beauty tips.” It was read at her funeral years later.

“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.”

This needs no adornment, Audrey never does…..other than to add that, IMHO, she was the most beautiful actress who ever trod the boards, and this tells you why…..
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“A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.” — Eric Hoffer

This particular observation is both insightful, and demonstrably true. This characteristic may possibly end up as the primary reason that our species reaches its evolutionary end in the next few generations. It is a trait so destructive of self that the person who is thus afflicted never even knows he is ill, that his own fears are what are keeping him from overcoming his own destructive tendencies. It is the direct antithesis of our only saving characteristic, imagination, and when held onto dearly, completely overrides and ignores any logical or rational attempts to act in a way that will benefit themselves.

No reason, no fact, no natural law can overcome this fanaticism, for its proponents close their minds to any idea that challenges their fear- and faith-based beliefs, no matter how far from reality they are. It’s a damn shame really, because a lot of nice people are being dragged into the mud along with them, and none of them deserve it….. but then, when did the Universe care whether it’s deserved or not?…..

There is no point in getting angry, but there is a stupid malignity to all this that does try one’s patience.–Anonymous

“It is not possible to convey sarcasm to certain members of the net without using a 2×4. The smiley face merely reminds them of why their head is being dented.” — John Woods
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“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.” — Albert Einstein

Albert has once again put his finger directly on the pulse of American culture, and on the root cause for many of the problems we face today. A vast majority of Americans cannot tell you what the Constitution is, beyond a vague idea that it has something to do with “liberty” and “freedom”. An equally large number, who may even have read parts of it, grabs onto random phrases in the document, attaches them to a piece of religious dogma, and proceeds to try to take away everyone else’s rights because they don’t have the same imaginary friend.

Of the few of us left who have actually read the entire document, along with the Bill of Rights and the 11th – 27th Amendments, only a small percentage seem to have the guts to speak up in its defense. It may be that they don’t have the wherewithal, the inherent inner-strength that is required to hold onto what is right; instead they wast their time dealing with all the petty BS in their lives, and lamenting the state of things.

Then we come to our “beloved ruling class”; let no one say we don’t get what we deserve, for each and every politician currently sitting in Washington D.C. was fairly elected, after a pre-election orgy of lies and promises from the candidates competing, to see which party or person will have the privilege of ripping off society with complete immunity to prosecution for their crimes. These people know the Constitution well; they just choose to ignore it, or spin it to support their own agenda.

Having watched this process happen time and time again for over 60 years, I can tell you that nobody who has voted in that time has any excuse. We have elected proven liars into positions of high office repeatedly, despite the investigations and revelations of skulduggery that are constantly surfacing in the news.

I suppose it’s just another example of how, regardless of how much we would like to think it isn’t so, the laws of evolution are inexorable, and our species is destined to join a myriad of other failed organisms on the extinction list….. we ARE responsible, not only for what we do or don’t do, but also for what happens to us.

It is a subtle point of the principles of Karma, but being subtle makes it no less true. So quit complaining, and start fighting for your rights. We only have those rights we can defend, and we can no longer afford to have anyone else take the responsibility; they’re not going to fulfill it, so it remains our own duty…..

“I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.” — H. L. Mencken
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“I have known noble ones who lost their highest hope, and then they disparaged all high hopes. They lived shamelessly in temporary pleasures, and hardly had an aim beyond the day. “Spirit is also voluptuousness,” they said. Then they broke the wings of their spirit; it now creeps about, and defiles whatever it gnaws at. Once they thought of becoming heroes, but they have become sensualists. A trouble and a terror is the hero to them. By my love and hope, I implore you: do not cast away the hero in your soul. Maintain holy your highest hope. Thus spoke Zarathustra.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_

I first attempted to read this book when I was in high school; I made it about 10 pages in, and put it down for a long time. It was too hard to read and think at the same time then (it does take some practice), so I put it off. I picked it up again when I was about 25, and fared much better. But it was still a difficult read, as it demands that one use all of their focus and attention in order to discern the meaning of what is written.

Though difficult, it is well worth the effort, and though it took me about two months to finish, I got a lot of useful information, as well as new ways to look at that information, and new ways to fit it all into reality. I had to read only a couple or three pages at a sitting; this could take upwards of an hour of intense thought, as it seemed as if every other line brought up some new idea, or a new way to look at old ideas, and those ideas had to be examined closely to determine their validity. But, at the end, I had a strong feeling of accomplishment, and another world-view to add to my abstruse collection…..
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Kardivilliwarrakurrakurrieapparlandoo — name of a lake in Northern Australia

I am once again amazed at how the human mind, and therefore computers, operate. I typed in the above lake’s name into Google, and hit enter. The first ten finds were all different websites, but all had listed the exact same information on the name: each of them gave the name, and followed it with, “name of a lake in Northern Australia.” All of them. Apparently there is a lake in Northern Australia with that name, but no one has ever tried to find out more about it; what is known is considered enough, I guess.

I dunno, it seems to me that just a little more information would be welcome, even if it was merely “Don’t go there.” As it is, how is one to know if it is a piece of knowledge worth keeping in recent memory, or if it is special merely because of the length of its name? Also, the name itself is not translated, and I would tend to believe that the word, being the aboriginal word for the lake, has a quite complex meaning, as most of the words they used were practical descriptions of their world that helped them deal with its vicissitudes. Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to dig a bit deeper to find out any more….oh goody, another mystery to solve!……see, it’s easy to amuse oneself, if one just tries…..
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This is going to be a challenge to get into blog format, and probably email as well, so I’d best be getting to it…. Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Penguins are never quite sober……

Posted on February 11, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
From a purely subjective viewpoint (which, if you think about it, is all we really have) I am not a crook…..no, wait, that’s for another group. Okay, try this….from a purely subjective viewpoint, people suck major waste. They create major waste, too, but it doesn’t fit the image I’m creating. No, really, I mean, how hard can it be to be nice to each other? But, noooooo, people have to piss all over each other on a regular basis, as if they didn’t know any better.

