Subject to NSA review, it’s done….

Posted on June 1, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“It might not be Ibsen, but, it’s Art.” Or, in the case of our situation here on ECR, it could be merely Art’s friend Joey, who, while nice in most respects, isn’t Art…. Of course, I never promised any damn roses, or gardens, or any other sort of horticultural display; I’ve been known to kill cacti, so I usually try to avoid that sort of plant genocide…. The easiest way to do that is to keep my black thumb away from anything that depends on my attention to stay alive; it’s safer for the plants, and I don’t get the evil eye from every gardener who happens by….

“Castles in the air — they’re so easy to take refuge in. So easy to build, too.” — Henrik Ibsen

How did I get onto my inability to deal with watering? I had intended to start off in an entirely different direction, but, it sort of got away with me before I even got out of the first paragraph…. Sometimes, I think this is getting to be a bit strange…. Oh, I don’t mean strange, funny, I mean strange, weird…. Any who, whichever strange it is, it’s starting t show more episodes of rebellious independence, haring off in directions that make no sense at all, especially since they aren’t connected to anything but normal prose, that just happened to be there when it made its bid for literary freedom…

Of course, that doesn’t account for the tendency of all independent literature to become revolutionary in nature, thus exposing itself, and, by concatenation, the author, to scrutiny from those friendly fokes (misspelled deliberately…. they don’t rate even ONE ‘el’….) at the NSA, who are deep into the process of becoming completely insane in their need to collect ALL the data in the world….. That 60’s rock song had it right, when it told us, “Paranoia strikes deep; into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid…..”….. and, boy, are they afraid!….

That is as deep into ranting as I’ll get today, ffolkes…. I’m trying to keep to my plan, to avoid so much ranting it puts me into a bad mood, before I even begin to think rationally…. It’s never a good idea to decide on one’s direction before drinking sufficient coffee to keep such considerations out of the decision-making process; we tend to end up with several thousand words, all sharply pointed, and jabbing at the BRC, or the preachers, or the Corporate Snakeheads, those assholes….

That’s enough of THAT! Before this turns on me again, I believe I will head out to the oyster beds…. I’m thinking it would be best if y’all came along, if only to keep from getting Murphy excited…. He doesn’t need the help, or the stimulation, believe me….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.” — Thucydides

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Here we go, off again into the wilds of a new-fashioned pearl…. let’s see if I can make this work today….

“He who endeavors to serve, to benefit, and improve the world, is like a swimmer, who struggles against a rapid current, in a river lashed into angry waves by the winds. Often they roar over his head, often they beat him back and baffle him. Most men yield to the stress of the current… Only here and there the stout, strong heart and vigorous arms struggle on toward ultimate success.” — Albert Pike (1809-1891)

To my way of looking at it, the picture is perfect for this pearl…. it shows us the river of which Mr. Pike speaks, as it appears to us BEFORE we jump in…. and, after we have reached the point in the river to which our struggles take us. Once the effort has been successfully spent, the road is smooth, and clear of traffic…. Well, it SOUNDS good, doesn’t it…. If reality doesn’t always cooperate, it can’t be helped…. or so they say….

“I think we’re all Bozos on this Bus!” — The Firesign Theater

There it is, ffolkes…. it’s the Bozo Bus, taking us all down to Reality, as long as we can pay the fare…. Actually, the picture is an example of amateur photography at it’s finest, or worst, which often happens at the same time…. I took it while in a sunny spot, on an overcast morning, which made it hard to see just how the zoom had worked, or not…. Hence, a picture that highlights the odd views we can get when we know NOT what we are doing…. in short, a perfect illustration of living up to our Bozoid natures….. Whether or not y’all know it, or believe it, Reality has the final word, and you may as well accept the facts, ffolkes…. We are ALL Bozos on this Bus…..

“‘Truth’ never set anyone free. It is only *doubt* which will bring mental emancipation.” — Anton LaVey

As further proof of the assertion made just above, in the previous pearl, (We are all Bozos, etc…..) this picture was taken, and included in this grouping, BEFORE I noticed the trash receptacle in the exact center of the photo…. I thought I was taking a nice, long view of a pleasant spot, (for a parking area….), showing how amenable even such stark buildings can be made….. while the whole time, the blunt nose of Reality was leaving a smear on the glass….. SIGH, oh well…. I guess even photography requires a bit of sharpness of mind, to achieve any real degree of competence…. That, or just paying better attention, which I’ll also try to work into the program…. SIGH…. It never ends, does it?….

