Tag Archives: Republicans

Lonely, the severed head spoke from where it dwells, atop the garden gate….

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Ffolkes,

Forlorn, empty of all hope, Barnabas Pettigrew trudged along the dusty highway, cursing every step with every breath, vowing to never again….. what? Blank, echoing vastness is all I see now, as Barnabas trudges along for no good reason, heading off into nowhere, presumably to give my head a good excuse for being up again at this ridiculous hour of the day…..

What is it about 3:00 AM that is so damned attractive, anyway? And why am I asking you? If I can’t figure out why my subconscious mind is out to get me, what chance will you have?…. Ah well, such is life in the blogosphere, where such absurdity may now be considered the norm, of sorts, for a great many otherwise stable personalities…. Honk, honk….

Now that the initial awkwardness is passing, let me ask you a question…. No, let’s change that…. Let me give you some advice…. No, that’s not a good idea; I forgot that my lawyer told me to stop doing that, or somebody was going to remember that I was the one who told them to do that, which might lead to more legal troubles than I already have….

Okay, so we’ll go another route…. if I can find one… I seem to be coming up against some kind of objection to every opening I’ve tried today. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that Murphy was hanging around, having fun, but, I happen to know he went on a short trip…. something about seeing a man about a dog, or something….

Hmm, now what? I’m unwilling to jump into just anything, or start on any subject at all today, at least, not here in the intro section, because, of late, whenever I do that, it turns into a rant; I’m trying to maintain a bit of discipline regarding structure, if at all possible, so almost anything that contains a shred of controversy is out, for the nonce.

(God, I LOVE that word!… “nonce”… and just LOOK at that sentence structure?…. Brilliant!…..I know, I’m strange…. deal with it, ffolkes, it’s too late to back out now; I’ve got your credit cards….)

It’s been so long since I tried to write about anything that WASN’T controversial, I’m finding it hard to even identify a subject worth investigating….. which isn’t all that surprising, given my usual fare here at ECR (for the uninitiated, that’s Exploring Consensual Reality, the actual title of this blog….).

I’m bored with this, which is a word I NEVER use…. Many moons ago, back before I even got into my teens, I made a conscious decision to eliminate boredom from my life, for the simple reason that it has no identifiable purpose, thus, it has no place in the life of anyone who uses their mind for more than merely existing.

To be bored, one must first admit that they are tired of what is going on in their own head,  an admission I refuse to make…. In short, one must DECIDE to be bored; it doesn’t just happen because we walked into the wrong room. We have to make that conscious decision to feel the ennui that settles over us when we fall prey to this self-indulgence, so, I refuse to entertain any such thoughts, thus, avoiding the entire issue, with all its concomitant troublesome side-effects upon the emotions, and on the degree of turbulence we experience in our life….

So, there’s your advice for the day, okay? Are y’all happy now, you’ve tricked me into divulging such inanities before I’ve even purged my mind? I’ll bet you are, you silly monkeys….. For that, I’m going to have to punish y’all severely, or, perhaps, just a little? Or not…. You know, I’m thinking, at this point, I’d better just give up on this intro, and get on with today’s dive…. Yes, I think that would be for the best….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“By this story [The Fox and the Raven] it is shown how much ingenuity avails, and how wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.” — Phaedrus (c. 8 A.D.) — Book i, Fable 13, 13

The question immediately arises, “What does one who has neither ingenuity, nor strength, do to avail himself?”

Oh, plus, “What the hell does “avail” mean, in this instance? How much can a word’s meaning change in only 2000 years?”

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

“Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation.” — Charles Caleb Colton

I found this article tucked away in one of the lower sections of SFGATE, kind of like being on the next-to-last page in a newspaper, before the opinions, in the bottom corner of a page where nobody reads much…. I’m not sure why it’s buried there, because this subject is liable to be one of the more volatile that the court takes up this year, (though it hardly compares to the gay marriage issue, or the corporate personhood issue, both of which tend to bring out the worst in everyone….), because almost EVERYONE has feelings about TV… Almost all of us alive now DID grow up with it, so we have long-standing, firm ideas about how it should operate, and how it should be regulated, if at all….

First, read the article, then we’ll talk….

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Will-the-Supreme-Court-promote-innovation-in-TV-5371849.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

“Did you hear they removed the word gullible from the dictionary?” — Smart Bee

I will be watching closely to see how the Supremes handle this decision; it will go a long way toward identifying just how much corruption the justices have condescended to allow themselves to show to the public…. By that, I mean just what it sounds as if I mean…. It is my contention that the Supreme Court, along with many of the other levels of Federal courts (District, Circuit, etc…..) has been purchased outright by the bankers and shadowy corporate masters of society, to the point where they no longer even try to hide their predilection for making legal decisions that favor business over people, in almost every case that comes before them…

The conservative justices who were appointed to the various courts around the US by the two Shrubs are starting to make their insane power-hungry beliefs a matter of public record, making decision after decision that perpetuates the myth of corporate personhood, solidifying the idea that in this country, profit is guaranteed by law, protected from being altered or diminished by any such mundane factors as public wishes, or the concept of the common good in society….

This is how PAC’s have sprung into existence, those no-longer hidden bastions of corporate greed that throw money at all the elections they wish to influence, unrestrained by any limits on how much they can spend to bribe their chosen politicians…. This egregious display of ugly judicial, and political corruption, now legalized by the courts, illustrates exactly why this nation is now recognized by the rest of the planet as being a failed democracy….

This nation is now officially an oligarchy, bought and paid for by the rich, fat (headed, if naught else…), mostly white, misogynistic bigots, those shadowy slave masters, snakeheads by name, the real rulers of society, who spend their days telling the politicians what they want done….

“A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.” — Howard Scott, Economist

Hell, some of them probably have posted lists, that show their lineup of Congressmen, Senators, and Federal Court judges who are on their payroll…. Maybe, all those pictures you see on the politicians’ walls, or those of CEO’s, with them posing with various public figures, are their way of posting the list of their acquisitions…. Makes sense to me…. Kind of like trophies, but they take up less space in the office….

Any who, now, the decision as to whether or not the big broadcast companies will have to actually live up to the deal they made, back before the Internet came along, is going to be made by the highest court (in THIS country); it will be very interesting indeed to see what direction it takes….

I don’t like to predict what the Supremes will do, because, if that court ever becomes predictable, then our form of government is finished…. Nobody should be able to say ahead of time what the court may decide; if it is predictable, then we have lost the balance on the bench that is required for them to remain objective about the law….

“Capitalism in the United States has undergone profound modification, not just under the New Deal, but through a consensus that continued to grow after the New Deal. Government in the U. S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.” — Norman Cousins

Unfortunately, I’m thinking that in today’s world, it may just be that the court, the last hold-out against the corporate asininnies who would control us all, from cradle to grave, has been compromised, and will now begin the relatively short process of bringing this nation to its knees, in abject surrender to the forces of corporate avarice that control so much of our world. We’ll wait, of course, to see what takes place…. but, I’m pretty well convinced that we may have seen the last of real liberty in this country, and are now just waiting around to see when the revolution will begin, and how it will all fall out….

“Cheshire-Puss,” she began, “would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t care much where–” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re quite sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

— Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

The ball is now in the Supreme’s court…. let’s see which way they go from here, shall we?….. I suppose, if we wait, or walk long enough, we’ll end up somewhere….

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

After ranting in such a sober fashion, a classic poem sounds like just the right next step for today…. Here is one that most of us have read, or seen, at one time or another in our lives, if only in sophomore English class…. I liked it then, and still do…. Enjoy!….

Death Be Not Proud

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

~~ John Donne ~~

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

Before I started today, I had already planted an old rant, of sorts, in this section, from last February, a discussion of ethics and morality that came out fairly well…. but, after the rant above, I thought it might be too much sobriety for one day, and nobody needs to be THAT dedicated…. Quality of life isn’t about having justice, though it is good to have that, but, rather, it’s about having experiences that improve our spirit, making us want to become better people, while learning to enjoy the process of doing so….

In light of that concept, we’ll go for an old-school pearl, with loose parameters to keep it from becoming too constricting, or judgmental…. We’ll shoot for ideas from other cultures that can meld with our own ideas, to help us become more complete human beings… which might be a lot to ask from a group of aphorisms, but, hey, we’re nothing, if not ambitious, around here, right?…. Right….

“You white people are so strange.  We think it is very primitive for a child to have only two parents.” — Australian Aboriginal Elder

Happily may I walk.
May it be beautiful before me.
May it be beautiful behind me.
May it be beautiful below me.
May it be beautiful above me.
May it be beautiful all around me.
In beauty it is finished.

— Navajo (Anasazi) Night Chant

“Alas, reason is not effective against faith, or against searches for miracles by the desperate.” — Dr. Michael B. Shimkin

“There is no road or ready way to virtue.” — Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) — Religio Medici, Part i, Sect. lv

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

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

“Who, being loved, is poor?’ — Oscar Wilde

Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield!
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason,
Resplendent daughter of the head divine,
Wise foundress of the system of the world,
Guide of the stars, who are thou then, if thou,
Bound to the tail of folly’s uncurb’d steed,
Must, vainly shrieking, with the drunken crowd,
Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss.

— Johann Christian Friedrich von Schiller, The Maid of Orleans

Astounded, I stare into the mirror, wondering how I could ever have doubted serendipity…..

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

“My face is new, my license is expired, and I’m under a doctor’s care!!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Sometimes, the words Zippy gives us (Thank you, Bill Griffith!…) seem to connect to reality in my mind in a most satisfying, accurate fashion; this quote hits the nail squarely on the head for this morning, giving a quite exact description of my state of being after composing all of the above…. Save for the poem by Donne, and the authorship of the quotes, it’s all fresh, and well-purged, if I do say so myself….

Well, I feel better, anyway, so, I’m hoping that carries over into your life and times today, as well…. If not, well, I’m content; if you got even one chuckle, or even a querulous smile, from reading what I’ve written today, that will do nicely…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Growing signs of increasingly bizarre pistachios….

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Ffolkes,

Oh carp! I mean, crap! Typographic fish just don’t afford the same degree of release as a good, strong vulgarity, do they? Probably doesn’t sound quite as formidable, either…. Either way, it may or may not be a good sign to have to begin the day with an expletive, delivered with enough emotive power to show just how irked I am today….

Awakening in an irk is somewhat less than my usual degree of angst, but, not so much I didn’t recognize the change in the level in the tank…. Of course, that doesn’t mean I am ready, willing, OR able to deal with that effectively, much less efficiently, I think we’ll just use the good old American technique for dealing with any kind of unpleasantness, to wit: we’ll pretend it doesn’t exist….

Denial, in this country, is an art form, highly developed by a number of different organizations and categories of people, the foremost of which reside in the halls of Congress, and in the many fine churches they have built in their own praise. The governing body, and virtually ALL the religious organizations, who vie for the public trust in this country are all quite adept at denial, and, in fact, have based their entire existence on the denial of many parts of reality that the rest of us take as truth…. Evolution, for example, and global warming/climate change caused by humans come immediately to mind, as does the whole concept of a supernatural creator based on NO perceptible evidence….

Stop, already! I told myself when I sat down I would NOT rant in the intro, and here we are, three paragraphs in, and I’m already lining up the shots, getting them ready to sling at their oh-so-deserving targets….. I promised myself I wouldn’t do that today, even if yesterday’s Easter Pearl, which DID rant extensively in the intro section, came out fairly well….

I’m guessing, though, it’s just too much to ask of my readership, to have to cope with that amount of passion and/or angst so early in the day, even if I do try to make up for it with the old-school pearls that generally follow such rants. I’m not certain that is what is keeping ffolkes away, but, chances are that’s why a lot of people are not coming to read….. it’s just too much for the mornings, and when I start in right off the bat, I suppose it gets old rather quickly….

Whatever the reason, it’s strange…. I am averaging, perhaps, four or five “Likes” per day, sometimes less, yet stats indicate I continue to garner new followers, as I am now up to almost 400 (398, as of yesterday, I believe….)…. But, that’s okay, as I still don’t write to get followers…. I write to take advantage of the spew effect…. purging the stuff that builds up in my head all the time is a necessary component of my overall level of mental health… If I DON’T spew every day, it can build up to dangerous levels; when it comes out, people are not happy, and the world becomes a more dangerous place….

But, I do write, and all is well in this corner of reality, as long as I do….. I won’t bother to mention that if I didn’t do this, the edges of reality begin to fray, but, they do, so, be thankful I do get up each day, no matter what time it is, to do what I can to protect reality, and the fabric of space-time we all depend on for our existence….

Shall we Pearl? Or should I continue to weave fantasies and delusions?…. Nah, let’s Pearl…..

“The most pathetic person in the world is a person who has sight but has no vision.” — Helen Keller

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

“Life is short. Get it right.” — Smart Bee

Before reading the following article, please engage your crap detectors; you’ll need them, as this short article has just about as many obvious lies and attempts at misdirection as is possible in so few words….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Drone-in-Yemen-kills-at-least-9-al-Qaida-members-5414550.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

This little propaganda piece, which, had it been printed in a newspaper, would have been buried on the next to last page, bottom corner, was found at SFGATE, where it was put out just as if it were some kind of announcement of a meeting by a board of supervisors…. Very bland, straightforward, with no comments by the author….. If one paid attention only to the tone and volume of the post, one would believe it was completely unimportant, not worthy of thinking about…. It’s only a short little tale of murder, and terrorism, and hypocrisy, but, hey, who’s counting?….