That’s what really gets me about most of what goes on in the world at large; people do know what is right, and they just refuse to do it. They would rather lie, cheat, and steal from their fellow man, just because they think they can. It’s enough to make a strong man turn to drink, and send a weak one to the grave. There are days when I am glad I’m currently stuck here at home a lot; it keeps me from having to go out and deal with the great unwashed masses too often. Such interactions tend to be bloody, and I don’t need to get summoned to court to answer why I was beating that young man to death with his own leg…… I’d best dive in before I commit perjury or something…..
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Creation sleeps! ‘T is as the general pulse
Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause,–
An awful pause! prophetic of her end.
— Edward Young (1684-1765) — Night Thoughts, Night i, Line 23

Mr. Young seems to have been feeling a bit prophetic himself. If we consider this to have been written halfway through his life, then it was created somewhere around 1720, just the very beginning of the Industrial Age, when mankind first left the path of sustainability. The sky was still unrelieved blue, the waters were clean, and the sunsets were still the same colors they had been for a million years.

By the end of the century, London, and a few other cities of its size around the world, were beginning to see the first effects of pollution, with a rise in such diseases as TB, cancer, and respiratory complications, and the disappearance of a multitude of water-living creatures due to the poisons being dumped into the Thames. Between the fireplace in every house, the trains, and the factories now blotting the horizon in all directions, the air in London was practically unbreathable at times, until Mother Nature took pity and sent some higher winds or rain to give them a break. One of the most lucrative of employments was that of window-washer, as it only took a day or two for a window to gather so much dirt and smoke as to be impenetrable to light or sight.

This phenomenon was not confined to London, and by the end of the next century, in 1900, the planet was starting to reel under the assault of particulate matter being pumped into the environment by the industrious little parasites crawling over its surface, still reproducing without restraint, oblivious to the harm they cause, merely by being born. The pollution not only continued, but increased by factors of 10 regularly, until, at the end of the twentieth century, we have reached a point of no-return.

The planet’s capability of dealing with what is poured into it is reaching a critical flash point; within the next century, it is a certainty that major environmental events will occur, as the planet begins to slough off the poisons we have created. The polar ice caps are melting and shrinking, at a rate which will only grow faster exponentially; as time goes on, it will increase at an ever-increasing rate, a rate that will effectively halt any more pollution by us, as we will be busy trying to survive the earthquakes, floods, famine, wars over food and clean water, unpredictable extreme weather, and other phenomena we cannot predict. These are merely the ones we KNOW will happen.

So, how do we survive? We don’t. As far as I can see, it’s too late; not enough time left for us to fix what we’ve broken. Deal with it. Mankind has signed its own death warrant, and there is no court of appeal. We will join the dodo, the saber-tooth tiger, and T-Rex in the ranks of evolutionary dead-ends, another failed experiment.

The only way that this won’t happen, is if one of two things happens, soon, like yesterday: 1) The beloved ruling class comes to its senses, and stops trying to control everything to their own benefit, immediately begins to take steps to discontinue the destructive mind-set they have, and learns to share, or 2) The rest of us rise up and force them to do that, in spite of their stupidity and greed. I suppose those two things are actually one, but the point is that nothing else will work. There is no other way to survive. The people in charge MUST make these changes, or we are all going to die, not with a bang, but with a whimper and a cry of despair……
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“Emily Dickinson didn’t even publish books, she just wrote these demented little poems with a quill pen and hid them in her desk, but they still fought their way into the world, and lasted on and on and on. It’s damned hard to get rid of Emily Dickinson, she hangs on like a tick in a dog’s ear. And everybody who writes from then on in some sense has to measure up to this woman. In the art of book-writing the classics are still living competition, they tend to elevate the entire art-form by their persistent presence.” — Bruce Sterling

Mr. Sterling makes a valid point here. I have noted this feeling in myself, particularly after reading some Oscar Wilde, or Hemingway, or Poe, some Mark Twain, or Dorothy L. Sayers, Bob Heinlein, or Arthur C. Clark (yes, I know, very eclectic. I prefer to call it psychotic…) Just a couple days ago, I commented on this over a phrase from the pen of Mr. Wilde, of such great beauty it beckons like a lighthouse in a dark, moonless night at sea. I can only hope that my attempts at emulating the luminaries, like Emily and Oscar, elevate my art to a level approaching theirs……
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In the worlds before monkey, primal chaos reigned. Heaven sought order, but the Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four lands formed again and yet again, as endless eons wheeled and passed. The wind, time and later (??) all worked upon a certain rock, old as creation, and it became magically fertile. That first egg was called ‘thought.’ Tagahatha (??) Buddha, the Father Buddha says, ‘with our thoughts, we make the world.’ Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it came a stone monkey. The nature of monkey was IRREPRESSIBLE!

I found this gem without attribution, so I don’t know who to thank for it; it’s delightful, if only for its sense of fun. Irrepressible indeed! Plus, in certain ways, it is as logical and plausible as the claims made by some of the other religions floating around out there, isn’t it? The logical procession it displays is almost believable, and the mixing of myth, magic, and reality shows a mastery of both logic and its antithesis, intuition.

Living as I do in California, I could say with complete confidence that there is most likely one or more alleged “churches” in Southern California whose tenets of faith resemble this paragraph quite closely. Probably one with a fast-growing congregation, all of whom drive BMW’s or VW beetles. Those who don’t ride donkeys, that is…..
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Calvin: People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don’t realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world. Hobbes: Isn’t your pants’ zipper supposed to be in the front? — Calvin (Bill Watterson, “Calvin and Hobbes”)

A fine example of how all of us are our own best source for laughter. As a matter of fact, it reminds me of several occasions in my own life in which I held this conversation in my own head, with myself playing both parts. SIGH….. gotta say, though, Calvin and Hobbes is the best cartoon to come along in a long time; sometimes it seems as if Doonesbury is the only really witty one left. Ah, for the days of Pogo, and Odds Bodkins! Bloom County was also great, but way too short-lived. Hopefully, we will always have at least one cartoonist to help us stay sane when reading the news…..