Or, maybe it’s merely my just desserts, for using a quote by LaVey….. Even though true, one must remember to always consider the source; Anton LaVey, for those who are unaware, was the long-time leader of the Church of Satan…. so, it’s worth taking ANYTHING he says with a grain of salt, even when, like this one, it is so obviously correct….

“Stuckness shouldn’t be avoided. It’s the psychic predecessor of all real understanding. An egoless acceptance of stuckness is a key to an understanding of all Quality, in mechanical work as in other endeavors.” — Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

I’m not sure just how the quote goes with the picture, except that the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance somehow goes together with the idea of palm trees, especially when they are completely out of their normal place…. Those of y’all who have actually read the book by Mr. Pirsig will, I think, be better able to understand that, though it isn’t guaranteed…. There are, I’m sure, some people who read the book, who still don’t understand how Zen comes into it, so, I can’t always expect people to catch my references, either…. but, that’s okay, too, because, hey, look! We got Art!…. Well, we’ve got pictures, anyway….

“No one loves the man whom he fears.” — Aristotle

You might be wondering about now just how this picture fits in with the pearl…. well, it doesn’t, really….. I picked the pearl just because it is good to remember, and it makes me hope…. that there are a number of men (or women, I’m not picky in my enemies…) sitting somewhere in a basement somewhere in Washington D.C., dredging through all the stuff they’ve pulled out of people’s computers and off the internet, to search out the nasty terrorists they KNOW are hiding among us, reading what I’ve created here, and scratching their heads, trying to figure out if it is treasonous, or merely subversive…. while, all the while, I’m hoping they are getting the clue, that I’m laughing at them….

Probably not, though…. I don’t think they’re quite that sharp, to ascertain when they’ve been insulted…. S’okay, I’ve got plans today…. which brings us to the picture, of the ferry I’m going to ride in a couple of hours, on my new daily quest for pictures, and some fun for me, participating in LIFE at large… Today, that means I’m taking the ferry to SF, with my camera in hand, to try to take a couple hundred or so pictures, so I’ve got a bigger pool from which to fish for this new format…. For now, though, we’ll just go on, & try to get this done, so I can get going…..

To close this section, here is a political cartoon, by a cartoonist who posts a lot on the UK Guardian, which is where I found this little gem…. enjoy!

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It’s an Emily day, I can tell…..

A Book

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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In order to keep with the format we’ve held to for nearly two years, an old-school pearl will be appropriate in this section…. not that being appropriate is a high priority around here, but, we do what we can….

“It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.’ — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 780

“The real world is not user-friendly.” — Kelvin Throop

“Yield to Temptation … it may not pass your way again.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Any excuse will serve a tyrant.” — Aesop (620-560 B.C.)

“When two do the same thing, it is not the same thing after all.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 338

“Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) –Roman Apophthegms, Cato the Elder

Aw, but, where’s the fun in THAT?…..

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This seems to be working out fairly well…. and, if yesterday’s stats are any indication, the audience approves…. Of course, that is most likely some kind of anomaly, but, we’ll see…. For now, I’ll see you mañana, with a bunch of new pix…. See y’all later, 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

Failing that, we’ll go subterranean….

Posted on May 30, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I find myself in a position all too familiar, yet strangely, it doesn’t SEEM to resemble the past I remember closely. That probably sounds as confused as I feel, which, obviously, is considerably befuddled. Of course, befuddlement is also a somewhat common state for me, ever since my teens, when I started to question why what I had always been told about the world, and life, was pretty much all wrong….

I mean, can you BELIEVE this? They told me, when I was just a little kid, that I could trust policemen, that they would never harm me, or hurt anyone…. They told me my money would be safest in a bank, and would earn me the most if I let the bankers invest it for me….They told me that merchants and vendors were honest people, just trying to make a living, not trying to cheat me with shoddy products or hidden charges…They told me that the leaders of our country were honest, forthright men and women, who would never lie to the public (George Washington and the cherry tree are often brought out at that point….)….. And, they told me that God loves people, meaning me, and will make sure I live forever, if I just give enough money at church….

Do I have to give the evidence? Is it necessary for me to show y’all exactly how NONE of those things, that we ALL were told when young, are true…. nor have they been true for most of my life…. The world does NOT match the crap that we were all told, and to think it does, in any fashion, is just feeding into the hands of those who would keep us all in the slave’s collar, if they thought they could get away with it….

You watch, some day soon, wearing a slave’s collar will be described as “the latest fashion”, and people will fall all over themselves to get one in a leopard print…. We all may as well face the facts, ffolkes….. You, and I, and every other fool, whether we buy into the crap that the current leaders of society are putting out, or not, are nothing more than pathetic, economic slaves, and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it, not any more…. If you don’t believe you are a slave to their form of economics, or that you really have any CHOICE in the matter, well, you are, quite simply, deluded, and all-the-more-perfect fodder for their pillaging….