Think a moment about what the story details…. Our nation has been, for some time now, killing people in other countries, countries with whom we are NOT at war (I don’t recall Congress declaring any in the last fifty years, do you? Only Congress is supposed to do that…. well, according to that pesky old Constitution thingie, anyway….), using unmanned, but heavily armed drones, with the targets picked on the basis of intelligence obtained…. how? Well, they don’t say…. In fact, if you look at the article with open eyes and mind, there are a couple of things that aren’t said, that perhaps should have been at least queried….

Who decided these people needed to be killed by us? Was that decision unilateral? How was the information on which the decision was based obtained? Why is it now okay for us to kill citizens of other countries with no regard for the laws of this country, or for the laws of the other countries? Who decided this was legal? Who decided that assassination was a tool this country would use? Shall we talk about water-boarding? (To mention just a FEW of those that occurred to me….)

It has always been my understanding that our values as a nation precluded the use of such ignoble forms of warfare; I have always liked being part of a nation that would NOT stoop to the vileness so prevalent in the history of other nations. I had pride in the virtue we have mostly displayed throughout history, having, until recently, declined to use torture, or assassination, or other anomalies of human behavior that would indicate a loss of morality….

Somehow, since 9/11, it seems to be okay with the people of this nation to use torture, to kill indiscriminately, targeting those who “threaten our way of life”, apparently giving us the green light to use even the most egregiously vicious and perverted forms of warfare, and espionage, justifying any and all of our transgressions with the phrase, “homeland security”, a catch-all to justify the use of the most immoral, illegal, and downright insane techniques of warfare available…. The assholes who run this nation have taken the words of Reichmarshall Göring completely to heart, when he said….

“Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America nor, for that matter, in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. … [V]oice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.” — Hermann Göring

There you have it, ffolkes…. The way our country now behaves on the world stage is exactly the way the Nazi Party in Germany would have done, had we not first bombed them into submission. If you believe there is ANY difference at all in the way the two governments have reacted to the press of world events, I’d be happy to listen to your evidence….

But, it seems to me that the political assholes in this country have decided for us; according to their paranoid reasoning, we no longer need live up to any such values as those the country was founded upon…. We are no longer justified when we call ourselves an example for the rest of the world, because we are no longer acting with any morality, or any virtue at all, much less enough to make anyone look at us as being anything other than the bullies we have become…. I think I would give just about anything to see a piece in the news such as this, from our old friend Isaac….

United Nations, New York, December 25. — “The peace and joy of the Christmas season was marred by a proclamation of a general strike of all the military forces of the world.  Panic reigns in the hearts of all the patriots of every persuasion. Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all-time low over the world.” — Isaac Asimov

Fat chance of that, eh?  Oh, well….. Stay alert, ffolkes, they’re all crazy, and they have WAY too much money for their own good…. If you don’t watch out, they’ll do their best to take all YOU have, as well, and then tell you to be happy to live in such a free country…. “Free”, meaning they are free to rob, cheat, lie, and steal from whomever they wish, with no consequences…. and if you think that is an exaggeration, then, baby, you are NOT paying attention….

It is clear and obvious to the rest of the world that this nation has become an oligarchy; it’s time as a democracy is past. Our government has been bought and paid for by the rich, fat cats who control most of the resources in the world, most of whom are white Christian bigots, who have little to no interest in sharing any of what they have with anyone, especially anyone who is brown, or not Christian…. Oh, they’re still making noises as if we live in a country that cares about the middle and lower classes, but the reality is much different…. Life is demonstrably less comfortable for those who live in the bottom half of society than it is for those at the top, who are all working very hard to make sure it stays that way….

I’m done…. I can’t say much more to convince anyone of the truth of this; if you don’t see it by now, you don’t WANT to see it, and I wish you a happy time in your ignorance…. because it will be short lived. We are all up against the wall, ffolkes, the rich as well as the less so…. In fifty years, the atmosphere of this planet won’t be breathable for anyone, including them, unless they give up their intransigence, and the rest of us give up our lack of courage…. If things don’t change, then change is going to kill us all; it is that simple, even if people don’t wish to see that…. Mother Nature won’t care whether we see it, and accept it, or not…. it’s just the way it is, so, get used to it…..

Unless, of course, you wish to survive…. If we do, then I’d suggest we get off our butts, and get the revolution started as soon as we can, before it is too late (which it may already be….)….. Think about it, ffolkes…. it’s about time we did so, because the clock is ticking, and it won’t stop for anyone….

“There is but one element of government, and that is THE PEOPLE.  From this element spring all governments.  “For a nation to be free, it is only necessary that she wills it.”  For a nation to be slave, it is only necessary that she wills it.” — John Adams (1735-1826), Letter to John Taylor, 1814

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Just because I’m a nice guy, here is a two-fer, from a modern voice, straight from the street level of society…. Those who enjoy using their minds for more than merely finding the way from toilet to kitchen to toilet may enjoy these poems, but, I’ll warn any who don’t consistently exercise those neurons to be cautious, as poetry like this can cause anyone who reads it to experience the awakening of long-dormant brain cells, a process which is bound to be painful for those unaccustomed to such exercise…. Regardless of how you approach them, these are excellent, thought-provoking pieces, and well-worth a few moments of your time and mental energy….

Cause And Effect

the best often die by their own hand
just to get away,
and those left behind
can never quite understand
why anybody
would ever want to
get away
from
them

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

Alone With Everybody

the flesh covers the bone
and they put a mind
in there and
sometimes a soul,
and the women break
vases against the walls
and the men drink too
much
and nobody finds the
one
but keep
looking
crawling in and out
of beds.
flesh covers
the bone and the
flesh searches
for more than
flesh.

there’s no chance
at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular
fate.

nobody ever finds
the one.

the city dumps fill
the junkyards fill
the madhouses fill
the hospitals fill
the graveyards fill

nothing else
fills.

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

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

Okay…. I ranted above, so, obviously, this section should be an old-school pearl…. and will be, if I ever get around to it…. Okay, there, that’s done…. Hi, there…. I’m back, from the daunting yet necessary task that has engaged my full attention for the past half-hour, ready now to don the sacred tanks of air, to go diving in the holy bed of oysters, searching for pearls we need to finish out the day with a bit of dignity…. At minimum, we are shooting for an engaging degree of chutzpah, or, alternately, all the charm we can muster…. Let’s see what Smart Bee can do for us today…..

“Before you have sex you have to be elected to a high government position.” — Zippy

“The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just keep your fucking mouth shut and hadn’t asked any questions.” — Frank Zappa Playboy Interview, April 1993

“It is common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active.” — Smart Bee

“The meaning of here and now is beautifully illustrated by a Zen story of a monk who was being chased by two tigers. He came to the edge of a cliff. He looked back – the tigers were almost upon him. Noticing a vine leading over the cliff, he quickly crawled over the edge and began to let himself down the vine. Then as he checked below, he saw two tigers waiting for him at the bottom of the cliff. He looked up and observed that two mice were gnawing away at the vine. Just then, he saw a beautiful strawberry within arm’s reach. He picked it and enjoyed the best tasting strawberry in his whole life!” — Ken Keyes

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.” — Kehlog Albran, The Profit

“The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.” — G. K. Chesterton

“It is ridiculous to lay the blame of our wrong actions upon external causes, rather than on the facility with which we ourselves are caught by such causes.” — Aristotle

Well, ffolkes, it took a while, but, this pearl will someday be known as “that special one”, for its completeness, pearl-wise…. “‘Nuff said, she said.” Handle with care….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, this one took a long time, requiring numerous breaks to keep the old gluteus maximae from turning to stone, but, it’s done, and just in time, as the sun is up, and the day is starting to roll…. I’ve done all I can do, so, I’m done…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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


gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Worldwide Celebration Held to Honor History’s Greatest Scam….

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Ffolkes,

A huge CRACK! boomed outside the cheap apartment door, just as a neat, round hole appeared in that door, as well as in the forehead of the small, weaselly-looking excuse for a human who sat, forlornly, and now, deadly, in the middle of the couch…. Turning quickly, I moved away from the door, ducking into the next room, where I grabbed the small bag containing the gems…. Drawing my own gun from under my coat, I moved to the opposite door, carefully looking around the corner to the mirror on the hallway wall, placed there for just that purpose, to see if anyone tried to come through the now sacred door …. Sacred…. holy…. holey, get it? Well, nobody ever accused me of being a comedian, just a thief…. It’s a tough job, but, hey, somebody’s, etc…. Well, you know the rest….

Even if you do know the finish to that line, I think we’ll let it slide by without picking it up…. When I wrote that short paragraph, last night, it seemed better than when I look at it now, in the light of day (or, actually, in the dark of an early morn, which is more accurate….). It does, however, sit nicely there across the top of the post, looking just as if it were really the opening to a novel, or, at minimum, a short story, and, since our society believes firmly in the value of illusion, we’ll let it stay where it is…. It’ll get in less trouble that way….

So, how are y’all this fine Oester morn?…. (Oester would be the Wiccan, or possibly Druidic term for the date associated with the rites of Spring…) It looks to be a pretty nice day around here, weather-wise, though I can’t say how it will be INSIDE the churches, where all of the various categories of Christian cults will be holding their mass delusional celebration of history’s greatest scam…. (Yes, I know, that’s what the TITLE said, and we NEVER do that…. get over it, we did….)…. Yep, today’s the day when the whole story gets told again, and all the preachers, priests, and “reverend sirs” will be repeating the talking points of the story we all have had crammed down our throats since we were little, and had no defense against it….

I know my opinion about the Christian faith is unpopular, and, in many cases, reviled by those who have strong faith…. That’s okay, I expect nothing less from anyone who can fall for that story year after year, in spite of a) the sheer unbelievability of what they are asked to believe, and b) the glaring lack of ANY sort of conclusive evidence of ANY of the basic premises upon which the story is based…. At four years of age I spotted most of the flaws in the logic of the whole mess, and over time have come to believe the same as Thomas Paine, who famously said, “Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.”

Mr. Paine, one of our earliest true patriots, also said this about religion, to wit: “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” This, too, I firmly believe, as, every day, I see the hypocrisy and lies told by the BRC, which are then repeated in the pulpits around the nation in different words, complete with remonstrations to defer to secular authority, to support the ruling class, without whose cooperation their whole elaborately complex scam would fall apart…. It’s a good deal for both of them, as they perform the old “one-two” on the unsuspecting public, who believe these assholes actually have their best interests at heart….

Ah well, the intro probably isn’t the best place to rant, but, that’s what happens on days like today, when the sheer idiocy, not to mention all the wasted time, and loss of dignity that go hand in hand with the whole religion concept…. well, it gets to me, and I have a hard time not yelling at people to “GET A FUCKING CLUE!”….

Sorry, I don’t mean to yell, but, it’s just so frustrating to see how easily people will give up the use of their own minds, allowing these assholes, and their myrmidons, to tell them what they should think, so they don’t have to make the effort of doing so themselves, or to save themselves from the fear, and the necessity for self-reliance, honesty, and courage, that goes along with facing up to the big, bad world, and all of its scary inhabitants….

As far as I’m concerned, the Christian religion, or, more accurately, the dishonest suckwads who foist those outright lies on unsuspecting fools, for the purposes of their own aggrandizement, are responsible for much of what is wrong in today’s world, and, in my opinion, deserve nothing more than our disgust and anger, for being lied to, and for the endlessly manipulative attempts to control the lives of the less intelligent, and more gullible, members of society…. To my way of thinking, they deserve to inhabit the lowest depths of their own version of Hell, for the lies they have LIVED, and tried to pass on to others….

There, I got that off my chest, and may now go forth to finish this Pearl, which, no doubt, nobody will ever read, having been offended somehow by the above…. SIGH…. S’okay, I don’t mind…. much. As long as nobody tries to get ME to join in the festivities, or tries to convince me I am wrong, it should be a fairly nice day….

If someone DOES make that mistake, they will find me all-too-ready to discuss the issue, with passion and verve…. perhaps, a greater degree than that to which they may be accustomed, or desirous, but, that can’t be helped…. It’s been building up a long time, and I’ve never let it out on anyone, except here, on this blog, so it would probably be best for all if it never happened at all…. Trust me, I don’t think there would be much left, of whomever got the wild hair far enough up their ass to test me on this….

Shall we Pearl?…. I think we’d better do it now, before this gets me feeling any more aggressive than I am already….

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.

— Bob Marley

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Since the intro section turned into the rant for today, we’ll go old-school to start off the rest of the Pearl…. I’m not sure right now just what parameters I’ll use, but, you can be sure that whatever comes up today will have sharp points, so use some caution when handling them, okay? I am a bit low on sterile bandages, after the last few attempts to skim the treetops of religious dogma…. Those sycophantic dogma dogs can be vicious when they are made to feel exposed in their lies and scamming…. Let’s see what SB can find today, shall we?….

“Bullshit detector: when alarm sounds, please reengage brain.” — Smart Bee

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Prologue to the Satires, Line 201

(At first, this may seem out of place…. But, look at what Mssr. Pope says in these four lines, and think about any of the preachers or priests you’ve known…. Each of them (well, all of them that I ever met….) is a master at these techniques, all of which are taught to them in seminary, to use when arguing with us ideologues who don’t buy their line of BS…. They’re not actually argument techniques, that rely on logic or reasoning, but, rather, are conversational tricks, designed to make the one at whom they are directed feel as if they are lesser, that their words are foolish…. in short, dismissing any arguments without actually considering their merit…. A very valuable, and well-used tool from the bag, chock full of such trickery, that every preacher or priest is given upon graduation from their brainwashing seminaries….)

“Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.” — H.L. Mencken

(This one may not fit exactly, but, I couldn’t resist a pearl that takes a shot at both of my favorite targets….)

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” — Anais Nin

(And, is exactly what happens when one is more afraid of living than they are of death….)