“Creation is a mighty joke, but the laugh is at my own expense.” — Meher Baba
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“The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.” — Oscar Wilde

Sometimes Oscar cracks me up…..this, for example, produced a quick sardonic grin on my face, immediately followed by the thought “that sounds like something W.C. Fields might have said when he was soused”, which was most of the time, if one can believe of him what he so arduously sought to have others believe. Maybe that tenuous self-confidence, that almost shyness, made so obvious in the outer persona of each of them, by the very volume of the oddness, or uniqueness they espoused as a public figure, is what reminds me one of the other.

Both tried very hard to have others believe of them more than they thought of themselves; it seems to me that is what gave them purpose, for without it, the darker, depressive sides of their nature tended to drag them into emotional bogs. Probably why one drank so much, and one chose a more convoluted path to self-destruction, both men’s wit and imagination, and inner-terror, acting as methods of coping with a world that would never really understand them…..
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Whew….that took awhile; close to three hours this morning, and haven’t even looked at email yet; I’m falling further behind as I type, but what are ya gonna do when it flows? Go with it, obviously….. any who, let’s go see what the rest of the world is up to, shall we?….Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Open for dissection: bring your own scalpel….

Posted on February 10, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
With a hearty grin and a friendly wave, we greet the morning once more. The grin may look a bit forced, and the wave somewhat rehearsed; chalk that up to the lateness of the hour when I finally dropped off. Just couldn’t persuade the sandman to get here any earlier, and when he finally came, he had to go back for his sack of sleep dust, which he had inadvertently left at his previous stop, somewhere in the Grand Tetons, up in Wyoming. By the time he got back, I was already yawning, so all went smoothly from that point. If one doesn’t count the age-related trips to the BR during the night (why is it always colder when we have to get up? Is it a law or something?…..oh, right. Murphy. Never mind…).

It’s probably the worst part of the whole deal to have one’s own body providing itself with its own problems; between losing hair at an alarming rate and the nightly trips to the BR, it’s a wonder I haven’t snapped and hurt someone. Of course, no one is ever here, so I’d have to go find someone to flail upon, which just serves to add more angst. Ah well, the alternative is worse, I suppose….I wouldn’t go back to my teens unless forced at gunpoint……. let’s drop the whole subject, shall we?….. it helps to think of this, from a man with experience….

“You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.” — George Burns

Which is a damn sight better than, “Suddenly, Professor Liebowitz realizes he has come to the seminar without his duck …” Okay, I’m through fooling around now; we’ll get on with the regular program……sorry, I needed the warm-up…..
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“It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

I’d have to agree here. I’d also like to add it would be pleasant to possess both qualities…. I’ve always felt Oscar was being more than a little facetious with this, but even if not, and it was entirely cynical, that would not alter its attraction, because, after all, it IS a value judgment….. in fact, several value judgments in one package. What I mean by that has been classified secret, so unfortunately, that’s the end of this little segment….. if I said any more, I have to find and cream pie all of you…..
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:religious issues: n. Questions which seemingly cannot be raised without touching off {holy wars}, such as “What is the best operating system (or editor, language, architecture, shell, mail reader, news reader)?”, “What about that Heinlein guy, eh?”, “What should we add to the new Jargon File?” See {holy wars}; see also {theology}, {bigot}. — This term is a prime example of {ha ha only serious}. People actually develop the most amazing and religiously intense attachments to their tools, even when the tools are intangible. The most constructive thing one can do when one stumbles into the crossfire is mumble {Get a life!} and leave — unless, of course, one’s _own_ unassailably rational and obviously correct choices are being slammed. — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423

I have, in previous posts, expressed admiration of hacker culture, and I don’t think it is misplaced. This term, used as humor, parallels exactly the same phenomenon in society at large, for the same kinds of questions, i.e., “What do you mean, the banks need more money?” or “My, that’s a lot of oil you have there…..wanna share?” I especially like the given default response when confronted, “get a life”; it shows a lot of class and restraint to leave it at that. SIGH….I’d love to be able to leave it at that….. so I will….. you lucked out, in one respect. I don’t quite have the built-up outrage for a full rant just now; we’ll have to get back to this another day…… you can put the Taser down, now, you won’t need it……
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” Stereotypes are like a supermarket. They are convenient, economical, and useful. They do our thinking for us. We don’t have to waste time trying to make sense of our ignorance. Stereotypes slice through the niceties of language, tide us over the loose ends we don’t understand and wrap up into a comfortable package our narrow – mindedness about everything and everybody except ourselves.” — Chuck Stone (Washington Post 6/3/96)

I’m sorry I missed this article, whatever it was about, when it was first printed; this excerpt shows a lot of insight, and the article itself would no doubt have some good things to say. This is a really accurate description of Robert Heinlein’s Mrs. Grundy; she’s the old busybody who lives in every neighborhood, who spends all her copious free time peeking out the windows and noting down all the gossip she can find about her neighbors, and pronouncing criticisms and moralistic judgments on everyone but herself. This sort of attitude, petty, mean, lazy, and ignorant, is all-too-familiar, and may ultimately lead to our downfall as a species.

Though given adequate tools, much of mankind refuses, in far too many cases, to use, even minimally, the gift of imagination, save to imagine their fears, magnifying them all out of proportion because they have not the courage to face them. Whether it is about religion, or freedom, or truth, or whatever, the ignoramus’s among us react with anxiety and rage to any ideas that are unfamiliar, or in any way differ from their own set of preconceived stereotypes and standards. Thus, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, even Lutherans & Papists, or anyone with a differently hued skin, become objects of fear and loathing, and the age-old arguments continue. I often like to use the following in trying to reason with such people, but fanaticism is usually immune to such frippery as truth or rationality……

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg.” — Thomas Jefferson

I also like this take on the subject; it gives permission to fire away at these Bozos, whenever and wherever we encounter them…..

“In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.” — John Kenneth Galbraith, Guardian (London, 28 July 1989)

…And in a final spasm of pearlistic splendor, we have this from Mrs. Grundy’s antithesis, a woman of grace and intelligence….. ’nuff said….