They’ve got it all tied up, in a nice pretty bow, and nothing we do can cause any real changes to happen, if they don’t want them…. and change is NOT what they want…. Maintaining the status quo is JOB ONE for any politician; how else will the money keep flowing into their pockets?

And what the hell am I doing?….

I’m barely into the intro section, and find myself in a full-on rant…. It all stems from the article I read yesterday, which I’ve included below in section one; not the one about Eric Snowden’s interview, but the response by that prominent fat cat, Dianne Feinstein, which, I note, didn’t come out until well AFTER the interview….

I guess it took some time for Obama, Feinstein, McConnell, and the other players in this drama to confer, and decide who was going to lead off, with whatever lies they’ve prepared to answer Snowden’s latest attempts to communicate with the American people, to try to undermine anything he might say, as being the words of a traitor…. Since DiFi led off the barrage, I imagine today we’ll hear from someone at the NSA (maybe…) or McConnell, or Obama…. all of whom will try to convince the public that Snowden is the liar, not them…. Since there are many of them, and only one of him, they think they have the advantage, and they’re right…. Besides which, they’re all PROFESSIONAL liars, not just your average prevaricators….

I’ll finish this discussion in section one; if I continue here, we may never get there…. Damn it! I had hoped to not have to rant, at all, so I could create one of the new style pearls, with pictures, but, this just HAS to be addressed, or they’ll have the floor with nobody else to speak back, to show how they are the liars….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured.” — Tacitus (54-119 AD) — Agricola, 42

Ah!….. Well, that explains it…. It’s no wonder the politicians, the preachers, the bankers, et al, hate us all….

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Here is an article regarding the interview of Eric Snowden on NBC a night or two ago…. In it, Mr. Snowden brings out several points which go a long way to helping understand why the government is so inflexible in going after him, and why they are so determined to prove him wrong… (Hint: in their eyes, it justifies their own illegal activities)…. Read the articles, especially the second one, with the egregiously STUPID remarks by someone I had thought was smarter….. not that I’ve ever trusted her, but, I always thought DiFi was smarter than the average Senator…. Apparently not, if this issue is any indication….

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/six-memorable-quotes-from-edward-snowdens-nbc-interview-20140529?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Feinstein-Snowden-never-voiced-NSA-concerns-5514604.php

I’ve decided NOT to rant. I’m just going to say these few comments, then I’ll put together an old-school pearl to make my point…. DiFi makes one obvious error in her statements to the public on this matter…. She claims that Snowden didn’t really blow any whistles to the NSA, he just stole the documents, without ever trying to do what they consider the right thing, which is to ask the lying spies to tell the truth…. Such BS….

Any who, she says E. S. never said anything to his supervisors about his concerns….. and how does she know this?…. Well, ffolkes, that’s easy…. because the NSA told her so…. Sure, Dianne, lets believe a bunch of spies when we ask them what they’ve been up to…. This is the same woman who accused the CIA of hacking into her investigation of them; furthermore, she accused them of obstructing the process of investigation, and lying to her and her staff…. Now, she expects us to believe this OTHER group of spies are NOT lying to us, or to her; she wants us to believe they won’t lie when she asks them if he said anything to them…. Is that STUPID, or not? If you said ‘not’, then, I feel for you, living in a world where cotton candy passes for brains….

Oh, plus, she says that the NSA has no documentation that Mr. Snowden ever wrote anything to them to point out any of the reservations he was having…. Well, of COURSE they don’t…. Silly woman… What does she think they’ve been doing ever since his actions were revealed? Looking for things he wrote, to save them? If they looked for any written notes from him, they did so during their interior auditing process, after discovering the leaks, to look for what they needed to delete and/or destroy…. They’ve had over a year since then to clean up anything that might prove his contentions, and I’m positive they didn’t waste a minute of it SAVING his documents…. just the reverse…. They can lie about this without fear of exposure, because they KNOW they’ve already destroyed all he DID write….

Okay, that’s it, end of rant…. But, ffolkes, if any of y’all are buying into this crap the government is spewing about this issue, then, you are living in the land of the blind, and deaf, and more than just dumb…. Here are some aphorisms that may help you to realize how badly the BRC, and the rest of the Asininnies, wants us to believe their lies, and how important it is for them to have our blind trust and obedience…. Without it, they are sunk…. Well, that’s our hope, I suppose…

“Want a taste of religion? Bite a minister!” — Smart Bee

“By trying, we can easily learn to endure adversity — another man’s, I mean.” — Mark Twain

” — Bother! said Pooh, these people are evil.” — NOT Christopher Robin, & NOT A.A. Milne (In fact, your guess is as good as mine…. It SOUNDS very Carlinesque….)