SCRIPTURES, n.  The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.” — Josh Billings

“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.” — Seng Ts’an, Third Zen Patriarch, — from Hsin Hsin Ming, Verses on the Faith Mind

There you go…. a bit esoteric, but, hey, it’s always a good thing to have to think harder than you expected…. trust me….

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Given the subject matter that has dominated today’s effort, we’ll go with a poem of mine that speaks to that issue, directly… I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it…

Rejection

“Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so…”
I’d be crying a river, I thought
if ever such crap I bought.

Sorry if it hurts your sense of style,
but, hypocrisy always gives me bile.
Being lied to accidentally is okay,
but, deliberate lies make me angry, and fey.

Oh, God, hear what I pray!
Keep me from your followers today.
Having to listen to so much that is wrong
makes me puke, before it makes me strong.

I don’t know why it isn’t clear to other folks,
which is alright, you know; different strokes.
But, why should that mean that they must
force me to believe, or fail in trust?

Spare me the lies, and the make-believe,
fairy tales are easier to hear, and to weave.
They give us a lesson which we can feel
but don’t pretend at all to be real.

Reality can scare us, that’s a given fact;
still, met with care it will leave us mostly intact.
Met without fear, standing tall and alone
Life will allow us to make it our own.

Folly beckons, and so many follow;
mass delusions seem to me most hollow.
I’ll have to stick to my own chosen way
while so many go so sadly astray.

It’s lonely at times, it may seem sad,
but really isn’t, and I’m quite glad,
that knowledge is always stronger than fear,
year after year, tear after tear…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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I’ve already ranted, and made an old-school pearl, so that leaves me little choice, but to pull something from the archives for this section, as I’m not quite sure I’ve got more in me to write, at least, not anything worth writing…. This one, at least, is a good follow-up to yesterday’s discussion of this particularly volatile issue…..

From 4/20/13:

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

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

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

Yet, I read many articles that profess the belief that the police, and the army, who naturally would have to have guns, (Why? If nobody is supposed to have them, why would they need them?), are more trustworthy than the common citizen. I’m sorry, but, just what planet did you say you came from?

It certainly isn’t Earth, because, last time I looked, all the police, all the folks in the army, and all the folks who tell them what to do, are all PEOPLE, just like anyone else, suffering the same fears, the same delusions or preconceptions, and the same lack of morality, as does the average Joe on the streets. In fact, due to my experience at observing and identifying psychiatric symptoms common to the insane, I can honestly state, I consistently see a higher percentage of police and military personnel who have a demonstrable lack of moral compass than I’ve seen in the general public.

Part of the problem is that the police and military, by their nature, end up as being attractive to the type of person who enjoys having power over others, whose self-image requires them to be in positions of authority, to be able to view themselves in a positive light, as successful. They equate money and power over others with success, and so gravitate to those sectors of society that deal in those commodities.

Normal, stable personality types seldom need to exercise power over others, and so avoid such pastimes, but to the selfish, and the sociopathic, the police and the army are seen as a path to what they term as success. If you see a flaw in this logic, please, enlighten me…. Until I see some evidence to the contrary, though, I find this to be a valuable, and accurate summation of the situation, thereby affording myself the opportunity to avoid the majority of their machinations, at least in a directly personal sense….

We all have to deal with them eventually though, so it’s good, I think, to be aware of the above arguments, as it will forewarn anyone who absorbs it, and takes it to heart, allowing them to defend themselves from the worst of the BRC’s attempts at repression, or oppression, if not all. 

I’ve always found it to be the best policy to maintain a high level of doubt when considering announcements and decrees, to constantly stay alert to the news, as well as to the meaning behind what I do see there, and, finally, to be ready to jump when the balloon goes up.

Things out in the Big Blue Room are getting a bit serious in spots, with potentially disastrous possibilities threatening us from several directions, so it would be a good thing to be ready for whatever may take place, no matter how insane it may appear to be from our current vantage point…. And remember, guard yourself, against the Guardians themselves, if need be…..

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

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Today’s Pearl may lose me a few readers, but, that’s always true on those days when I start picking on religion…. It’s one of our species most strongly held beliefs, delusional or not, and it is of no matter who judges the truth of those beliefs…. any opposition at all is going to create some resentment, or at minimum, mistrust….and, for that, I’m sorry…. I have no wish to alienate people.

But, I also am compelled to tell the Truth, no matter how hard to swallow it may be…. It’s just the way I am, and the way I insist on living…. and, I’m enough of a curmudgeon to not care at all who is offended by that…. In my world, Truth comes FIRST…..  and THAT is a policy subject to no debate, whatsoever….

So be it…. gigoid the dubious has spoken…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Feeling exposed, Barney hid behind a leaky pulpit….

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Ffolkes,

Today’s Pearl of Virtual Wisdom will be an example of how burnt out a brain can get…. I’m going to cheat, big-time, and there’s little I can do about it now, other than issue this spoiler….

It’s already after 6 AM, & I have been up only a little while, desperately trying to catch up to the routine I’ve built over the last few months…. However, it seems that more than two hours late getting up is an insurmountable obstacle, and I WON’T be catching up…. A few minutes in, after some coffee, my mind cleared, and I realized I would have to cheat…. Hence, this disclaimer, to let you know that this intro, such as it may be, will be the ONLY fresh material you’ll find today….

Not that this is necessarily a handicap, or in any respect a bad thing….. Far from it, as trying to create a Pearl with my head in this state would be more than just a little dangerous, for me, and definitely for y’all, and I’m not willing to put you in that much danger, even given my less than compassionate nature…. Hey, I’m human…. I may not be a pundit, or a preacher, or even an asshole, but, I am still one of the specimens of Homo  Australopithecus who are busy killing this planet, though, with some reluctance on my part….

All that nonsense aside, I just don’t have it in me today, and I’m too late to go find it…. So, below this you will find my version of a Re-Blog…. Everything you see below this intro consists of the Pearl of Virtual Wisdom posted on November 3, 2011, almost three full years ago (well, close enough for government work….)…. I spent some time finding one I think will do, and figure if nothing else, this one is both good enough, and long enough, to distract you from how stale it may be, from sitting so long without being read….

With no further BS, or any further ado, (Whatever that is…. What is “ado”, and why don’t we want any further episodes of it? Sometimes I wonder about stuff like that….), I give you, in its entirety, the POVW posted on…. well, you see the date right there, so no need for me to be any more pompous than I already am…. Enjoy, ffolkes, & I’ll be up earlier tomorrow…. maybe…. I kind of like this sleeping stuff, it’s rather refreshing….

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11/3/12
Ffolkes,
As the moon looked down with massive disdain, several large specimens of domestic droid came rolling down the street. Each the size of a large dog, the droids bristled with cleaning arms and brushes, rolling on a strange assortment of wheels that looked like rubber balls on racks. One by one, they peeled off from the street to move toward houses on each side of the street, most rolling around to the back to enter.

The spare shadows from the moon’s pale light gave the scene a soft, romantic air, as if the droids were off to visit their own true loves. But, even in this, a deep winter night in 2088, droids didn’t yet have girlfriends, and the man watching the parade of mechanicals was not interested in fanciful thoughts of droids in love. He only had one thought, and that thought was murder…..

Well, J.D. Robb could probably use it as a start to another novel about Eve Dallas and Roarke, but who knows if Lt. Dallas will still be a cop in 2088?…. She would only be in her late fifties to early sixties, and given the state of medical science, most likely would still be on the job. But, maybe Roarke will have convinced her to retire with him to another planet, where they’ll raise exotic food plants and little Roarkes and Eves…. Just as well, as these intro paragraphs are well away from her usual opening chapters, which generally start after the murder is done…. But, it got that stuff out of my head, and that is all that really matters at this point….

Today will be another oddly constructed pearl, as I still haven’t finished the poem, and no other material has surfaced as yet….. Thus, we must begin the day searching for something about which to write. With the election so close, it might be time for a rant on politics, to drive home the need for everyone to make sure to get out there to cast their opinion, wrong-headed though it may be…. Just let me ask each of you heading to the polls to use your noggin to make you choices, not your fears or bigotry, should you be saddled with such.

Use that brain for something other than sitting on, and make the logical choice to vote for the incumbent. No President, good or bad, ever gets much done in just four years, and this one deserves more time to continue with the positive changes that he’s been able to accomplish in spite of all the partisan opposition he has suffered due to the Republican party’s stated racist platform….. Don’t blame me, just go read what it says, and the racism is obvious…. even their own pundits are getting disgusted with it, as one of them so lucidly stated the other day…

Okay, wrong place to start ranting…. I’ll leave it for later, if that is what comes up in this morning’s dive…. I’ll quit fooling around now, and get on with the program…. Shall we Pearl?…..

Were I so tall to reach the pole,
Or grasp the ocean with my span,
I must be measured by my soul:
The mind ‘s the standard of the man.

— Isaac Watts (1674-1748) — Horae Lyricae, Book ii, False Greatness
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“Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves?  Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance. It is better to know even if the knowledge endures only for the moment that comes before destruction than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before us in all its wonder. That was the choice of Achilles, and it is mine, too.” — Isaac Asimov, The New Hugo Winners

In the intro section above, I started a rant, which mentioned the four years that the current President has had to try to accomplish his reforms. In that I mentioned the partisan opposition he has suffered at the hands of the Republican party. What Mr. Asimov states above may be considered as a large part of the reason that the Republicans have been so dead set against allowing him to make any progress.

Bigotry and racism are a direct outgrowth of ignorance; this is not something disputable, or subject to debate. It is fact…. and bigotry and racism are the real reasons that these people are so set on defeating Obama. They don’t care at all about how he is doing, or whether or not his policies are good for the country or not…. they don’t even attempt to address those issues, other than to create great outcries at every little issue that comes up in the news, when it suits them to make noise about it.

The Republican party has spent four years blocking all legislation proposed by the White House. This is legislation that would have created millions of jobs, and gone a long way to repairing the damage that eight years of Bush’s unlimited spending and economic disaster caused, but, his opponents have blocked all of it, in spite of the millions of Americans who might have benefited from the bills.

Their stated purpose, as outlined four years ago, right after the election in 2008, was to make Obama a one-term president, AT ANY COST, and using any means, including lying. Especially lying…. they’ve reduced that particular act to a science, and are not afraid to use it to their purpose at all. In pursuit of their ignorant, racist agenda, they have absolutely no shame…. It’s quite disgusting, actually, to those of us with more than two functioning brain cells….

“The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.” — James Russell Lowell

I have been noticing the people on Facebook who are posting political articles for others to read, and have noted a distinct difference in the two styles each side has shown. The liberals who support the incumbent post videos, mostly, that show the Republican candidates stating one of their asinine, dishonest attacks on the President, or an inspirational message from a supporter of the President.

In addition, there have been a lot of videos of Republican candidates around the country who have bee voicing their party’s war on women lately, with these idiotic statements about rape, which, quite simply, is something to which they are not even entitled to an opinion, much less policy making powers. Any who, the liberals post this kind of stuff about half the time, along with another half that is supportive stuff that shows off the progress made by Obama, with a message of unity and hope for the future….

None of the Republican supporters I see have come out with anything at all on the “rape” issues…. no comments at all. It’s like they are in total denial, and think that if they ignore it, (hmm… wonder what ignoring leads to?…. could it be…. ignorance?), it won’t be true, or will go away. I also see no ads that show Romney, or Ryan, as doing ANYTHING. Period.

They have stopped talking to the public, and refuse to talk to reporters. They don’t want to make any more mistakes, as almost every time they’ve opened their mouths, it has benefited the liberals, because of the depth of stupidity shown every time. There are no admiring ads touting how wonderful a leader Mitt the Twitt would be….

There are no detailed explanations of his proposed policies, because every detailed study of those policies has shown them to be totally inadequate, lacking in any understanding of the issues involved, and in some cases, pure lies…. These were independent studies, by the way, not funded by the liberals.

No, the only things the Republicans are posting are negative attack ads on Obama, for all kinds of little BS, from the recent terrorist attack in Bhengazi, to birther nonsense (yes, it STILL gets thrown out there….), to thinly disguised references to his skin color, which just goes to show their real fear….

These people are scared to death because a BLACK man is President, and they will do literally ANYTHING to get him out of that position…. One of the most highly recognizable pundits from the Republican party recently came out to express his dismay at the outright racism and bigotry of the Republican campaign, and to acknowledge the despicable nature of the ignorance that is being displayed.

Yet, the polls (which I regard as purely fictional, and merely another attempt by the media to assert their own form of mind control….. I am of the firm opinion that publishing a poll before the election should be illegal…. let us go to the polls without any precognition…. which is how it is supposed to work, now, isn’t it?…)…. the polls say that the race is close, and that it may be decided in the electoral college, rather than at the polls themselves.

Which is, to me, another opportunity for the Republicans to try to work their manipulation and voter suppression techniques to try to affect the outcome in their favor…. They did it successfully with GW Bush, twice, so it’s not like it hasn’t already been tested as a viable method of winning elections. It’s just that in this case, there is a distinct danger of the entire country falling back into the middle ages, should their cheating ways prevail again….

So, what I am suggesting, to all those out there with any shred of common sense and intelligence,  is that we remove that issue, by going to the polls in such numbers as to make their ignorance and bigotry immaterial. Let us show them that there are more of us than they think there are, and we are not going to allow them to drag us back over a hundred years, eliminating all the progress in social issues that we have struggled so hard to obtain in the last fifty years.