“I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.” — Edith Sitwell
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And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.
— Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882) — The Day is done

SIGH……that’s better. I’ve just spent the last 40 minutes desperately searching for something profound to write about, and had little success in the quest at hand, until I came across this little gem. I’m sure it’s quite familiar; I seem to remember several long, boring sessions in high school English class discussing this, and a number of other classic poems. It may possibly have been made to be a fun class, but our English teacher was, at that time, suffering a bit of career burp, apparently feeling somewhat despondent over his career choice; regretful of being stuck in a small town, and small school, where someone of his delicate sensibilities and artistic bent was not quite as appreciated as he might have been in a larger town, where there would conceivably be people with tastes that didn’t include anything to do with tractors, the weather, or sheep.

He once commented to the class at large, after grading a test on grammar in the 10th grade, in which all but two of the class failed miserably, that he could teach this subject to a roomful of developmentally disabled chimpanzees faster than our group was picking it up. He may have been right; a good 30% of my classmates still wear cowboy boots, string ties, and shirts with pearl buttons to dress up; I understand, though, that even those who still drive pickup trucks, and who still depend on the land for their living, have email addresses, so there has been some progress made there. In the group photo from our last reunion last year, I didn’t see even one belt buckle bigger than the wearer’s fist. Heck, I hear there is now a hospital, and TWO bars in town; there’s just no stopping progress, I suppose….. I’ll just fold my tent, and steal silently away…..
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And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium
— T.S. Eliot

No adornment needed……
___________________________________

Well, THAT turned on me! Getting all this down in comprehensible form became a matter of ripping it out of my head, and literally flogging myself to type it onto the screen, a bloody process at best. I shall require copious sustenance in the form of high-caloric comestibles, to replace all the energy that got burned up. Not complaining; sometimes that’s what it takes….. but it always comes as a surprise, and I should know better than to be so heavily affected. One word….. Murphy….. Q.E.D………y’all take care out there……

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Simple truths are always welcome, but seldom seen…

Posted on February 9, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
In the bitter cold, his hands felt like wooden clubs, and the skin on his face and nose felt as if it were being ripped off in broad strips. Silently, he crossed the yard in back of the old two-story house where he had lived his entire life, heading swiftly toward the stand of trees just past the rear boundary. Not sure if the other would be there yet, he slowed his pace, slipping between the trees without a sound, until he came to the meeting place, a small clearing among the massive trunks of the ancient trees, empty of life, waiting. Standing outside the circular clearing, he watched, and listened; his breath forming small clouds in front of his face as he waited. “Nothing will stop him now,” he thought, “If he won’t listen to me, he’ll really do what he said he would do, and life itself would change dramatically, for everyone. He’s got to be stopped!” With that in the forefront of his mind, he slowly reached into his pocket, and brought out the ugly little revolver, checked it was loaded and ready, then prepared himself to use it, if necessary. As he looked at the deadly little piece, his mind flew back, through days and years, until he remembered……..
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And on the 8th day, God said, “Okay, Murphy, you’re in charge!”

This little known passage from the original version of the King James Bible was somehow lost in one of the translations the book went through in the years after JC’s adventures, so little is known of its origins, and why it was included in the holiest of books. If anything, its very existence tends to verify the rest of the claims made in the book; nothing is more truthful than reality, and Murphy is well known to all of us who live on this planet. His ubiquitous presence is made felt in every activity humanity engages in, from simple household chores, to sending rockets into space. Not only does his presence make itself known in abundance, but is actually assumed by almost everyone; we are all so used to him f___ing with us, we just shrug our shoulders, grin, and bear it….

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t ever in the Bible; I admit to stretching the truth a bit, and can only claim wishful thinking as an excuse. Because I do wish that this little concept, to wit: Murphy and his ubiquitous and oh-so-powerful natural law, had been included in at least one of the versions we see today. It would make reading through it much more palatable, as well as lending a strong arm to belief and faith, for there is far more observable evidence of Murphy’s activities than there are of most of the other stuff in the book; acknowledging that would be advantageous, and go a long way toward convincing a lot of skeptics to reconsider their original assumptions as to veracity……

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.” — George Carlin (Amen to that! And RIP George…..)
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Love is a rose, but you’d better not pick it.
It only grows when it’s on the vine.

Does anyone besides me, and doubtless, Bette Midler, remember the last two lines of the stanza in the song? They are actually the kicker to the thought, the hammer that drives home the nail….they go like this:

You lose your love
When you use the word “mine”……

Point made, ’nuff said….. but that wouldn’t really be my style, now would it? And besides I have a reputation to maintain; no one can spout more nonsense in a shorter time than me, and make you think that something was actually communicated. It’s one of my daily goals to write at least 1000 words before noon, and I don’t care who I trample under the load of crap that sometimes is needed to fulfill that goal. But, really now, this song doesn’t really need much more; its simple style belies the depth of the message, which is therefore crystal clear, and does not require that I point it out to you. All you need to do find an old copy of the song, and listen to it…. it is one of my all time favorite pieces of music, and if nothing else, can serve as more evidence of my strangeness…..
___________________________________

“There are more stars known to exist right now than the total number of all the grains of sand on every beach in the entire world. With those kinds of odds, it would seem downright naive for someone to go to a beach in, say, some out-of-the-way inlet in Baffin Bay, stoop to pick up only one tiny grain of sand, and declare that that grain alone was the only place where life could exist.” — Hugh Downs

Ah, but Mr. Downs, with all due respect you have forgotten Rule #1 from Mr. Long’s Notebooks, to wit: Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. It merely takes utter faith to put your claim to rest; the faithful can believe anything, as long as it is couched in Scripture-like language, or is labeled as truth by an icon of their particular area of belief. It’s easy for them to explain away such facts; they just don’t believe them.

First, they say, the stars we see, and all the physical laws we have deduced over the years that explain how those stars were formed over eons, not merely millenia, are false, erroneous. All those facts are illusions, put there by God to deceive us, and tempt us away from His Truth, which by their reckoning puts the age of the Universe at about 4200 years, having begun one Monday morning that long ago, with the creation of the whole shebang taking place, not in eons, but in seven days. I’m sorry, but I find that to be just a little more specious than I care to entertain as Truth.