“The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.” — Justice Anthony Kennedy, in 91-155

“Is there a Lemon Law for Presidents too?’ — Smart Bee

“And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight…Then he [the Lord!] said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.” — Ezek. 4:12-15 (KJV)

(Just so you know…. That’s disgusting, in every way….. but, typical of the lessons taught by the Bible….)

Lastly, to round off this strange collection of insults and oddly phrased indictments of the BRC, et al…..

“God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent- it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash, and in small bills.” — Lazarus Long

Some of you may wonder how religious figures and churches got lumped into the group being vilified today…. That’s just me…. In my world, I tend to lump politicians, preachers, police, bankers, and sexual predators all into the same group, of humans who are either evil by choice and nature, or completely misguided fools, victims of the same propaganda under which we all labor in life, but, worse, because they ENJOY being assholes about stuff…. Any who, the last pearl says it all…. anyone who buys into their BS gets EXACTLY what they deserve…..

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Since I’m in full curmudgeon mode, and have fallen back into my old ways today, here is one of my favorite political poems…. It’s kinda silly, but, it fits my mood….

Geezer to Congress, with Love

Politicos don’t care much ’bout seniors and their ilk,
except for their money, I thinks;
Though they talk as if they’d cozen them in silk,
what they actually do, it stinks.“The banks are failing, we can’t allow that!”,
steal from the aged, that’s their plan.
“Their life’s ending, that’s plainly where they’re at,”
lie shamelessly, because they can.Maybe just once, if we all act together,
it couldn’t miss.
Right on their shoes, no matter the weather,
take careful aim, and piss.Why the hell not?
It’s worth a shot!

~~ gigoid ~~

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In the very olden days, when I first began to post here on WP, the POVW had a different format. It was simpler, merely an intro, followed by a five- or seven-star pearl, and maybe one closing line….. which is the format you see below…. I’m late, and tired, and want to go start taking pictures for tomorrow’s new-style Pearl; since I intend to use my own pix, I’d best start collecting some appropriate pictures to use…. Any who, all excuses and rationalizations aside, this is a good example of how Pearls used to look every day…. They were a lot shorter then, as you will notice….

From 9/25/2011:

Ffolkes,
It is once again Sunday, and it looks as if we’ll get some rain. And talking about the weather is pretty much a useless pastime, but it’s all I’ve got today. I am, for some reason, exhausted, and I just got up. I believe I know the reason for that, though, and will have to take care of it some day very soon. Meanwhile, I’m going to just give you the Pearls today, and they can stand on their own. I’ll write tomorrow, I promise….

“A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming.” — Barbarella

“Communication is next to impossible with someone who has no doubts.” — Limon

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

— Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

“Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title.” — Virginia Woolf

“Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.” — Smart Bee

“On the other hand, life can be an endless parade of TRANSSEXUAL QUILTING BEES aboard a cruise ship to DISNEYWORLD if only we let it!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Yes, if only we will let it, life can be what it is…..y’all take care out there….

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Lest my habit of accepting the blame for all of this be abrogated, I think I’d best just be done with it, and begone from this place…. I DO have a lot to do today…. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes…. I’m hoping, 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.

<big>gigoid the dubious<big>

Revolutionary changes are imperative, it seems….

Posted on May 29, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I don’t know about y’all, but, I’m starting to bore myself, a bit…. It’s hard to do, as we all tend to NOT get bored according to our own choices, but, I’ve gone beyond the normal, past the strange, into the overbearing…. and, apparently, my readership has noticed, as well. Site traffic at ECR has fallen off again, and this time, I think I know why…. I’m probably making myself crazy even paying attention to the site stats, but, in all honesty, my ranting has gotten old, to me, and, no doubt, to those familiar with my writing….

I write a lot, I know, so I always take that into account; a lot of people don’t read fast, and can be intimidated, I’m sure, by the sheer amount of what I’ve created each day…. I average about 2200-2500 words a day, and I know it can be a lot to take in, since not all of it is what can be called easily digested (I hope…). I had hoped that the content, and the relative importance of that content to each and every person alive, would draw folks, and ffolkes, in to read, but, I suppose, after a while, even the most compelling stuff gets old….