The fate of millions of seniors, women, people of color, gays, and just about anyone who isn’t a rich white male will be seriously threatened by a Republican win in three days…. so let us remove their chances of winning, by going out to vote for Obama in record numbers everywhere, and make the electoral college  a matter of form. (Then we can start the process to get rid of the college altogether…. should’ve happened fifty years ago… it’s a relic of the past, and should stay there….)

Go vote, ffolkes, and please, get it right!…..

(Note from the future: Well, they got it mostly right, as the voters managed to choose the lesser of the two evils presented…. Sadly, that’s still evil, if you hadn’t noticed….)
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Days and Nights of Eire

Wondrously comforting, a dream creeps oft into my mind
On the elven hills of Eire lives the vision I will find.
Elegant, gracious, everlastingly draped in beauty
Just payment of simple homage lives as joyous duty.

Fairies and druids walk abroad in ghostly parade
Gracing each hearth with its own welcoming shade.
Castles and heroes still live in tale and song
Proving love for the land in each heart strong.

From cold of winter into glorious young spring
Brown, and gray, to emerald green songs to sing
Soft rains always follow winter’s great tempest
As Eire dons an emerald coat from east to west.

Old and strong, connections call out in dreams
Nothing that was known remains as it seems.
Immersion in ancient runes and battle hymns
Offering sanity in place of grievous whims.

Time and place can tell a much different tale
Judgment should never be a final sale.
Yet something solid and real calls me to go see
Where dreams of loving beauty may actually be….

~~ gigoid ~~


Whew! Finally…. Well, there you go… I hope it was worth the wait…. Actually, it may grow again; it’s okay, but feels not quite done, somehow… ah well, time will tell….
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:GIGO: /gi:’goh/ [acronym] 1. `Garbage In, Garbage Out’ — usually said in response to {luser}s who complain that a program didn’t “do the right thing” when given imperfect input or otherwise mistreated in some way.  Also commonly used to describe failures in human decision making due to faulty, incomplete, or imprecise data.  2. `Garbage In, Gospel Out’: this more recent expansion is a sardonic comment on the tendency human beings have to put excessive trust in `computerized’ data. — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423

Many years ago, I adopted the user name gigoid, taking it from the above definition, and adding an “id” for, of course, identification purposes; with that suffix, I am assured of human status, i.e. hominid, humanoid, etc.  I chose this acronym because it is the perfect reminder of the basic integrity that is built into all computers, i.e., they can only do what we tell them to do, and cannot lie. Thus, if our results are wrong, the error lies in our input, not in the computer; this automatically cuts in half the number of places to look for the problem.

I like to think that my awareness of this principle characteristic is what has allowed me to use computers without suffering many of the common difficulties such as crashes, freezes, and blue screens of death. Only once have I ever encountered one of those on my own computer, and that was the result of a virus my defenses missed… my fault, of course, I hadn’t updated soon enough…

Oh, I’ve encountered that famous blue screen before, when I worked as a computer tech back in the late 90’s, setting up LAN’s and office systems for H&R Block…. a significant percentage of machines were dead soon after coming out of the factory box. But, on my own computers, I am very careful never to break any of the basic rules that govern those kinds of mishaps…. and I owe it all to a wise choice of user name…. Well, it’s fun to think about it that way anyway….

So, who is gigoid? Well, if you’ve hung about this blog site for long, I’ve certainly given y’all enough of my inner workings to look at, in my rants, and in my old school pearls, as well as in my poetry, which is quite revealing, to me….. but, then, if it wasn’t, I most likely couldn’t write it…. Any who, to give the short answer to that question, I’ll post below some pearls that give insight into what I believe to be true, and how I try to live….

Like any weak human, I don’t always succeed at being as moral or ethical as I can be, but, I do try, and I do feel pangs of regret when I don’t, so cut me some slack, eh? Just kidding…. What I am is all what I am, though I’m not Popeye…. and these pearls are what I see in the mirror…..

“They are able because they think they are able.” — Virgil

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.  We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.  We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle

“An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but dimly.” — E. P. Whipple

It is my firm belief that it is a mistake to hold firm beliefs. — Smart Bee

Computers can never replace human stupidity. — Smart Bee

“Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please — this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!
So learn to say No – and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.) ”

— Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love, by Robert Heinlein

“Do I look like someone who cares about what God thinks?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Well, that’s enough about me…. Hope this helps clear up any confusion, and if not, well, hey, life goes on…. all we can do is all we can do, and no more….
__________________________________

Odd, indeed…. and long, too. I wasn’t sure the poem was going to make it, and it may not be all the way done, but, it’s out, and will stand as is for now…. I’m not sure about it right now, I’m too close to it to judge impartially…. so, I’ll take a chance, and let it go out as it is. I’m brave, sometimes…. but,then, what can happen, besides somebody hating it? I can handle that okay, so…. any who, enough of my rambling for one day…. I see that I have possibly gone a bit overboard in that respect today. Such is life, or as the French would say, literally, c’est la vie…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Here endeth today’s Pearl, probably long after what might have been the most auspicious point for doing so…. which fits right in with the pomposity and heavy-handed style that still permeated my writing back then…. But, it saved me from having to come up with anything new and fresh, so, we’ll take it, and be happy…. and so will you…. See you tomorrow, ffolkes, hopefully a bit earlier than today…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Drowning democracy in an ocean of cash….

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Ffolkes,

So, there I was, in my bed, sleeping away, and what happens?…. Oh, wait, I can’t use that; I forgot I promised not to do that sort of stuff anymore, after it caused such a hullabaloo last time…. The authorities were NOT happy with me for all the overtime they had to put in rounding up those mental patients, who just “happened” to break out of the maximum security hospital at the same moment I perpetrated my apparently unwelcome outrage upon the written word, and the resulting mess became a bit more than they could handle with ease, or even unease….. It wasn’t MY fault, but, they didn’t feel that way about it, and you know how those authority-types can be when they are discommoded in any way…. assholes, every one of ’em….

As you can tell, I woke up today in a bit of a curmudgeonly state of mind; I’m thinking “grump” will be my status quo statement, if anyone dares to even ask…. My general appearance is somewhat large and intimidating anyway, and when I assume grump status, my expression and demeanor seems to have the effect of keeping people at a distance that seems safe to them, generally about fifty paces…. or, if they don’t feel quite comfortable that close, a short taxi ride takes them out of range in jig time…. I don’t mind, and I keep a cab on call…. it’s safer for everyone, and my insurance rates stay down that way….

I’m so on edge today, it took me about 15 minutes, and a number of curses, to decide on today’s title, which is obviously not as meaningless as is usually the case….. What you see is the compromise worked out with my angst-ridden sub-conscious, which wanted to make the title a rant in itself…. The rant-like state it displays is the least offensive of all I came up with, the best I could do under the circumstances, with anger driving the bus I’m on…. Feel lucky, it could have been a LOT worse….

As it is, I may get people today coming in with expectations of reading a treatise, or discussion about democracy, and it’s state in today’s world…. but, all they’ll find is this blathering mess, so, I’d best get on with putting together a Pearl worthy of the name, so as not to cause TOO much disappointment…. there’s always quite enough of THAT going on as a matter of course, without any help from me…. But, that, again, is not MY fault, nor is it my sole responsibility to clean it up for consumption…. I’ll assume that onus for my own words, but, I’m not copping to what Murphy does, no fucking way….

That being said….. There really isn’t anything better to do, so we may as well get on with this….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I’m pretending I’m pulling in a TROUT!  Am I doing it correctly??” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

As noted above, I am in the mood to rant…. However, the depth of my anger today is beyond all reason; I’m feeling extremely homicidal…. It will take ALL of my will power to NOT become proactive…. Think about that, and you’ll see I’m not in a very good mood at all; in fact, it’s been hard to keep myself from casually booting the cat through the window, or some other powerful release of what is bubbling and churning in my head and gut…. To go there, in a real sense, I would have to have already purchased the weaponry that is part of my ultimate plan, which, sadly, I haven’t completed yet…. It’s harder than it seems to find just the “right” weapon(s) for the purposes to which I plan to put it/them….

“Frankly,” he said, “I’m just trying to get to the end of my life without becoming an asshole again.” The Buddha couldn’t have said it better. — Slomo, aka John Kitchin, San Diego, last lines of the Mark Morford column, 4/16/14…. ( http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/04/15/the-saddest-job-in-the-world/ )

“Me, too”, he said…. The above article is a good one; it kept me from killing anyone for three whole days, before I had to replace the old restraining thought patterns that keep me from breaking down, & carrying out one of the many fantasies that parade through my head whenever I start thinking about the BRC, the Asininnies in general, or the state of the world at large…. It makes me positively homicidal….

Every time I look at the big picture, extrapolating what I perceive out into the future, I see our species ending its short stay on Earth in the all-too-near future, ignominiously choking out our last painful breaths of a now toxic atmosphere, dying in sheer agony, in a world gone mad, broken and sad, from trying to contain our common insanity….. I see the real world, full of uncaring, selfish, avaricious thieves who prey upon the rest of mankind, to the detriment of all, knowing, but not caring how much pain and misery they cause others….

When I look at these images in my mind this morning, I am enraged…. so much so, I must go take a short break…. When I return, I’ll put together an old-school pearl…. Maybe that will allow me to calm down enough to make them fit just the way I like…. I’ll be right back, ffolkes, after I calm down a bit…. God! I HATE adrenalin….. I spent way too much of my life under its influence, and it just pisses me off when it rears its ugly head again…. Ah well, I’ll be back….

“… And yet the true creator is necessity, which is the mother of invention.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.), “The Republic”, Book II. 369C

There! I feel better already…. finding a good pearl, that describes reality so closely in our current state, is always a good thing, in my book…. For the remainder of this group, let’s see what rant-like material regarding my favorite targets we can find today…. Enjoy…. and you can thank me later for not ranting….

“Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.” — P. J. O’Rourke, Parliament of Whores (1991)

“Democracy can learn some things from Communism: for example, when a Communist politician is through, he is through.” — Jacoby Smirnoff

“In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it.” — George Bernard Shaw

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

“The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.” — Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

“Government [is] an illusion the governed should not encourage.” — John Updike, Couples

“I am Porky of Borg. You will be assim…bdeh…assim…I’m takin’ over!”– Smart Bee

This is, perhaps, the strangest pearl I’ve ever composed….. I like it….

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

When I’m in this sort of mood, there is only one thing that will eventually bring me some peace of mind, and that, thanks to my bozoid nature, is always handy, and always welcome…. If you can’t guess, well, okay….. I’m talking about nonsense; I’m thinking a good strong dose of it is called for, so we’ll go with what we all know to be a classic of that genre….. “Go ask Alice….”, right? Right….. Enjoy!…. I intend to….

Jabberwocky

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought —
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One two! One two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

‘And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

~~ Lewis Carroll ~~

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

I may not be burbling, but, I’ve been known to “stand in uffish thought”, which is just as good, in my book….. To finish off today, I’m going with more nonsense, this time from whatever Smart Bee can find for us with such a simple parameter…. Rest easy, ffolkes, it won’t always be like this, and old-school pearls are much safer when I’m in this mood, believe me…. Here you go….

I changed my mind (big surprise…)….. Here is a rant from last year, on gun control, which will serve, for the moment, to take a bit of the pressure off, so I can get on with my day, minus all this angst…. It’s a bit long, but, worth it…. to me, if nobody else….

From 6/5/13:

“Is this an out-take from the “BRADY BUNCH”?” — Zippy the Pinhead

I’m rather hoping it is, in sooth…. if not, we all are in serious trouble, up the proverbial creek without a hint of a paddle. Not that it should be anything new or unfamiliar, as most of our history has been spent thus occupied. Of course, previous centuries didn’t have the distinct advantage of having either the Brady’s, or Zippy, in all his insane wisdom, as cultural icons, as well as ethical touchstones….. They had to make do with Socrates, and Plato, and stuffy old guys like that….. Aristotle was practically a rock star in his day, and remains a pretty smart dude, by all evidence, but I still prefer Carlin, I think, for the most cogent philosophy for modern times….

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” — The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 6, 1791

For a moment, I wondered what my unconscious mind was thinking when it made me copy and paste this amendment into the pearl, as a pearl…. especially as it seems to be in conjunction with the Zippy quote…. Here I am, five minutes later, still wondering what the hell I was thinking…. It happens that way sometimes…. just give me a few moments here, and I’ll come up with it…. Aha! Got it! Naturally, I only needed to go back to basics…. The answer to the question of how the two quotes are related is…. Reality….

Aye, that’s right, Reality. It’s what we do here, explore Reality, and all its implications, ramifications, and delineations. Also, it’s temperature. Well, perhaps that isn’t the right word, but…. Reality, as is clear and obvious to the most casual observer, exists in varying degrees (hence: temperature…. see?). The degree of Reality that is included in an out-take from the Brady Bunch is clearly not the same degree of Reality that is implied in the Sixth Amendment. I’d say, the Amendment would hit around 8 or 9 on the real scale, with 10 being the Reality of Amber, where all roads lead. (See Roger Zelazny’s book, The Courts of Amber…..), whereas the highest the Brady’s could hope for would be a 2 or a 3 on that same scale. They’re too oppositional in nature to be rated otherwise, as well as being on opposite ends of the scale of Relative Importance to ME and YOU…..

Now we get to the meat of this matter…. Of late, there has been a lot of public discourse regarding gun control, as a result of the media’s steadfast love of gore and manipulation. Another school shooting took place a few weeks ago, wherein some crazy idiot got hold of some firearms and used them in an insane manner. This, of course, all morality aside, is still a reprehensible act, and, IMHO, most easily solved by just taking one of his own guns and using it on him, at the time of his crime. Bang, problem solved, and since he’s standing there over the bodies he has made, no question of guilt. In such cases, the why of his guilt should not matter; whatever it is, it is reason enough to put him down, in defense of humanity. The other questions can be answered after the children have been defended….