Second, why would a reportedly all-powerful entity want to play tricks like that? I’m not all-powerful, but it seems a little childish to me, and I have a hard time buying into the assumption that someone who is omnipotent would do something so outrageously dumb; it’s a little too reminiscent of a Three Stooges sketch for my taste.

Secondly, I don’t recall, in any of the dozen or so reportedly holy books I’ve read, anyone ever even implying any such concept, or anything close to it, nor does the deity they are discussing make any such claims. Seems to me that anyone who wanted to be worshiped would want the supplicants to know the real reason why. I’m also a bit suspicious of the claim that an omnipotent, omniscient entity would require adoration, blind obedience, and worship, or even want it at all. That kind of attitude, when directed toward me in even a mild form, I find to be repugnant; it makes my skin crawl to have someone gush over me, or admire what I’ve done too strongly. I can’t imagine any entity deserving the name of God wanting any part of that……..and neither do I…..

“God is not all-powerful, as he cannot build a wall he cannot jump.”– Pascal

Wow! Talk about logical certainty! Which, if you stop to think about it, makes mankind the more powerful, as we can do that. Hmm….. let’s see, that one doesn’t actually follow from the first; omniscience is implied yet not assumed, but rather considered as part of the argument. From a purely reasoning standpoint however, what Pascal has said here is in reality a paradox, or rather, he has pointed out the paradox in the assumption of omnipotence in any entity, whether human, or presumably divine. Whichever premise is actually true is one of those mysteries that may never be solved, at least not by reasoning only. It may need physical evidence of some kind before it can be adequately answered. But it does go to show how powerful reasoning can be, when in the hands of an expert……. nothing is sacred, thankfully…..
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A Moment of Haiku

Bare is the soul
who will not see the truth,
even when the truth sees them.

gigoid
___________________________________

I’m surprised there aren’t more solipsists!

Gut busting laughter ensues…… I mean, really, there can only be one…. and I’m not ready to give it up just yet…
___________________________________

In looking back over today’s work, and remembering what has been done recently, I find that I’ve been pretty critical of most religions. In that respect, and in my own defense, I do try not to be disrespectful, beyond a bit of name-calling I’m guilty of for sure (usually involving the S word). I also would like to say that I acknowledge the good works that most religions do in the world, whatever their motivation for doing so; it is generally intended to improve the lot of the downtrodden and needy, and so deserves respect. If anyone has hurt feelings, or has any arguments in support of opposing viewpoints, I welcome any discourse in which you wish to engage, cheerfully. And go ahead and call me a few names too, if that helps. But, please do me one favor…..think about what I say, rationally, without getting emotionally involved. It will make both our lives more comfortable, as I tend to strike back hard and fast when attacked without apparent cause….. a leftover habit from my time dealing with the certifiably insane members of our society….. 😉

In the meantime, y’all take care out there….I’ll be back tomorrow…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Captain Kangaroo, Spiderman, and Tricky Dicky walk into a bar…..

Posted on February 8, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
What was that? Just spent 10 minutes composing three lines of absolute crap. It was so bad, and was getting so nowhere quickly, that I just deleted the whole damn thing. So, we will start anew….good morning. It is now just past 4 AM, and I am up, fully awake, anxiously awaiting the two little beeps from the coffee machine that it is ready. Yes! And there they are….I’ll be back….

I’ll say it again….the first sip of coffee in the morning may be my favorite moment of any day. There is just something so bracing, so uplifting, about how everything in one’s system responds positively to the first sip. The next few sips approach the same parameter, but never get there. And, of course, the whole rest of the day is then a downhill run, unless I come up with some new and astounding kind of entertainment or pleasure producing activity, like writing a good poem, or getting an award from another blogger who likes my work, or you know, like an orgasm, which these days are few and far between.

Well, that covers that, probably more thoroughly than it required, or wanted. But that is how I get sometimes when I wake up early. That part of my mind that acts as a governor, attempting to keep my thoughts in a channel that can be focused, probably refuses to get up this early, so the more undisciplined, and prolific, side of my angst-ridden soul takes over and goes amok, until the governor wakes up in disgust and starts putting on the brakes. Sounds as if he’s up now so we’ll dive into the deep end of the pool……
___________________________________

“I wanted only to try to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?” — Hermann Hesse

Robert Heinlein has, in fact, answered this question quite directly, in a number of his novels, wherein the main character or narrative voice talks about the Pink Monkey Effect. This is the theorem (actually, more like an axiom, as it has been demonstrated in real life many, many times), that states that in a group of Brown Monkeys, the order of prominence will put a monkey who is Pink, or merely not-Brown, at the bottom of the social scale, every time. Thus it can be surmised that discrimination according to the color of skin is bestial in nature, and is not a valid characteristic of a creature who reasons.

How does that relate to humans? Simple. In society, most people live by the rules they are taught as children, and never behave very far outside the parameters set forth by their parents. These people have a difficult time dealing with change, or anything that falls outside their experience, and this includes how people act when they are acting in accord with their true nature. It is well outside their experience when others use reason, rather than rote, to determine how to act. Thus, anyone in society who challenges the norm becomes a Pink Monkey, and is discriminated against by the Brown Monkeys, and all because the Browns don’t want to grow up and be human; they would rather act like apes…..and never even realize it…….
___________________________________

“Nature, whose sweet rains fall on just and unjust alike, will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide, and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undetected. She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) — “De Profundis”

It is hard not to love Oscar Wilde, and this particular passage gives an inkling of why. He had such a beautiful command of language that so catches the imagination of the reader, that one becomes almost lost in wonder, at the sheer melody of the words and how they are placed together. The first sentence is possibly one of the most beautiful, and deepest, passages ever written. What imagery and emotion is packed into that one sentence. “……..secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undetected.” “…..whose sweet rains fall on just and just alike”.