That, I think, is where I’m at…. at least, to some degree, enough so to affect my readership, and enough so I am no longer sure it’s what I should be doing here…. Of course, since this is a relatively new idea around here, I also have nothing in the way of replacement material, should I decide to forgo all ranting, or at minimum, avoid such depressing subject matter for a time, to give it a rest, so to speak….

It’s hard to decide, when it’s all so new to me…. Like many ffolkes my age, I am not dealing as well with CHANGE as I formerly did; it tends to make me grumpy….. Or, maybe it’s that I no longer want to put up with changes that I didn’t personally authorize or initiate…. It plays into it, I’m sure… I AM human, after all, so my own likes, dislikes, and preferences are going to play into whatever I decide to do…. Hell, being human, those are the PRIMARY reasons for almost ALL that I do…. as it is for all of us bald monkeys….

I know what I WANT to do…. which is probably a good thing. What I’d like to do is to alter the format some, to include images, and possibly videos; either one of those would enhance the experience here at ECR quite a bit, as well as make it more palatable for those readers who don’t read as fast, depending (as most modern folks do….) on shorter, more intense bursts of less information, more colorfully arranged….

In essence, what I’m saying here is this: I think I need to put my message into a format that is more acceptable for consumption by today’s readers…. The old fashioned, reasoned, logical, even philosophical approach to passing information is just that…. old fashioned…. Modern readers like their information in smaller bytes, so to speak, with more pictures and less text to read….

I suppose what I need to acknowledge is that the modern politicians, with their Twitter feeds, and Facebook presence, are getting the message out better than I can do with my ranting, because they are framing their words in pictures, (InstaGram, or Pinterest work for them….), or creating modern memes that draw attention for a short time, but manage to pass on the necessary information…..

Information is becoming three dimensional; soon our phone calls will include holographic images of the person to whom you are talking, just as if you were in the same room. Anyone who wishes to pass information to the public is going to need to learn how to frame their message in ways that will draw attention, and hold it long enough to inject the information into the person being addressed…. My method of ranting will have audiences limited to those who prefer the old fashioned ways, or who like their information in bigger bytes…. er, bites….

Any who, I will be thinking about this…. I will also be going out into the world, with my camera, to start recording pieces of Consensual Reality to use here, to frame the message I need to put out to people, using fewer words, and more pictures…. I want to use my own pix, for two reasons…

One, I LIKE to take pictures… and two, if I use my own pix, I don’t need to worry about attribution, which will make it much easier…. It can sometimes be hard to remember who is responsible for a picture I’ve found, and saved, as the attribution isn’t always present; I’ll stick to my own, mostly, and avoid the worst of that issue….

For today, let’s see what kind of trouble I can create, by keeping in mind the need for more art, and fewer words…. though, if this intro is any indication, it’s going to be tough as hell to stop writing so much…. I just got good at this rambling, blathering style, and can go on like this almost forever… which, as I say, wouldn’t be good for the blog…. So, instead, we’ll employ emergency method #4 again…. Hang on tight for a moment….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xii

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“The Constitution of the United States guarantees every individual the right to make a damn fool of himself — in public or private, however he chooses.” — Solomon Short

This pearl will be the first of its kind…. Below you will see pictures ( provided I have done this correctly….), all taken with my own camera, during various trips to here and there…. After each there will be a (hopefully) short comment on some facet of life suggested by the photo…. That will, in turn, be followed by a pearl, that will hopefully speak to the picture and comment…. In short, these will be Visual Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, designed to expand, and augment the process of Pearling to a point where it’s more fun than the previous versions….

That’s the plan, anyway…. Let’s see how it comes out, shall we?….
First, imagine yourself standing on one of the ice floes you see in the foreground…., or, better yet, you’re swimming in that frigid water…. Feel the cold that surrounds you, making your breath almost freeze as it leaves your body, forming a thick cloud of icy vapor in front of you with each tortured breath….. Now, imagine standing on the glacier you see further down the stream, literally freezing your butt off….. Now, once you’ve come to understand the true nature of cold, you will realize why I call this picture, “The Corporate Heart”…..

“He knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.” — Old Testament — Proverbs ix, 18
This one needs no introduction; it’s self-explanatory…. Suffice it to say, my father taught me ALL of these, and I still try to live my life by these rules…. If the rest of the men in the world would use only HALF of these, that world would be an entirely different kind of place, one with some degree of rationality, and consequently, some degree of peace…. If you don’t think so, just try using these rules as a standard by which to judge those you see in a political office, and see how many of them they break, on a regular, daily basis…. it will shock many people….

“I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.” — G.K. Chesterton
Irish morning? Or, Scottish evening? It could be either one, and is a good illustration of how perception can be uncertain, if one doesn’t know all the pertinent information regarding those perceptions…. But, we get a new one, every day, to keep on trying to get it right…..