Sadly, there are two segments of humanity who don’t agree with this logical outcome. One segment is what I term the humanitarians, a misleading term, since it usually involves the denial of much of human nature. The other, of course, is our old nemesis, the BRC…. our Beloved Ruling Class…. Neither of these groups will agree that allowing people to have guns should be allowed, or that killing the killers is a proper solution for the issue. In both of these positions, they are dead wrong, and, more, they know they are. This serves to make their arguments more shrill, more emotionally based, and, in their eyes, more valid, in some strange form of weird logic….

“Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, so don’t kid yourself…” — Frank Zappa

One of the most edifying parts of this discussion, for me, is how it makes it so easy to identify those who are wearing the uniforms, and from what camp they are from, according to their colors and insignia. You can tell the humanitarians, they’re the ones wearing the faux-camouflage pants, in support of the troops, they’ll assure you; they want the police to be the only ones who carry guns, believing, for some unknown reason, that police are somehow more moral or ethical than other people. (Of course, they also would have trouble if you asked them to define the words, “moral”, or “ethical”, in any other terms than those used in a philosophy paper they memorized in college, or in seminary….)

The BRC are always easy to spot, as their sense of entitlement provides them with all the armor against opinion, or law, they ever need. They want guns to be only held by the militia, (which they control), or the police (whom they also control), because it makes them nervous as hell to know there are guns out in the land, in the hands of people who would use them, for certain, if they attempt to perform their illegal lying, cheating, and stealing anywhere in their presence. It also makes them nervous knowing that they would be in danger for real, if the truth about what they do is ever made public with enough evidence to convince the masses to act…. They don’t want to have to worry they will be over-matched in firepower when that day comes along….

SIGH…. I’ve opened a can of worms, again, I know it….. I’m not going to claim to have all the right answers to the situation we find ourselves in today. Though it is a different world, technologically and culturally, from the time when the Second Amendment was written, deciding to abandon its precepts on that basis is not, and should never be, enough to justify any change in a law that is so important to the common man, the very people for whom the laws were created, to protect them from the self-same usurpation that is now being attempted. Once the law is amended, and weakened, the term “slippery slope” becomes very real, and a valid fear for those people.

To put a cap on it for now, I’ll say this…. Quite simply, I do not trust those who would take the right to bear arms from the people (added later: I reserve the same lack of trust for those who wish to amend, or limit in any way, the right to bear arms; ANY kind of change will ultimately be used as the basis for arguments designed to completely take the right away…). I have seen NO evidence, in history, or in recent current events, that ANY governing body, or ANY group, or ANY single person, of ANY persuasion can be trusted to have guns, and use them solely for the benefit of the people, without turning them to their own purposes, first. NONE. You can’t show me any, either…. Go ahead, I’m listening….

I have studied people every day of my life, and I know too much of human nature to ever believe what I’m told of another person’s intentions; even the best intentions can change in mid-stream, turning its back completely on any commitments made previously. People lie, they cheat, they break in their minds, and they can’t, as a whole, ever be trusted to act rationally on a consistent basis….. at least, not any more rationally than can I myself….

“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.” — Oscar Wilde

Such being the case, I’d rather keep my guns, thanks. I’ll accept the risks that go with that freedom, which includes the risk of bad people getting their hands on guns, and doing bad things to others. Don’t worry, if they do it in front of me, I’ll help…. and not by running away and hiding…. Life is dangerous, ffolkes, and one either learns to get along with that idea, or one spends a lot of time worrying about shit that can’t be changed…. A very unhappy state of affairs, to my way of thinking, and not very realistic in the long run….

“When the panorama of human existence becomes chaotic and confused, it is quite soothing to watch the sun rise in the East.” ~~ gigoid

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

This Pearl, having been composed under what may be termed as extreme duress, didn’t come out too badly….. I cheated a little, by going back into the archives, but, given the circumstances today, that is all for the best…. In fact, I am compelled at this point to admit that there isn’t anything more I can do, either to improve matters, or to make them worse…. That being the case, I’m outta here until tomorrow…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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


gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Subtle hints of mauve among the gray….

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Ffolkes,

Blather and babble….. My blogging career, such as it is, has been characterized by those two words, and I’m thinking that should change…. Of course, contemplating changes is scary enough, but, to think about it while still in the thrall of the minions of Morpheus might not be the most secure method. Security is not my number one priority, with good reason, reasons which I won’t discuss without the presence of my lawyers, but, we DO think about it now and again…. generally right before downing three or four fingers of the Beast….

Of course, there are those in our society who would do that to you, you know, and never even OFFER you the comfort of talking to the Beast….. Mostly they get into the position to do so by common consent, or at least, by common delusion. These egregious assholes would have us think of our security first, before any other consideration….

That is how they like us, fearful and distracted, which makes us easily led to the place they wish us to go. Their manipulative skills, learned in law schools all over ‘murrica, and honed to perfection in the halls of Congress, have served the Beloved Ruling Class well for a very long time…. so well, most people haven’t a clue as to how they ever got by without that huge ring in their nose….

Gosh, I’m ranting, aren’t I? It’s a bit early for that, maybe, though it’s never too early, or late, for that matter, to take shots at the BRC. But, it DOES make the morning routine go better if I can shake out a few kinks by getting in a few quick shots at them, if for no other reason than to watch them scramble and complain about the noise when it’s still dark…. They’re so CUTE when they’re afraid, and the noises they make are just hilarious….

I suppose it isn’t very nice of me to enjoy that so much, but, I figure a little payback is good for them; we all need reminders now and again of our mortality. Besides, they do it first…. so there.

I’m thinking today’s Pearl might just be a bit of a challenge, given the state of my mind just now…. I’m torn between getting this going, & getting it done, or going back to bed…. and no comments, please, about “oh, tough choice”…. I suppose we’ll struggle on, to see if we can’t get at least partway to the hole…. like any good putter should allow us to do….. and if that isn’t obscure enough a reference for you, I’m not sure I can find what you’re looking for in our stock….

Shall we Pearl?….

Grac’d as thou art with all the power of words,
So known, so honour’d at the House of Lords.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace, Epistle vi, Book i, To, Mr. Murray

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

“A government that fears its people is a government that should be feared.” — Smart Bee

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10769041/The-US-is-an-oligarchy-study-concludes.html

“The US government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country’s citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern Universities has concluded.”

My initial reaction to this opening line from the article to which the link leads was, “Oh. Really? How droll….” In case it’s unclear, that is sarcasm…. My second thought was, “Duh…”, because, well, hey, no-brainer, right? It’s only obvious, and has been since the 1850’s, when the “military-industrial complex” became a real person, at least in the courts….. The third thought that went through my mind was, “Why did I have to read this on the front page of a BRITISH news paper, while never having seen a single article on the report from an American news outlet?”

But, then, hey, oligarchy, right? That means the elite, the rich, the BRC, or, as I’m fond of calling them, the Asininnies, don’t want to hear about it, so, none of the news outlets THEY control will ever show that report, or, if they do, it certainly won’t be on the front page…. Any more than they wish to have ANY of their shenanigans paraded in front of the public eye; they’re well aware of how badly the rest of the country would react to that, if the notion that they were oppressing the rest of us, and worse, shamelessly lying about it all, ever became a common perception…. it probably wouldn’t won’t be pretty…..

As I’ve done previously, I could spend a few paragraphs here, detailing to you just how they lie, or relating just how often, and how completely these assholes are fucking over the rest of society…. but, it isn’t necessary, when such a plain and obvious indictment is right there in front of me, a report that does nothing, if not confirm what I’ve been trying to get across to the people out there who need to know, for a long time now….

“[E]lections amount to little more than choosing between the scum that floats to the top of the barrel and the dregs that settle to the bottom.” — L. Neil Smith

The perverted masters of society, consisting of that 1% who control the money and resources of our planet, usurped our system of government within DAYS of the signing of the Constitution, and have continued to solidify their control, for all of the 240 years since that event…. Their biggest victories have come from their purchases, which gave them exclusive possession of the souls and loyalty of the judges in the federal court system, first in the early 1800’s, then, later, to the huge win in the middle of that century, when corporations were first declared to have the same rights as real people, a decision which ensured the establishment in society of the legal concept of “corporate personhood”, which provided to the legal precedent to ensure their complete control over future legislation….

What normal, real person, with merely their own skills and efforts as resources, can compete, monetarily, or time-wise, with a corporation, to buy the loyalty of congress and the courts? Only its owners, or the owners of other governments, er, corporations, who have the resources to contest what they wish, can hope to supply any restraint upon what they desire…. No average person has the time or resources to spend on any issue that a corporation can bring to bear, thus guaranteeing the common man’s views will NEVER take precedence in the courts….

It ain’t a particularly pretty picture, ffolkes, but, it IS an accurate description of modern reality…. more than we could hope, and certainly more than we could ever need, or want…. but, accurate, nonetheless….

Enough so to thoroughly disgust me, to the point I’m not going to rant any more…. I’m getting too worked up…. I can feel my blood pressure going up as I type, never a good thing….. So, we’ll switch modes, and go find some pearls with which to round out this discussion, hopefully with some humor, or at the very least, some bloodthirsty accusations of perversion against those assholes who thing we are not on to them….. Enjoy!….

“Hope is very dangerous….” — Servalan

(In our society, it is not merely dangerous, it is toxic….)

“After 2% of the vote is in, the networks tell us who won. It makes the other 99% of us feel a bit unnecessary… How come the networks are so good at picking the presidential winner, and so bad at picking hit shows?” — Smart Bee

(You don’t think they have information they’re not sharing with us, do you? Nah…. of course not…. Why would they do that?….)

(If you believe that, I have a wonderful opportunity for you, a chance to own the biggest bridge in New York, for a very nominal price…. Cash only, no checks….)

“When neither their poverty nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.” — Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

(This is required learning in the schools that produce the fleets of lawyers who inhabit the halls of government…. Check it out sometime, how ALL the actions our leaders take are designed to keep from arousing the public’s ire, by avoiding the stimulation implied in this rule codified by The Prince….)

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

“All military type firearms are to be handed in immediately… The SS, SA and Stahlhelm give every respectable German man the opportunity of campaigning with them.   Therefore anyone who does not belong to one of the above named organisations and who unjustifiably nevertheless keeps his weapon… must be regarded as an enemy of the national government.” — SA Oberfuhrer of Bad Tolz, March, 1933

(I keep expecting to see a bill with this wording hit the floor of the House any time now, with a few minor changes to reflect the passage of time…. Every time there is another random shooting in this country, the pundits break out something like this to put through Congress, in the deluded hope that it might change something, which they refuse to believe cannot be changed, without changing human nature….)

“All you have to do is… Spot The Looney!” — Python

(A very apt description of the voting process here in ‘murrica….)

“Being against torture ought to be sort of a bipartisan thing.” — Karl Lehenbauer

(One would think this is true, until you actually look at what they are DOING, instead of what they are SAYING….)

“Faith: not wanting to know what is true.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

(Another fine delineation of how the voting process works in the oligarchy we call home…. Plus, do you see how smoothly this dovetails in with what the preachers preach from their pulpits?…. Funny how that works, eh?….)

Okay, so that’s eight pearls, an even number, which will never do…. We’ll go with one last pearl, in what I know to be a futile attempt to bring one of them down for good…. I’ll try to make it a good one, a fitting finish to an epic melding of irritated ranting and old school pearling….

“For in religion as in friendship, they who profess most are ever the least sincere.” — Sheridan

(I probably don’t need to make this suggestion, but, you can substitute the word “politics” for “friendship” in this, without changing or reducing its validity…. which is why it’s here….)

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

Since today’s post is mostly fresh material, I’d better use one of my own poems, so as to keep from sharing the blame for any of this…. This one may someday get put to music, as the closest thing I’ve created to the lyrical structure, and the style, for a song…. If so, maybe I’ll even try to figure out how to get a recording of me playing it into the computer…. Boy, wouldn’t THAT be something to take the net by storm…. Hell, with my new smartphone, I could probably record it & send it right from there…. Or, maybe not…. For now, this will do to get us through another Pearl….

Ah Ain’t Sho, but Mebbe So….

Fried eggs got nuthin’ on me
Ah’m not even sure of mah name,
or how Ah come to be;
no idea from where Ah came.

Ah does like a mystery tho’,
puzzlin’ things out so’s Ah knows,
good from bad fo sho,
Ah sho don’t want no rock pillows.

If’n Ah cain’t figure out what’s best,
Ah just falls back on mah Daddy’s words,
seems he knowed just whut’d stand the test,
‘n how to gentle the scaredest birds.

‘Course, he’d lived a good long time,
‘n had lots of stuff go on by;
Went to a war, n’ lost a piece or two,
never once used it fer an alibi.

He tol’ me once Ah’d best learn to learn,
school’s only cool if ya ain’t already a fool.
Yer own good measure you can earn,
by startin’ yer learnin’ with the Golden Rule.

Always seemed to me as Ah growed up,
he mostly only spoke if it wuz true,
‘n by doin’ that clued me to what’s up,
kept me from stuff that’d a made me blue.

Without ever sayin’ the word itself,
Ah learned ’bout honor, ‘n helpin’ others
not some fake stuff from some shelf,
but, knowin’ whut’s right, ‘n that we’re all brothers.

Ah’ve been around long enough now, Ah think
to get around the block at least two times.
I s’pose long as my head don’t shrink
Ah’ll keep on doin’ right, ‘n makin’ these rhymes…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Okay, I’m about done here… It’s almost 0615, and I want to get done with this, so I can go back to bed…. It’s nice being retired sometimes…. I almost feel guilty at times, when I indulge myself with a nap at such an odd time….