I can only hope that someday I will be able to write a passage such as this; in a way, a passage like this one acts as a goad, or a stimulus to my imagination and creativity. I have come close a few times, but have a far piece to go before I can claim anything close to the beauty of this paragraph by Oscar. It makes me wonder sometimes how Oscar would describe today’s world; I’d be willing to give a lot (say, a finger, or a toe, or even cash money) to hear what he could say on that subject……
___________________________________

If God had meant for us to take life seriously, He wouldn’t have given us a sense of humor.

I would say this is true, as far as it goes. I would feel compelled to add that, to listen to some of the folks who consider themselves tight with God, they don’t figure He has one; at least they won’t cop to it. They live and act as if they never did anything bozoid, or made a mistake, or for goodness sake, looked at a platypus. If that creature isn’t proof that God has a sense of humor, I couldn’t say what is.

Since I don’t honestly believe in the tenets put forth by any of the organized religions I’ve studied (damn near all of them now), I would have to say that our sense of humor is a survival characteristic, a buffer for our minds, to protect it from all the crap and nonsense that floats free in the universe, especially in what we see and hear from our cohabitants on this little mudball we call home.

Such a device is essential to retaining one’s sanity in the face of the kind of complicated, emotionally charged, irrational, and illogical BS we constantly have to deal with when trying to deal with the great unwashed masses. It certainly has aided me in my campaign to bring some light to the dark-headed among us (I refer here to the old saw: the lights are on, but nobody’s home), both by acting as a favored method of teaching for me, and a favored method of learning for them. So, for me, it is a two-edged sword, giving me both protection from the assaults on my mind from the ignorant, and allowing me to share some helpful information in people who can’t learn any other way.

And in the final analysis, it’s always good to remember that humor is best applied in looking at ourselves. I can’t tell you how often I break out in sheer delight over something stupid I’ve done, something I have told myself time and again to not do, but that I end up doing anyway. Just goes to show that even us smart guys are not immune to bozoid tendencies…..thank God….. 🙂
___________________________________

“I have a feeling that at any time about three million Americans can be had for any militant reaction against law, decency, the Constitution, the Supreme Court, compassion and the rule of reason.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

Mr. Galbraith makes a valid point here, but I think his estimate is low, considering there are over 310 million of us now. I’d wager it’s closer to 30 million, of which 95% would be fundamentalist Christians and/or Mormons. The entrance qualifications for acceptance into one of those organizations are pretty low, and since the principal characteristic of all of them is sheer mental laziness (they refuse to think for themselves, instead of blindly accepting what their leaders, or their interpretation of their scriptures, tell them), and the ranks of the great unwashed masses have swollen in the last decade. If you need proof, look at the Tea Party, which I consider one of the more apt descriptions for that entity. I would, however, prefer to add some words to it, to wit: the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

For the sake of argument, let us look at just one subject, say evolution vs. creationism. As recently as November of last year, several of the Republican candidates for the nomination to run for President expressed their doubts about evolution, trying no doubt to appeal to that 30 or more million folks who believe in creationism. Below, you will find just one argument on the subject; there are literally millions more scientists who would say the same…..

“Evolution is as much a fact as the earth turning on its axis and going around the sun. At one time this was called the Copernican theory; but, when evidence for a theory becomes so overwhelming that no informed person can doubt it, it is customary for scientists to call it a fact. That all present life descended from earlier forms, over vast stretches of geologic time, is as firmly established as Copernican cosmology. Biologists differ only with respect to theories about how the process operates.”– Martin Gardner, “Irving Kristol & the Facts of Life”– The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 128-131

In reality, I am aware that I’m preaching to the choir here; most of the folks I know don’t much hold with nonsense. But, a lot of other folks may eventually read this, and if I can offend them enough, maybe I can get them to think for a moment or two, much as it pains them to do so……if not, well, it’s fun for me, and leaves them feeling confused, so that’s all good…..
___________________________________

William Shakespeare doesn’t need my approval, but he has it nonetheless. Though I don’t consider him to be as good as he is touted to be, he is still one of the most prolific of writers, and obviously had a firm grasp of human nature and how to write about it. Where other folks go past my preferences are those passages that become too complex and wordy; to me, this makes it less entertaining, and I’m not impressed merely by verbiage. I myself can write some pretty impenetrable stuff, so I realize that much of what he wrote was written that way to impress the yokels, who were his main source of income.

But, though I’m not his hugest fan, I still can acknowledge that there are very few at all who can compare to the beauty and depth of some of his work. Below I have included three of his best, in my opinion. These passages show skill, emotion, human nature, and humor, all with great style and wit. It doesn’t get much better than this…….

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” — William Shakespeare, As You Like It — Act v, Sc. 1

And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer’d. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs;
She swore, in faith, ‘t was strange, ‘t was passing strange,
‘T was pitiful, ‘t was wondrous pitiful;
She wish’d she had not heard it, yet she wish’d
That Heaven had made her such a man; she thank’d me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass’d,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
— William Shakespeare, Othello — Act i, Sc. 3

“What! canst thou say all this and never blush?” — William Shakespeare
___________________________________

I probably should have known that getting up so early would be problematic. Here I am, finished with this, and now I have to wait about three hours for the rest of the world to arise and get moving, before I can accomplish anything worthwhile, since today’s schedule has to do with interactions outside home.

Oh wait, company coming today….okay, that’s cool. No worries….. sorry, got distracted inside my head. I guess this is enough for one day (and no remarks about it being too much for any day), so maybe I’ll go take a long shower & go back to bed….. I sure like being retired, and making up my own schedule, without any outside influence; it’s a very powerful feeling. Any who, y’all take care out there….

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

In the eye of the storm, laughing….