“If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.” — Horace
Time passes, and none may stop its progress…. and, Life treats us all the same…. badly. It is how we react to that abuse that determines the course of our lives, so, learn to enjoy what you see, and be honest and true in what you do…. I guarantee, it makes it all better than if you don’t do either of those simple tasks….

“Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.” — the 14th Dalai Lama, interview in “TIME”, 11 April 1988
I’ve spoken previously of my feelings about Duty…. This picture, to me, defines that concept…. and I’m not really sure why…. I guess it’s because he is out there, all alone, dressed up in a silly costume, playing the pipes, which will only increase his solitude…. yet, he plays on, to complete the duty he has chosen to assume…. That’s the way it works, ffolkes, and any other way of looking at it is incorrect….. Dig it….

“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.” — Lazarus Long

Well, there you have it, ffolkes, the first of its kind….. I hope you enjoyed it…. I certainly enjoyed putting it together, and I don’t feel all ragged out from ranting, so, that’s good, too…. See you down the page….

“We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men’s wisdom.” — Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592)

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

I need some Emily….

I had no time to hate, because

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

Since I created a new-style pearl above, and to avoid a rant here, I’ll go with the archived pearl I had already picked out for this morning’s effort…. Enjoy….

From 1/14/2014:

The following old-school variety will be a unique pearl, put together using a method of timing and selection heretofore untried…. I’m not even sure of my ability to describe exactly what parameters I’ll be setting, as the search for these connected aphorisms has taken place on three separate occasions, none of which were related in any elemental way…. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I have no idea how this will turn out, but, usually, when we try new techniques like this, it seems to work out pretty well, so, I’m confident this will do the same…. Enjoy!..

“The doctrine that the earth is neither the center of the universe nor immovable, but moves even with a daily rotation, is absurd, and both philosophically and theologically false, and at the least an error of faith.” — Roman Congregation decision against Galileo

“To command the professors of astronomy to confute their own observations is to enjoin an impossibility, for it is to command them not to see what they do see, and not to understand what they do understand, and to find what they do not discover.”– Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

“Kids, the seven basic food groups are GUM, PUFF PASTRY, PIZZA, PESTICIDES, ANTIBIOTICS, NUTRA-SWEET and MILK DUDS!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Okay! That, I think, will give you a clearer idea of where we are headed with this, so, make sure you’re safety harnesses are fully fastened, and you are hanging on for dear life to the soft, fluffy stuffed animals provided by your friendly flight attendants…. Hang on, ffolkes, these last four could get rambunctious….

“All riches come from iniquity, and unless one has lost, another cannot gain. Hence that common opinion seems to be very true, “the rich man is unjust, or the heir to an unjust one.” Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, than by his predecessor.” — St. Jerome (340?-420)

“Heroes as great have died, and yet shall fall.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Iliad of Homer, Book xv, Line 157

“The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children’s games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games which it is most attached is called, “Keep tomorrow dark,” and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) “Cheat the Prophet.” The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. Then they go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

“History is a lie commonly agreed upon.” — Nietzsche

I rest my case…..

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

Considering the relative newness of today’s process, it didn’t go too badly…. Now I get to see how it posts…. and, I’d best get to it…. See you, tomorrow, ffolkes, if I last that long…..

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

Cats don’t do intangible….

Posted on May 17, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Yesterday, for me, was pretty well trashed from the beginning, and today is looking not much better; I’m not going to whine, which is, I’m sure, a relief to all…. I am, however, going to go ahead and let y’all know today isn’t going to be much better…. The pain I felt yesterday hasn’t gotten better by any appreciable degree, so I’ll be spending another day in a drugged stupor, if I have anything to say about it….

I decided today’s Pearl could be a re-blog, but, rather than do it the normal way, I’m going to reproduce one of my oldest works, in five sections instead of the three we have in today’s format…. This is from December of 2011, near the end of my first year in retirement, and my first year of learning to live in near-poverty…. At the time of this writing, I was in a minor funk (depression, to the uninitiated among you….), due to having NO money, with Christmas fast approaching….

This Pearl was created, fresh out of my head, the day before my son’s 32nd birthday…. I hope you enjoy it; it’s a good picture of my mind during that period, such as it was…. Minor editing has been performed to make the whole thing more readable, given my current understanding of how that works, without changing any of the content significantly… i.e., I’ve added spaces, and adjusted an adjective, or a punctuation mark, at various points throughout, that’s all….

Shall we Pearl? Yes, we shall, and more than merely old-school…..