But, then I think back, to the halcyon days of my relative youth, when I was married, raising kids & taking care of my family, working two, or sometimes three jobs, feeling so rushed I absolutely treasured the “nine-minute nap” I sometimes was fortunate enough to grab between jobs…. No fooling…. nine minutes was all I could afford, unless I wanted to be late to the secondary psyche unit at the county hospital, site of my second full-time job…

So, I never feel much guilt for long, as a matter of long-standing policy…. & since I want to get to it, this last section will be a quick, seven-star random harlequin pearl, with the only parameter to make me feel good, or, at the least, better than I did after ranting, which always makes me put on my cranky shirt…. to go with the cranky pants I borrow from that columnist at the Chronicle…. I forget his name, (which would no doubt make HIM cranky….), but, he’s okay with it, I swear….

“If electricity comes from Electrons, then morality must come from Morons.” — Smart Bee

“George Washington said to his father, “If I never tell a lie, how can I get to be President?” — Red Buttons

“I live just off Ventura Boulevard, where all the weirdos hang out, and I was on a corner the other day when a wild-looking sort of gypsy-looking lady with a dark veil over her face grabbed me right on Ventura Boulevard and said, “Karen Haber! You’re never going to find happiness, and no one is ever going to marry you.” I said, “Mom, leave me alone.” — Karen Haber

“It is not every question that deserves an answer.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 581

We chased our pleasures here,
dug out treasures there.
Can you still recall  the time we cried?
Break on through to the other side.

— The Doors

“Do you think God gets stoned?  I think so…look at the Platypus.” — Robin Williams

“The first thing to do when you’re being stalked by an angry mob with  raspberries is to release a tiger.” — John Cleese

Well, there you have it, and no matter how many times it is asked, or even demanded, I’m not doing it over…. Y’all will just have to figure it out the way it is…. if that isn’t possible, well, don’t worry about it too much…. it’s not as if it was going to be on the Quiz…. Besides, once you’ve consumed the bottle of wine that was your complimentary gift today, you won’t care anyway…. I’m outta here, and just in time, too….

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

Though I mentioned above that I was just in time, it is closer than I want to admit, so, with no further episodes of flim, or even flam, I’ll leave you to get on with the regularly scheduled portion of your day, or whatever routine you have developed to keep the bastards at bay…. See y’all tomorrow…. that’s the plan, anyway….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Vast featureless mountains of personal data…. with a side of fried gravy, please….

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Ffolkes,

 

Since there IS no routine, this section of today’s Pearl will be a struggle, even more than usual for around here…. I say there is no routine because there isn’t one, not anywhere in my life…. Sad, but, true…. This, I think, is a direct result of one of the aspects of reality about which we can do nothing; we can’t change some things, and, as Epictetus reminded us, knowing what those things are is valuable in making decisions…. All this really means is that, once more, I’m at a loss as to what should go here to start the day….

Much of today’s effort took place yesterday…. The rant in section one is a consequence of watching one of those little news videos that are always on the strip next to the articles being shown…. After watching it, my angst level shot through the roof, which added to the time it took to deal with it, as after ranting for a while, I had to make the repairs to the roof, before night fell, bringing with it the demons who infest the darkness…. One doesn’t wish one’s roof to be an open invitation for them to enter….

Was that fanciful enough? No? Ah, I see…. no set-up for it. Okay, I’ll remember that…. Any who, where was I? Oh, yeah, nowhere…. Here I am, yet again, deep into three relatively weird, uninformative paragraphs blathering about nothing in particular, with a bit of nonsense and fantasy woven through them indiscriminately as the only thing to show for the time spent…. which is just as pathetic as it usually is, to my eye…. Maybe it looks different from out there, but, to my jaundiced eye, it all seems tacky, if strangely compelling…

Compelling, however, doesn’t get the windows washed, nor does it get the baby rescued from the bath water. And, really, none of any of this matters a whit, a snit, or a tiny little bit, not to the iconic forces of nature who determine how our days progress; if Reality wants to take a dump in your vicinity, well, it’s too late to charge a dime to let them into the room with the porcelain throne….. You may as well just toss in your towel, and take your lumps… I know what it’s like to be on Reality’s bad side…. As Tommy Toilet has been known to say about rectal itch, it’s no picnic…

Speaking of picnics, I think now would be a good time to try to escape from this section; it’s getting a bit thick in here, and there’s no telling what might happen if I don’t at least make an attempt to regain control, even if I have to wrest it from Murphy’s cold, dead hands…. In hopes of receiving some encouragement along those lines from Mother Nature, I’m going to stop now, and get on with today’s creation of another fine mess…

Shall we Pearl?….

“YOW!!  What should the entire human race DO??  Consume a fifth of CHIVAS REGAL, ski NUDE down MT. EVEREST, and have a wild SEX WEEKEND!” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

Was There A Time
Was there a time when dancers with their fiddles
In children’s circuses could stay their troubles?
There was a time they could cry over books,
But time has set its maggot on their track.
Under the arc of the sky they are unsafe.
What’s never known is safest in this life.
Under the skysigns they who have no arms
Have cleanest hands, and, as the heartless ghost
Alone’s unhurt, so the blind man sees best. ~~ Dylan Thomas  ~~


Yesterday, I watched a video news report online, put there by a company called the Bloomberg news network… A reporter claimed to have uncovered evidence, using services and data supplied by a free online security utility site, called Ghostery (which I fully intend to check out….), which found that the NSA, (yes, our old friends at Homeland CyberSecurity…..) have not only known about the Heartbleed code flaw recently discovered, that makes all internet users vulnerable to identity and data theft, for TWO FULL YEARS….. Not only did they know about it, they HAVE BEEN ACTIVELY EXPLOITING THE FLAW, using the conveniently provided back door into sources of data on the internet FOR THAT ENTIRE TIME….

The agency has apparently done this without ever notifying ANYONE in the public, or in the halls of government the flaw was there, much less letting anyone know how they were using it to discover unauthorized data, steal data. The site mentioned in the news blurb, Ghostery, (found here: https://www.ghostery.com/en/ ), shows the code that powers the net, and allows people to see where they’ve been, who is tracking them, how others track them, and manage the amount of data that is vulnerable…. According to what the reporter found, the NSA allegedly has known about Heartbleed for over two years, as the code shows them using the back door repeatedly to access data to which they had no right….

Why am I NOT surprised? Oh, I don’t know…. Maybe it’s all the evidence laying right out in public for people to see that makes me jaded to learn about this…. It fits right in with the other psychopathic behaviors the agency displays, such as spying on their own citizens, the leaders and citizens of other countries, and whomever else their paranoid little minds can conceive of who might, in some fantasy world of their own, present some risk to their insane world view, and their insane need to control EVERY FUCKING THING THEY PERCEIVE…..

It outrages me, on a regular basis, to be living in a society in which shadowy, cowardly, self-serving, avaricious sociopaths control the rest of the populace through the use of economic oppression, and the time-tested political skills based on using fear of the unknown, and the elusive, ambiguous  threat of terrorism, which, in reality, exists only in the minds of those who do not know how to use their power of reason, to see that the most serious threat to their own liberty is their own government, and the insane assholes who use their money to control it….

When I look at the way our modern government functions, at the sheer effrontery, the unmitigated gall with which they lie to the public, and at almost all the actions of those who call themselves our leaders, I am incensed…. It enrages me to have to admit the dream of our Founding Fathers has been usurped, corrupted and perverted by the clandestine corporate snakeheads who control all the money and resources, enforced by their paid minions, aka political gigolos, with the full knowledge and support of the clergy of all religions, and the military and police myrmidons, who find in public police work a way to act out their aggressive, bullying  natures with official sanction….

In short, I am BEYOND angry, because the people like myself, in this country, and in the world at large, who DON’T have any desire for power over others, live with less freedom today than the original colonists had in the England they fled, to find and make their own way in a new world, free of the oppression of those who would control their every act, and their every thought, if they could….

Those Founding Fathers placed a responsibility in our hands, which we have shirked, so long we are now at the point of being unable to organize, or to gather enough people to fight back…. There are not enough people alive today who are willing to make the sacrifices that were made on their behalf, not enough people willing to accept Thomas Jefferson’s challenge, to nurture the Tree of Liberty by the sacrifice of the blood of patriots.

People in today’s society would rather just stay indoors, nodding their heads, docilely going along with whatever the talking heads on TV tell them to do, which is to waste half of their available, active neuronic connections playing with their smart phones, which makes them FEEL as if they have some control over the world…. when, in reality, these little mini-computers are merely a complicated hammer, which is currently in use as a tool in the project the pundits have going, to dismantle the US Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of the United States….

And they’re doing it right in front of our faces, ffolkes…. If you don’t see it, then, I’m sorry, but you’re just not paying attention to the right information, and will join the rest of mankind on the path to our own extinction, without ever having had a clue that anything was at all wrong…. SIGH… It makes me sad, and it makes me mad, so I rant, and I blather, and I take my shots at the BRC whenever I can…. The rest of the time, I am just like anyone else, just trying to stay within myself long enough to find the peace, of mind, and spirit, that I know is there…. somewhere….

“Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Never give up the fight.” — Bob Marley

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

Originally, I first posted this classical poem on this site on June 25, 2012, though it is much older than that…. I realize this is fairly long, but some pearls just shine more brightly than others….. In fact, this is so good, I see no reason to wish you enjoyment in reading it, because I know you will… as have, no doubt, literally millions of people, in the time since it was first penned, in the nineteenth century….

A Gleam of Sunshine
This is the place. Stand still, my steed,
Let me review the scene,
And summon from the shadowy Past
The forms that once have been. The Past and Present here unite
Beneath Time’s flowing tide,
Like footprints hidden by a brook,
But seen on either side. Here runs the highway to the town;
There the green lane descends,
Through which I walked to church with thee,
O gentlest of my friends!

The shadow of the linden-trees
Lay moving on the grass;
Between them and the moving boughs,
A shadow, thou didst pass.

Thy dress was like the lilies,
And thy heart as pure as they:
One of God’s holy messengers
Did walk with me that day.

I saw the branches of the trees
Bend down thy touch to meet,
The clover-blossoms in the grass
Rise up to kiss thy feet,

“Sleep, sleep to-day, tormenting cares,
Of earth and folly born!”
Solemnly sang the village choir
On that sweet Sabbath morn.

Through the closed blinds the golden sun
Poured in a dusty beam,
Like the celestial ladder seen
By Jacob in his dream.

And ever and anon, the wind,
Sweet-scented with the hay,
Turned o’er the hymn-book’s fluttering leaves
That on the window lay.

Long was the good man’s sermon,
Yet it seemed not so to me;
For he spake of Ruth the beautiful,
And still I thought of thee.

Long was the prayer he uttered,
Yet it seemed not so to me;
For in my heart I prayed with him,
And still I thought of thee.

But now, alas! the place seems changed;
Thou art no longer here:
Part of the sunshine of the scene
With thee did disappear.

Though thoughts, deep-rooted in my heart,
Like pine-trees dark and high,
Subdue the light of noon, and breathe
A low and ceaseless sigh;

This memory brightens o’er the past,
As when the sun, concealed
Behind some cloud that near us hangs
Shines on a distant field.

~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~~


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

In searching through the SB database for appropriate pearls to accompany the rant in section one, I found some rather good pearls that obviously went together, so, here they are, on a subject that like the Truth, will make itself known, if you are open to finding and accepting it….

“By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.” — Latin Proverb

“A lie isn’t a lie if it’s in reply to a question the questioner has no right to ask.” — Rex Stout

(Do you see the flaw in this? I hope so…. If not, you may now join the ranks of Americans who haven’t a clue as to the true meaning of the word “honor”, “truth”, or “virtue”, a very large number that has grown much faster of late, as the overall level of virtue in our society drops…. Sorry, ffolkes, but, a lie is a lie, no matter what color one tries to paint it, or what false justification one manufactures…. Believing such illogic can lead one to believe almost anything that SOUNDS as if it should be true…)

(My second thought when reading this was, I wonder if Rex feels the same when someone applies this piece of illogic, unfortunately commonplace in our culture, to HIS questions…. If I were asked such a question, it seems to me the most virtuous response would have to be something along the lines of, “I won’t answer that, because I feel you have no right to ask.”…. Direct, honest, communicative…. with the added advantage of being the absolute truth…. Telling a lie justified by this belief lowers one to the level of those who manipulate others for their own benefit….)

“It is inconceivable that a judicious observer from another solar system would see in our species — which has tended to be cruel, destructive, wasteful, and irrational — the crown and apex of cosmic evolution. Viewing us as the culmination of *anything* is grotesque; viewing us as a transitional species makes more sense — and gives us more hope.  — Betty McCollister, “Our Transitional Species”,  — Free Inquiry magazine, Vol. 8, No. 1

“Many men fancy that what they experience they also understand.” — Goethe

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

“To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.” — Epictetus

“That proves you are unusual,” returned the Scarecrow “, and I am convinced the  only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones.  For the common folks are like the leaves of a tree, and live and die unnoticed.” — L. Frank Baum, “The Land of Oz”

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

Today’s Pearl, having come together in an unprecedented fashion, seamlessly combining the old and the new to produce a quite acceptable post, may now be considered done, and done well…. Well, I like it, and that’s all that really matters in the final analysis….. Of course, then one must acknowledge the inevitability of analysis, which, I find, is somewhat limiting…. so, I won’t. Regardless of my own philosophical anomalies, or idiosyncracies, as we like to call them, we’re done here…. “I kinna do nae more, lads!”, to paraphrase Robbie Burns at his broguish best…. See ya, ffolkes, if you don’t see me coming first….