Posted on February 4, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
The Muse is near, whispering softly in my ear, sweet phrases to warm the heart and mind. Caught up, time creeps in tiny shoes to a new garden, where, ahh, magnolia, lavender, honeysuckle, and roses reside! Breathing in each essence fills another sense, and another, and another, until, breathless, powerful, bright images in my inner eye crash from side to side, too many to take in all at once; just flashes here, of cunning birds and fiery hair, of passionate lovers; and more images there, of sad-eyed minstrels and passive bears. Kings, and queens, and little tailors, too, parading past like wraiths, gossiping of society in the underworlds. Elegant women, and fashionable men, always guarded carefully, never to see the pain/despair of their own making, never learning to laugh, never learning to live. As the Muse slips away, the calliope winds down to silence, and I am released from thrall, empty now, yet more whole…..
___________________________________

Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Brahma

And what was it the Brahmin sang? A song of life. THE song of life. The song we all sing, every day, every minute, every second of every hour, our life sings us along with time. Do we sing, or are we the song? We may never know, and it will never matter; the song still sounds, and while it sings, we may dance. When we dance, poems conceived come to life. When we live, we are the music, and the poem is how we dance our life. It may not make sense, but it makes sense anyway, doesn’t it?……Music is life, and life is the song we sing; as long as we live, the music will play, the song will be sung, and the dance, oh, the dance, it will go on……

Living Dead
the path is
chosen, to live forever is to die
forever.

To not know when you’ll
die
is to find
life
wherever you are.
— Alagad

More proof, or at least evidence, that life is where you find it…..you just gotta keep your eyes and mind open, so it doesn’t slap you upside the head….
___________________________________

“If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture – that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves.” — Edward Abbey

Good attitude, dude! This is true humility, and the mark of true wisdom lies handsomely upon Edward’s brow. This is not your normal Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, it goes beyond that, into the realm of real wisdom, the kind you can use every day, only to find it never grows old, or untrue. This is the kind of attitude toward life that could get you into the Christian Heaven, even if one had been born and died a pagan, because if there is a God up there who really cares about this sort of thing, She/He would recognize when someone had gotten the message, even if it wasn’t the message that was sent. This is the sort of humility that one sees from a saint, or a sadhi, or a master yogi, or a master of Tao. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first…….
__________________________________

“The problem … is that we have run out of dinosaurs to form oil with. Scientists working for the Department of Energy have tried to form oil using other animals; they’ve piled thousands of tons of sand and Middle Eastern countries on top of cows, raccoons, haddock, laboratory rats, etc., but so far all they have managed to do is run up an enormous bulldozer-rental bill and anger a lot of Middle Eastern persons. None of the animals turned into oil, although most of the laboratory rats developed cancer.” — Dave Barry, Postpetroleum Guzzler

Wickedly funny!…wonderful twist of the psyche to describe real events as scathing satire…..Dave forgot to mention that one of the reasons these attempts to make oil were so widely condemned by the Middle Easterners, was because they included using dead Middle Eastern people along with the other carbon based life forms they were bombing. Hell, it’d piss me off, too….it already does, and I wasn’t there. Actually, I’m pissed mostly because the government blokes figured they would be better off if they lied to us about why we were interfering in the Middle East; they didn’t HAVE to tell us it was all about the dictator, and saving all the poor Muslims from their own mullahs. They could have just come out and said, “hey, our oil supplies are looking a bit chancy here; we need to go over and secure some more oil producing countries as our protectorates or something, so you all don’t have to worry about filling up your gas-guzzling SUV’s for Memorial Day weekend. You will however, have to pay four dollars or more a gallon, to help pay for the war, but, hey, what are a few sacrifices in the all-important obsessive pursuit of leisure, and the joy of consuming more than you produce? And it only cost 150,000, more or less, civilian Iraqi’s their lives……there’s plenty more where they came from, right?…..

“The history of the race, and each individual’s experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910) — Advice to Youth (published 1923)
___________________________________

Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Though they may gang a kennin’ wrang,
To step aside is human.
— Robert Burns (1759-1796) — Address to the Unco Guid

Nice…. no comment needed. Just read, ponder, & enjoy……and it’s good advice, as well……
___________________________________

Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered, those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus the wise win before the fight, while the ignorant fight to win.

Here is a very subtle, yet powerful observation, one whose veracity I can personally affirm. I figured out at a fairly young age that people couldn’t always be trusted to act honorably, or even sensibly, on a consistent basis. I also noted that on the occasions when two people ended up in a dispute, it was generally for that reason, that one or both of them was being irrational. As a final conclusion, I observed that in situations where physical force is threatened, or more simply, in a fight, the longer it went on, the higher the chance that I would suffer injury, or worse. This was unacceptable to me, so I began my education in the martial arts with that purpose in mind, to remove fighting as a means of settling a dispute from my existence.

I found that what is stated above is absolute truth; when one is confident of their ability to deal with violence without coming to harm, fear is removed as a factor in the outcome, instead serving as motivation and ally in the quest for a successful result. Without fear, the mind remains clear, and the correct strategy for success is more easily seen. The absence of fear, besides enhancing our mental state, also improves physical performance; the concept of “freezing”, or of reactions being slowed down from the paralyzing effect of fear, is prevented from being a factor. In short, you get faster, and smarter.

This simple fact, that fear is eliminated, is the strongest ally a person can have in such situations, and greatly improves one’s chances of avoiding injury, and defeat. Even defeat is more palatable, for having done all one can do, and for the lessons there to be learned that can help the next time someone gives in to their bozoid tendencies, at a time and place that makes it impossible to ignore, ridicule, or redirect……

“In a philosophical dispute, he gains most who is defeated, since he learns most.” — Epicurus
___________________________________

Some days it just goes easier than others. As I’m yet unsure as to which sort of day this is (there has been evidence of more than one possible path today could take), I will count my blessings, and declare this one “finis!” As far as I intend to take it anyway…..I do have SOME compassion for others! At any rate, y’all take care out there….it’s getting pretty weird…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

That’s not a real basilisk, is it?….

Posted on February 3, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
It’s morning, and I mean that in a good way…..of course, I could be lying. Or, alternately, I could be telling the truth. There’s no way to really know, is there? All human communication revolves around that one little question, to wit: Is this idiot telling the truth, or is he living up to the poor expectations of the world around him, and lying his little butt off? I never thought about it before, but it turns out that when we sit down to read something, we are expecting the truth.