“If you are near the enemy, make him believe you are far from him. If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.” — Sun-Tzu, The Art of War

(I keep trying, but, my worst enemy, pain, never pays any attention….)

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

12/16/11

Ffolkes,

Another day dawns, and I’m fairly certain that I left my mind in one of my dreams last night. Disconcerting, to say the least; I’m operating on extreme autopilot mode. This could make for some very interesting Pearls, as my mind is where I keep almost all of my restraint. In this condition, I could say damn near anything, and not give a whit for how it sounds to other folks. Oh well, we’ll just have to dive in, and takes our chances…….

(Shall we Pearl?…..)
___________________________________

“Violence accomplishes nothing.” “What a contemptible lie! Raw, naked violence has settled more issues throughout history than any other method ever employed. Perhaps the city fathers of Carthage could debate the issue, with Hitler and Alexander as judges?”–attribution not given, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this with Robert Heinlein’s name behind it.

Our planet is rife with violence of many sorts. It’s only to be expected when a goodly number of the creatures who live on this planet use other creatures as their source of food. Those other creatures are not always amenable to that, and will put up a pretty good argument for an animal that otherwise does not fight. This can lead to some rather spirited discussions over dietary preferences…….

There is, however, another effect of using force to obtain food, one that can be problematic to use at best. The use of force can be easily applied to the process of obtaining other desired objects, such as a better cave, a prettier mate, more food, etc. Humans very quickly adapted to this system, as violence is part of our nature. (Anyone who does not agree with this is not paying enough attention, or is in deep denial) We tend to use the threat of force a lot as we go about our business; it is one of our most universally adaptable tools, able to be applied to almost any situation as a means of achieving one’s goals.

But there is a price for the use of this tool, and it is a heavy one. Each time a person uses violent means to achieve their ends, a little bit more Grace is carved out of their karma. They devolve, instead of evolving, and become more and more unable to use any other tools they may have, more bestial in their demeanor. The more violent a person becomes, the further they remove themselves from the rest of society, eventually coming into conflict with society at large, as being a danger to others.

As with just about anything, society as a whole is much more effective at violence than any single entity can be, just because of numbers, if naught else. Breaking the habit of assuming a violent stance in response to life’s vicissitudes is extremely difficult; people don’t give up their primary behaviors without a great deal of resistance. But society has little patience with rogue citizens, and will have its way, irrespective of our wishes.

This is why we have prisons, and an entire system of law to protect each citizen from suffering violence at the hands of another citizen. If we were truly moral creatures, we wouldn’t need any of that….but we are not, and violence will be an issue for society to deal with as long as human nature remains resistant to change…..
___________________________________

“Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerve give to wisdom.” — Mark Twain

I always enjoy good advice in the form of an aphorism. Short, sweet, and sharp as a scalpel, a good aphorism cuts right through any preconceptions or perceptive fog, and arrows straight to the rational corner of the mind. This one from Mr. Clemens is a perfect example of the venue, and how it pulls the mind along with it, out of the darkness of ignorance, and into the light of knowledge.

I consider aphorisms, or axioms, or anecdotes, or any other word that describes this form of communication to be peerless in their usefulness, especially as a teaching tool. Hell, they are the backbone of this entire process; if I didn’t rely on them for subject matter, I’d have to actually sit down and think up what to write, instead of just commenting on what others have said, and that would bear far too much resemblance to actual work…….
___________________________________

If money is the root of all evil, I’ve been uprooted.

True enough, but not accurate in its original sense. The quote actually reads “The love of money is the root of all evil”, and is misquoted a lot, probably because it makes the same kind of sense the original possessed, and people, in my experience, are pretty lazy. The sad part of this in my estimation is that everyone knows this, and just about everyone totally ignores it. People still spend most of their waking hours in employing various and sundry methods to increase how much money they possess. Everybody wants more, and more, and more, and will say and do almost anything to achieve that end.

I’ve never wanted any more of it than I need to get by, to be able to do the things I like to do, with possibly some extra to give to folks who need some. That’s all. Perhaps my lack of ambition in this respect makes me seem strange, but I’ve never understood why folks would want to burden themselves with so much stuff that they have to worry about others trying to take it away.

It’s much more fulfilling to use only what one needs, and be happy with that, and then use the rest for helping others to achieve the same…..and you don’t have to worry that it will be taken away, just like it was taken from someone else. I prefer to not become a target……
___________________________________

“That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)

I’m always amazed at how accurate the statement “there’s nothing new under the sun” can be. According to this little gem, mankind has been struggling with the same philosophical questions for a long time, in this case about two thousand years. And from what I can see, we’re not making a lot of progress. This concept is as true today as it was in Greece two millenia ago; mankind continues to use whatever means they have at hand to manipulate others, even if those means are degrading to all who participate.