 

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.Which is Why….
—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Save some of that tripe for later….

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Ffolkes,

If I ever get to the point of sleeping all night on a regular basis, not only will I have overcome years of light but persistent insomnia, (and the pain that brought it into being…..) but, I will have, by then, figured out how to deal with having a schedule that is written, at least partially, in stone, that is to say, a solid, consistent routine, upon which I could depend to be the same each day….. My gosh, I just realized, if that ever happened, it could lead to all sorts of stuff that I haven’t ever been able to accomplish, such as an intro section that wrote itself….

I don’t have a clue as to what that might mean to me, in terms of change, or the need to adjust my mental status to conform to reality (I know, that is what happens all the time, but, I’m talking long-term, permanent adjustments, that take longer to develop, and put in place, as well as to change, if it ever becomes necessary….). If I did, that would probably give me an idea of how to cope, or what direction the changes might take; since I don’t, we’ll just have to fake it, again…..

We all have to fake it to a degree; we weren’t issued manuals at birth, so we have to feel our way through life much of the time, like groping through a dark room with hard furniture in random places, desperately craving the flesh of shins, to soothe its savage hunger. (Why is it, when we have to do stuff like that, we have to do it in the pitch dark? Is there a law of reality or something that says we have to add the terror of darkness to whatever nonsensical issue brought us into that room in the first place? It’s almost like being caught in a horror movie, with no place to go but up the stairs where all the strange noises are coming from….)

I’m pretty sure that’s not the best place for me to go, either in my head, or here, on the screen, for you to share…. Besides, I wouldn’t want to be like that dumb jock that grabs a baseball bat, then goes up the stairs to face off the bloodthirsty psycho with a machete, or the ravening horror from another dimension that will eat us all, without first at least TRYING to use the phone to call for a little backup….

Hell, if it was me, I’d spend more than just a couple minutes trying to see if there was a shotgun, or a reasonable facsimile, lying around…. I’d feel a lot better facing off a machete with that, than with a bat, no matter how much extra reach it gives me…. A 12-gauge over/under would give me all the reach I’d need…. A Glock 9mm semi-auto pistol has some pretty good stopping power, too. (Side note: is it a movie law that any house with a monster coming is not allowed to have a shotgun in it? They never do, even though the number of households in this country that have a gun in them is fairly large…. I guess they’re more concerned with drama than believability…. It IS television, or movies, you know, and is NOT real, as much as we tend to think it is…..)

I’m wandering now, aren’t I? I can feel it slipping away from me….. which means it’s time for good old #4 again….. Hold on…

Shall we Pearl?….

“Since everything in life is but an experience perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.” — Long Chen Pa

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

Below you will find several links, to articles that report on the latest developments in the ongoing saga of espionage and chicanery being played out on the world stage involving the NSA, and the extent of the spying and lying in which they have engaged, for what is turning out to be longer than anyone had realized, or, for that matter, authorized…..

The first article is from the Guardian, the UK news outlet that first published the revelations of the NSA spy program, leaked to them by Eric Snowden, the former contractor who worked for the agency before “spilling the beans”…. It is a compendium of the entire issue, from the beginning, right up to the latest of the articles, the second in the list, which reports on the issues brought up in Mr. Snowden’s recent testimony to the European Union assembly…

The third is from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that works to maintain the freedom of expression, and security of private communications over the world wide web, by bring suit in court against companies and government agencies who try to place limits on web traffic, and online with the spread of information useful to all those who use the web…. I’ll make a comment or two when you have read some of the material, and feel up to speed…. Oh, come on, you KNEW that was coming…. If nothing else, by reading these, you’ll be completely up to speed on this issue, which will stand you in good stead in your next BS session….

http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files?INTCMP=mic_232382

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/08/edwards-snowden-us-government-spied-human-rights-workers

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/04/why-web-needs-perfect-forward-secrecy

You know, ffolkes, I’m going to change things a bit here…. I would usually pull some excerpts from these articles, & use them as springboards for discussion of the issues, but, today, I don’t seem to be in touch with the angst needed to work up enough outrage….

In short, I don’t feel like ranting today, as much as I hate to let the chance to point out more instances of BRC shenanigans go by, without taking at least a few token shots at them, just to see them jump and dance…. In fact, I’m going to replace the intended rant for today with another old-school group of quotes, letting Smart Bee take all the shots he can fit into a five-star pearl….

“I don’t HAVE to think, I KNOW!” — The official motto of the House Republicans

“I’m just here for moral support. Ignore the gun.” — Mission Statement: National Security Agency

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

“There’s only one way to kill a rat…” — Robert A. Heinlein

“One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast… a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can.  While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lurid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep you brain in you head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise  you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk bound people with their hearts in a safety deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this:  You will outlive the bastards.” — Edward Abbey

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

Here are two haiku of mine, found while cruising through some old Pearls, from 2012, when haiku was the only kind of poetry I was writing, pretty much… At that time, midway through the year, I had yet to break my long fast for writing poems; that came later that year…. but, I like both of these, so, here they are again, now in the form they need to be in, rather than the informal format in which I found them…. I hope you enjoy them…

Fulfilling Gravidity

Writing for the few
with words of power and grace
often brings such pain.

~~ gigoid ~~

Morning Pearls

Such mornings as these
chase away my dreams of light.
I won’t cry again.

~~ gigoid ~~


As a bonus for those who have gotten this far today, here is another poem, but not mine…. this one is better than any I’VE ever done….

The cricket sang,
And set the sun,
And workmen finished, one by one,
   Their seam the day upon.

The low grass loaded with the dew,
The twilight stood as strangers do
With hat in hand, polite and new,
   To stay as if, or go.

A vastness, as a neighbor, came,–
A wisdom without face or name,
A peace, as hemispheres at home,–
   And so the night became.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~


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

Here is a pretty decent rant from the same section of the archives where I found the haiku, sometime in June of 2012…. As noted, I’m not in a terrific place for ranting today, so this will suffice nicely to round out this Pearl…. Balance is always a good thing….

——————————————-

The non permanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of summer and winter seasons. — Bhagavad Gita

I don’t know about you, but, I think, if someone were to sit down to write a one sentence summary of Ecclesiastes, this would be very like what they came up with. Coming as it does from the Bhagavad Gita, written prior to Ecclesiastes by several centuries, I doubt the author(s) had that in mind as a goal. It’s funny to me (ironic-funny) how often that is the case. I’ve read the religious books from several different religions, and they seem to have all been written by the same guy….

This idea led me to more research, so I spent some years trying to track down the authors responsible for all the books, and what I found is amazing…. The religious books of ALL religions on Earth WERE written by the SAME GUY. I don’t know his name, but his writing style, and the content of what was written, are the same in all of the tomes I searched. This datum is somewhat disconcerting, as it implies a conspiracy…. logic says that if all were written by the same guy, there is a reason. That reason is probably NOT in the best interests of the average person; it more likely has to do with whatever the author’s goals are….

Now, I have previously written here on religions, relating how they attempt to control the populace, to make them amenable to more control by their political counterparts. It seems now that this concept is even more sinister than I had imagined. The beloved ruling class, and the priestly hierarchies, don’t want us to know that they are controlling us. Their purpose is simple; they want us, essentially, to be their slaves…..  T

The BRC and the preachers all want the average man to work all his life, without ever realizing they are working for someone else’s benefit. The pattern is clear enough throughout history that examples are not necessary at this time, but rest assured, our beloved ruling class, with the support of the religions, is manipulating events for THEIR advantage, not ours, and has been doing so for thousands of years…..

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Let me make something clear. There are people on this planet who are not selfish. There are people who don’t wish to control others, or to manipulate others for their own benefit. There are folks who are just plain good; their spirits are free, and clean. The problem is, they are few, and far between, and not a single one of them cares a whit about controlling others. Thus, though they are likely not as affected by the manipulations of the ruling class, they are not going to be roused to action without just cause, which the ruling class will not allow to occur, if they can help it.

The number of people who are part of the beloved ruling class is very small, compared to the mass of mankind. From what I can see, that number is probably about the same as the number of people who really understand what is going on, and object to it. Let’s say that number is about 5% (probably lower, but we’ll just use this for now….) So, that makes 5% beloved ruling class, manipulating society for their own benefit, 5% ffolkes who actually see the manipulations, and 90% clueless sheep. Well, not sheep I guess, because some of them can be pretty violent. But, clueless, for sure…. This breakdown, while not exact, represents an accurate picture of society’s makeup since the dawn of civilization….

If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people? — Smart Bee

So, to bring this back around to where we started, the 5% of mankind that are actually running things have no investment in changing; they want things just the way they are, as they have been for 10,000 years. The other 5% aren’t enough to make the changes happen without the cooperation of the 90%, which the beloved ruling class will work to deny with all their resources. So, I have a new tactic which could help. See, we gotta find that guy…… What guy? Please, pay attention…. the guy who wrote all the books for the religions.

Once we find that guy, we either brainwash him, or recruit him through reason, into a re-write. The re-write could be artificially aged, and then found in some cave in the Himalayas, or in the fertile crescent. The altered text would be designed to negate, or nullify, all of the lies that the other books have perpetrated on society. Once the 90% is enlightened, I think the resulting anger at the beloved rulers and preachers will set matters aright in no time. What do you think?…. Hey, it could work!….

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

I’m going to meet an old friend for breakfast today, so I’ll bring this to a screeching halt at this point, and try to get on with the day…. Hopefully, this Pearl will live up to its name…. and, if not, there’s always tomorrow…. See y’all then, ffolkes…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

So far ahead we’re behind…

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Ffolkes,

Due to circumstances completely within my control, today’s Pearl will be somewhat abbreviated…. The simple fact is, I’m up late(r than normal….. it’s already after 4 AM…), I’ve got a shitload of stuff to get done today, and nowhere near enough time and/or available energy to complete all of the necessary tasks, UNLESS I make some serious cuts to what generally gets written here….

Hence, what we’ll do today is just keep everything out of my normally firm mental grasp, which allows me to make comments, add thoughts, and rant…. Instead, I’ll keep a looser grip….. which allows me to loosen up my standards, enough that we’ll be able to go with a couple of old-school pearls and a poem, and let it go at that….

In addition, I’m going to give up all pretense of what passes for normal around here (an absolutely critical step, since I’m writing THIS pre-coffee…. ah, I hear it finishing up as I type….. Things should get better now….), and use good old method #4 to keep this intro section to a minimum output. Given that…. oh, fuck this, I’ll be back…. Coffee, coffee, coffee…. Oh boy….. there IS hope…

Okay, hang on, ffolkes, I’m going to use #4 now….. stand back & watch for splashing, please….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It is my belief… that the truth is generally preferable to lies.” — J.K. Rowling, The Beginning, — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000,  — spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

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As iterated above, there will be no rant today…. However, having found the first quote in this group on the very first try today, I believe I can put together an old school variety pearl that will serve as well to take a few telling shots at the dignity of the BRC, as well as pulling as many of their covers as I can grab hold of…. Enjoy…..

“Governments are the world’s real terrorist organizations. They function by means of inducing fear in their victims to gain compliance.” — Westley F. Deitchler

(Now, if that isn’t the most truthful, most logical, and most accurate quote I’ve seen in many moons, then, nothing at all fits that description…. This is the absolute truth, ffolkes, and something EVERYONE ALIVE should be made aware of…. let’s hope the rest of what Smart Bee finds for us is as potent….)

“I could not milk the cow and leave it thirsty.” — Munyawera, current volunteer and former client — of Christian Children’s Fund — on why he donates his time to CCF.

(Now, if only we could find a politician who felt this way….)

“Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.” — Gore Vidal

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

— T. S. Eliot, Choruses from the Rock

(Nowadays, we KNOW where our information is, don’t we? And, if we don’t, we have the NSA, who tracks and collects all of it for us….)

“Is being an idiot like being high all the time?” — Janeane Garofolo

(I’m not sure of the answer, but I figure we could just ask any elected official to find out….)

“No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.” — Jacob Bronowski, in “Encounter”, 1971

And, lastly, just because we can….

“How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.” — Petrarch

Now, THAT’S what I’m talking about…..

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

I’m putting in one of my own poems today, for the simplest of reasons…. it saves me time, and nobody else need shoulder any of the resultant  blame/shame for their inclusion in this mess…. I will add the following, however, just to show I have no pride at all….

Sir I admit your general rule
That every Poet is a Fool
But you yourself may serve to show it
That every Fool is not a Poet

 — rendered from the French by Pope

Off the proverbial cuff….

I never meant to kill that period of time,
it didn’t give me any choice.
It tried to hem me in without reason, or rhyme,
refused me any vote, or any voice.

You have to admit, I buried it deep and fast,
just as if I cared.
I knew, though, it would never last,
nor ever be fully repaired.

No news, no pictures can bring it back,
once is all we get.
No pleas of public good, or even public lack;
in stone the past is set.

Futuristic visions now occupy my dreams,
I’m ready to go on.
Look! It fills up the screen, and it gleams!
Where’s the moment I’m sitting on?

Now, I remembered, at long, long last,
is all we really can hold.
Every moment goes by so bloody fast,
we’d best fill them all with beauty, warm and bold.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

And Jesus said unto them, “And whom do you say that I am?”
They replied, “You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the ontological foundation of the context of our very selfhood revealed.”
And Jesus replied, “What?” — Smart Bee

This is merely here because when I read it, I laughed… At that moment, it struck me as funny, and still does, in a way…. and, if nothing else, it’s a good start for a random, harlequin pearl to end the day…. we’ll go on from here to see what sort of nonsense SB can find for us, to titillate our sense of humor, which is always a good way to start to the day….