We just naturally assume (or perhaps not so naturally at all….) that the person of whom we have requested information, or are merely conversing with, is going to deal fairly, and tell the truth. But, you know something? The person to whom we are speaking has given no guarantees of the that, not usually. We don’t walk up and begin by saying, “Where is the men’s room, and please don’t lie to me….?”, now, do we? No we don’t. We just assume we’re getting the real deal, when in fact, we could be wandering around in a daze, looking as confused as we really are….
___________________________________

“Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice.” — G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, 9/11/09

Here is a line you probably won’t see in the letters to the editor section these days, though I see it did at least get published. It’s a pretty good example of how the beloved ruling class runs things; they tell the public what they should be afraid of, and shroud their lies in partial truths. They make demons out of the regular folks who live in another country, telling the public how they want to kill us and take away our freedoms, of which they are supposedly jealous.

I’ll tell you what, I don’t think they’re jealous any more; I think they’re afraid of us, because we keep coming over and dropping bombs on them when they won’t sell us enough oil, or try to jack up the price too much. I think this country has no moral justification for the way we treat other nations; there can be none when the primary motivating factor is so obviously the money. Where’s the money? Just ask that question and watch them scurry around like the little parasites that they are…..
___________________________________

As I learn to trust the Universe, I no longer need to carry a big stick, semiautomatic pistol, and bowie knife.

This process is running backward for me. The more I experience, and the more I observe in the world around me, the stronger becomes my urge to arm myself in more than merely a figurative sense. And if one intends to obtain arms for use, there’s no sense in them being of second rate or smaller caliber.

I figure a 16 gauge pump action over & under, a good rifle or two, two or three different range handguns, and assorted peripheral weapons of a sharp nature, for both hand-to-hand (daggers, stilettos, bayonets, swords) and at-a-distance fighting (shuriken, throwing knives, blowguns; maybe a slingshot with explosive pellets, or a crossbow with explosive bolts, just in case). That list ought to allow the flexibility for me deal with most situations. If not, well, it won’t be for lack of planning, or fire power, on my part…..
___________________________________

“Virtue is its own reward. There’s a pleasure in doing good which sufficiently pays itself.” — Sir John Vanbrugh, The Relapse

….A few days ago, we (that’s the royal ‘we’, meaning me, or I, or both of us in here…) discussed the reverse of this proposition, to wit: “Stupidity, like Virtue, is its own reward.”–David E. Williamson. It was the contemplation of this subject from which the inspiration for axiom #4 of Peruaosophy sprang. That axiom reads, “Excellence is its own reward”, and remains as one of the lynch-pins of my personal beliefs.

I discovered the truth of this proposition at a young age, and the attitude served me well enough over the years that I was adjudged as valedictorian of my high school graduating class. Mind you, that’s not a guarantor of success in life; there aren’t any guarantees issued to any of us for that. But, it sure is a good way to give what one actually does the greatest possibility of succeeding. It is certainly more effective than just doing the minimum required, with the bonus of feeling a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that never accompanies a half-hearted effort……
___________________________________

“The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it – once you can honestly say, “I don’t know,” then it becomes possible to get at the truth.” — Robert A. Heinlein

Bob obviously sees this in a clear light. But the way he said this seems to imply that emptying out a false belief is not extremely difficult to do, and can even be useful in assisting others to see the light. That just isn’t so. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more difficult than getting someone to give up on a false belief, especially if it has been held since childhood. People treat these types of beliefs as if they were carved into stone, sent down from heaven on a tablet carved by the hand of God, because they were led to believe in its truth at an age when they had no preconceptions, or any defense against them, and accepted everything they were told by their parents as valid information, with no need for verification.

As social creatures, we need to be able to make that assumption, that what others tell us is true. But reality often differs from our assumptions, because a lot of humans don’t abide by the same rules as everyone else does. A significant proportion of people, knowing that others tend to believe what they’re told, will use that characteristic to take advantage, lying their little hearts out to achieve the goals on their agenda, not caring at all whether they have used the other person selfishly.

It is therefore in our best interests to submit any information from others to our own personal crap detector, to determine whether the data can be trusted…. everyone has one, everyone is issued one at birth. Most folks tend to forget it is there, so it gets rusty from disuse; it’s there, though. One merely needs to learn to use it on a daily, or even hourly basis….. and don’t be afraid to use the delete button with joyful abandon……
___________________________________

A rabbi spoke with God about heaven and hell. “I will show you hell,” God said, and they went into a room which had a large pot of stew in the middle. The smell was delicious, but around the pot sat people who were famished and desperate. All were holding spoons with very long handles which reached to the pot, but, because the handles were longer than their arms, it was impossible to get the stew back into their mouths.

“Now I will show you heaven”, God said, and they went into an identical room. There was a similar pot of stew, the smell was delicious, and the people had identical spoons, but they were well-nourished and happy. “It’s simple,’ God said. “You see, they have learned to feed one another”. — Medieval Jewish story

Now, see, isn’t that a fine little parable? Another piece of evidence, in my mind, that all of the major forms of religious belief have their roots in the truth, even if the reality of life they observe and pursue is based on unjustifiable faith. When one stops to think about it, that is actually a pretty good description of how most, if not all, of the major religions operate. The basic truths they espouse are the same, for the most part, (humility, honor, compassion, justice, charity), but the method of expressing those virtues varies widely, according to cultural habits that dictate the specific form it takes.

In simpler terms, people invariably distort the basic premises upon which religions were founded, turning the articles of faith into a tool for manipulating other people, for their own personal gain. It has happened time after time throughout mankind’s short but eventful history, and continues to this very day. It’s also the primary reason that I avoid most churches and religions as I go about my business; the interactions invariably turn into dangerous neighborhoods of discussion, often ending in clashes of discordant argument, and mutual resentment. Better all around that I just leave them to their own devices…..which I tend to do, religiously….
___________________________________

Not a bad morning’s work, if I do say so…. it’s certainly more than good enough for government work, a beast with which I am all-too-familiar. Brr, makes me shiver, just remembering….. well, another day out there to explore. Let’s see what trouble we can stir up today….. Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

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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