1)  The check is in the mail;
2)  Of course I’ll respect you in the morning;
3)  I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.

— The three least credible sentences in the English language

“If you don’t laugh at all, you’ve missed the point. If you only laugh, you’ve missed your chance from illumination.”  — Robert Anton Wilson

“Don’t permit yourself to get between a dog and a lamp-post.” — Smart Bee

“It was all so different before everything changed.” — LAMAR’S LAMENT

“History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions.” — Ted Koppel

(How did that get here? That was supposed to go in the first section…. Oh well, we’ll just leave it, and you can IMAGINE it is in its proper place, in the pearl above, I’d say third or fourth in line…..)(If necessary, just imaging one of the pearls in that section as deleted….)

“I bet you have never seen a plumber bite his nails.” — Smart Bee

“I know you’re supposed to take life one day at a time — but lately several days have attacked me at once.” –Smart Bee

“What do you call a lawyer buried up to his neck in sand? Not enough sand.” — Smart Bee, again

And on THAT final grand note, I shall bid thee adieu…. for the nonce…..

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

I’ve done it, and quite well, if I do say so myself…. All done in one hour and twenty-seven minutes to this point…. not bad for an old fart with flat feet, who constantly struggles with fits of fantasy and potentially fatal flatulence…. And on THAT note, I’m outta here…. See you tomorrow, ffolkes…. I’ll remind y’all tomorrow is Saturday, so remember to wear any Kevlar vests and/or body armor you possess; it saves you the rental fee…. Ta then…

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

One of our nuclear clothespins is missing….

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6

Ffolkes,

Don’t tell the monitors, but I think we’re going to have to cut back on the number of virgins we are sacrificing to the gods so they’ll smile upon this blog…. It’s not for any other reason than the fact we are beginning to run into the old Roman firewood conundrum, from back in the days when wood, wind, and water were the only energy sources we had as humans….

Rome, that ancient city, in time grew so large that it became problematic for the Romans to find firewood in the hills above and around the city. After several centuries of population growth, trees became scarce near the city, and the men who worked to gather it, who were called ‘carbonara’, eventually had to make week-long, or longer, forays into the mountains, and further into the countryside, in order to find a source of wood sizable enough to suit their needs.

During these trips, the men would take with them the food and supplies they needed to live for the time they were gone…. As Italians, their foods ran to the simple, but savory, with pasta, bread, and wine as the staples…. all of which travels well, meaning they could take the ingredients with them to use while on the trip…. Dried pasta, dried vegetables (peas, mushrooms, etc.), onions, garlic, pancetta, bread, wine, and cream, for example, in the form of a cow that they herded along the road with them as they went to look for their wood….

Any chefs in the audience may have noted that ingredients listed are those needed to produce the classic Italian dish, Pasta Carbonara, named after the men who kept the fireplaces of ancient Rome supplied with wood during the winter…. I can testify as to its deliciousness, and, in fact, it is my favorite of all the Italian dishes I make, save perhaps Pasta Vongolé, which is made with fresh clams, garlic, white wine, and cream, if desired…. I do both dishes superbly, if I do say so myself….

How does this silly but interesting history relate to this pearl? Well, I’ll tell ya, if you’ll hang on a moment…. Remember what I said about cutting back on our virginal sacrifices? Well, we’re having the same issue finding virgins as the Romans had with their firewood…. It’s taking longer and longer to FIND one that is willing to be sacrificed; last week I had to go all the way to hills above Bakersfield, to harvest one from a junior high school up near Yosemite, which is a good four or five hour drive…. This meant I had to listen to the babble of a 13 year old virgin all the way home, unless I felt like being mean, & sedating him….

Now, I’ll bet y’all are wondering what we do with our virgins after we use them…. which is something you’ll just have to wonder about for a long time, because I have neither the time, the inclination, nor the legal requirement to tell you….. Suffice it to say they are NOT killed, but are placed into an environment where their virginity will not cause them any further harm, and allowed to live out their lives in ignorance of the service they perform for society…. It would only confuse them, and make them less valuable as a trained consumer for the corporate masters..

Okay, I’m done now…. That was quite a mouthful for a relatively poor joke…. If it was a scam, we’d have to call it a long-con, and wait up to a year for the punchline to hit home….. But, since this is a daily blog, we can just call it what it is, which is, of course, nonsense and drivel, fresh from my fevered brain, all for the purpose of filling up space in this section, solely designed to bring us to the point where I can say, without any fear of retribution or heckling beyond the norm….

Shall we Pearl?….

“There is nothing so awkward as courting a woman whilst she is making sausages.” — Laurence Sterne

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

Today’s first section will be a Newsy Pearl, with articles ripped from the world’s news, and comments on those articles by gigoid the dubious at his angst-filled sarcastic best (hopefully…)…. Abondanza!….

First, a public service announcement…. A Swedish cyber-security group has found a flaw in the secure internet protocol that two-thirds of the servers on the Internet use, a flaw which provides a route for hackers to exploit, enabling them to obtain data and information from many different commercial and non-commercial sources on the web…. They also found that this flaw has been present, unknown to any but a few, for over two years, and MAY already have been exploited by hackers to steal millions upon millions of passwords and information about people…. It’s called Heartbleed, and, apparently, there is no way to tell how much data has already been compromised….

The authorities have decided to finally let the public know about this, and suggest that ALL users who use the internet change ALL their passwords, advising all those users to also take other steps to further protect and secure their data…. Nice of them to let us know, eh?…. Any who, pass it on, because we ALL need to pay attention to this one…. They’ve been to the barn, but left the door open…. you may want to close it, as best you can….

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Online-security-flaw-exposes-millions-of-passwords-5386933.php

Now we’ll go on to the “Cuban Twitter” issue, that brilliantly programed distraction from Barry’s house, wherein the administration is working like mad to keep us from paying too close attention to what they are NOT doing to reform the NDAA and the NSA’s rabid, out-of-control spying…. While all the hullabaloo about this latest piece of stupidity plays itself out on the public stage, discussing the ins and outs of A PROGRAM THAT NOT ONLY FAILED BUT IS NO LONGER IN PLACE, the NSA quietly continues to mine the metadata on phones and computers all over the world, including right here in the USA…..

Yep, this issue, along with the loud, idiotic feud currently being played out between the Senate and the CIA, is the perfect subject to pull attention away from the NSA, as it gives the media, and their dupes, the general public, something on which to focus their ire, instead of having it focused solely on the Department of Cybersecurity, or whatever it’s called…. 

You know, that well-known organization that coordinates all of our spying with the NSA, (Homeland Security now includes the NSA, CIA, FBI, and whatever clandestine organizations in other departments, such as the branches of the military, all sharing information to keep their paranoia fresh), in their avowed search for terrorists, which includes their continuing joint abuse of the American people’s personal meta data….

Go ahead, read the following, and I’ll see you on the other side…. The initial comments you will see were written yesterday, prior to writing this, and may repeat certain portions, for effect….. sort of a reverse time warp, you see…..

“Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side?  And hain’t that a big enough majority in any town?” — Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Angry-exchange-on-Capitol-Hill-over-Cuban-Twitter-5387870.php

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/US-penned-political-satire-in-secret-Cuban-Twitter-5387849.php

Here’s the latest on the Cuban Twitter smoke screen… which is obscuring the other smoke screen, the Saga of DiFi and the CIA, both of which are distracting the public’s attention from what is actually happening NOW…. which is the same old shit/stuff these stories are blathering over, to wit: the out-of-control spying and lying that is going on in Washington, and all over the world, all of which gives me the distinct impression the BRC  seems to be  is waging a war of attrition against its own citizens.

The techniques of information manipulation, to misdirect the attention of the enemy to where it cannot see the actual events that transpire behind the scenes; the lies told bare-faced, claiming innocence with bloody hands…. Well, you get the picture…. The people who are in charge of our nation, ffolkes, are NOT very nice people, and are waging a war against YOU, ME, and everyone who doesn’t fall in line with their insane view of the world….

If you think I’m judging them harshly, well, you may be correct…. But, guess what? They are supposed to be MY public servants, not the other way around, and I’m not going to act as if they have any right to do any of what they are up to, not as long as that is true….. I don’t buy into the sense of entitlement they assume, and happen to believe that they are not only NOT the best of us, rising to the top like cream in milk, but, in fact, I see them as more like the scum that rises to the top of any polluted stream…. It fits them much better, in terms of both visual aspect, as well as their, shall we say, less than flowery odor….

This whole issue, making a big fuss over something that is over and done, and was a mistake to begin with, is just another way to distract the public, keeping them from thinking about the stuff that Edward Snowden revealed, all of which IS STILL GOING ON.

That is what they don’t want us to know, ffolkes, and they’ll do anything to keep us focused somewhere else, even if that means giving up some poor bureaucrats who were only doing what they were told, serving them up as scapegoats to hide their own actions, allowing the press and public to judge these poor fools, to let Congress crucify THEM for having stupidly done a poor job, at what was never anything but a stupid idea…. If it keeps us from looking at what the NSA is doing, all the better, in their view….

I said above that I see our own government perpetrating what I see as acts of war against the American people; I consider that to be gospel truth…. The Beloved Ruling Class, at least, the one I’VE been watching, has been using Sun Tzu’s Art of War to carry on a campaign of disinformation and manipulation of attitudes for many years now….. If you’ve ever read it, it is very clear how the government’s actions and statements are designed to use the principles outlined therein to confuse and misdirect the public’s minds….

With this latest administration, that campaign has reached new levels of intrusion into people’s lives, stealing from them not only their money, with outrageous tax structures and an economic system designed to steal even more of what they earn, but, has also made serious inroads into eliminating the Bill of Rights, taking away liberty after liberty, all in the name of “Homeland Security”, an oxymoron if I ever heard one… Now, they aren’t even waiting for us to spend the money, but are using our own computers and phones to increase their level of control over our fates….

Bah, humbug…. I’m pissed again, and it’s still early…. I’m going to stop now, and go on to the next section, where I hope the poem I’ll choose will have a calming effect on me…. I am not looking forward to carrying this around all day….. and, I’m sure y’all are as tired of hearing about all this, as I am about having to write about it…. Believe me, I wish there wasn’t so damn much wrong in today’s world…. Maybe if there was a bit less, I’d feel as if I could afford to turn my head toward a subject somewhat less critical, but much more amiable to my spirit….

SIGH…. Such is life, and we have to take it the way it comes…. In doing so, however, it would be wise to remember…..  despite any desires or wishes YOU may have, you are at war, ffolkes….. and the enemy lives very close at hand….

I’m gonna go Pearl now….

“Most essential qualification for a politician: The ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year- and to explain afterward why it did not happen.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.” — Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout (1866-1975)

“He whose pride oppresses the humble may, perhaps, be humbled, but will never be humble.” — Lavater

“Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it … You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.” — Will Rogers

“Firmness in politics is called obstinacy anywhere else.” — Smart Bee

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.” — Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

“If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” — Spinoza (1632-1677)

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Maybe it’s just me, but I think this poem is beautiful…. so much so it is one of the best ever written, in my somewhat less than humble opinion….

Part of its charm, for me, comes from the sheer symmetry of the rhyming pattern Wordsworth used… Four lines with alternating ending rhymes, followed by a couplet that also rhymed perfectly…. Twenty-four lines, four stanzas, and a visual aspect as sharp as a photograph, in describing the flowers, and in the way it appears on screen, or paper…. Just look at it…. centered, balanced, complete within itself….

Carrying the pattern through to the ending verse, for me, creates a visual aspect that matches the sheer beauty of the experience he is sharing with the reader…. It assumes an almost mathematically precise symmetry for me, displaying the sheer beauty of nature in all its undisciplined magnificence….. One of my all-time favorite poems, for sure…. and always guaranteed to soothe the spirit…. I defy ANYONE to say they don’t feel better after reading this…..

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

~~ William Wordsworth ~~


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Having completed the obligatory ranting for the day…. (hell, given what I wrote yesterday, I could consider myself done for the week….) I don’t feel compelled to do so any further, and in fact, plan to finish up as quickly as I can, & go take a nap….. As a retired dilettante,  I have that right, and I exercise it frequently, to keep it supple…. Moreover, I like it, so, there…..

I think, given the apparent direction my mood is taking, on the evidence of that last sentence, it intends to go somewhere none of us particularly want to go, so, I’m going to go pearling again, with no particular parameters to guide my hand, only a vague sense of nonsense…. whatever THAT might be….

Pluralitas non ponenda est sine necessitate.  (Multiplicity is not to be asserted when it is unnecessary.) — William of Occam [Occam’s Razor]

“There is a time for thinking and a time for NOT thinking.  And THIS isn’t one of them.” — Paul the Samurai

“A gleekzorp without a tornpee is like a quop without a fertsneet (sort of).” — Smart Bee

“Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves.” — Joseph P. Thompson

“I put aside my copy of “BOWLING WORLD” and think about GUN CONTROL legislation..” — Zippy the Pinhead

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” — Albert Einstein

“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger.” — Chinese proverb

Hmm…. an eclectic little group, eh? In looking at the whole pearl, I think I would suggest shuffling them around a bit, to see if a different configuration will shake it down to a point where it’s a bit more transparent, or at least organized into a sequential thought pattern…. Or, not….

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Having dutifully proofed, edited, and polished, I consider this done…. Moreover, after carefully performing the appropriate calculations, I am convinced there really isn’t any more damage I can do…. That means it would be a good idea to end this now, and get on with the rest of the day….

Oh…. Okay, that means me…. Very well…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided the BRC hasn’t found me yet….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3