The urge to control other folks, in order to set ourselves up as being superior, has never been comprehensible to me; I believe that the impulse to do so is indicative of a sickness in the soul, and that the folks who indulge in such actions are mentally ill. And I should know; I spent close to twenty years caring for the mentally ill, and have seen the outcome of every maladaptive behavior known to science.

In my humble opinion, anyone who actively wants to be President of this country is seriously mentally ill. The job is impossible for one man to do well, what with all the roadblocks to reform and/or progress that are thrown up in their path by the opposing political party. But, as absolute power corrupts absolutely, there is always some dickhead out there ready to foist their own particular madness on the rest of us.

I’m looking forward to the election next year, if only because the political arena has been so frigging insane this year. Next year promises to provide even more stuff to write about every day, as one pundit after another parades their ignorance before the unwashed masses…..
___________________________________

“Honor isn’t about making the right choices. It’s about dealing with the consequences.” — Midori Koto

This is a good point to make, as I see a lot of folks in today’s world who really don’t have any idea of what honor really means. It is rare to even find someone these days who even thinks about their honor, and even more rare to find a truly honorable person. The whole concept has fallen out of favor in general society; expedience has become more acceptable, no matter how dishonorable it may be.

To my way of thinking, society has reached a point where people’s sense of entitlement has grown completely out of control. A person’s personal desires are considered sacrosanct, no matter how badly achieving those desires may affect others. It doesn’t matter that acting in such a fashion places others in danger, or demeans them, or merely inconveniences them; people don’t care, because they’ve been led to believe that what they want is what they deserve, by corporate entities who feed into this, because it plays right into their hands.

It’s easy to get someone to buy something, when they believe they have the right to it. What is hard is doing so in an honorable fashion, and we all know how most folks feel about doing hard stuff…..
___________________________________

It’s probably a good thing to stop here. This was threatening to grow by another thousand words, so it’s just as well I cut it off here; you probably have other stuff to do, and I know I certainly have a plate full of problematic tasks. We’d all best be getting to it…..y’all take care out there…..

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

I just realized this old Pearl has no poem…. We can’t have THAT….. Since I’m being egotistical today, anyway, here is another of my old ones, which speaks about my reason for not writing today….

Gauges of Pain

Consciousness devolves in pools of gripping fears
holding hostage any hope of serenity,
sharp stabbing motions and greedy tears
nary a moment passes without common calamity.

Always a surprise, nothing soothing ever found,
leaving only breathless clinging pain,
salvation seemingly absent, it muffles all sound,
bringing ever more sadness and rain.

Solitude is ever present to claim my time,
lonely hours and relentlessly long days,
no radio plays such music in secular rhyme
happy, vibrant voices belong to elder ways.

Life can be justified it seems to say,
by hopeful favored moments of pleasure,
seemingly friendly, pointing out the only way,
to bring back happiness in minimal measure.

Days of horror and embarrassing tears
serve ever to drive wretched hours to withhold
promising naught but sorrow in coming years,
black, bitter memories that never grow old.

Cold, cold the days fly by,
can it really be our only token?
Never to say, or know just why
the pain never stops, even when spoken…

~~ gigoid ~~

(Yes, yesterday was NOT a good day…. why do you ask?…..)

Griefe brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,
For, he tames it, that fetters it in verse.

— John Donne

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

Well, ffolkes, if this Pearl is any evidence, my propensity for divulging opinion isn’t anything new…. I DO feel I’ve made some good progress, in terms of my writing; I am much better now, I think, at many of the small, yet important details that make a piece more readable. Even the few structural changes I made to this piece improved the flow, and made it easier to consume…. Plus, it’s done, which, today, is the most important factor of all…. I’m going to post this as quickly as I can, then go let some hot water beat me into submission, while I wait for my latest round of consumable cannabis to take effect…. I’ll see you tomorrow, hopefully in a better frame of mind, and body….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

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

Posted on May 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Again, Again!

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

— Rainer Maria Rilke ~~

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

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

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

From 6/26/2012:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Horrible examples of overt penitence….

Posted on May 7, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I don’t know, but I’ve been told, if the horse won’t pull, you’ve got to carry the load.” — Grateful Dead

I am uncertain, at this point, which of the Dead’s songs this line came from, but, it certainly fits the events of THIS morning around here…. I’m up late, for me; it’s now 5 AM, & I’m just getting started, after about a half-hour of attempting to wake up enough to even get coffee poured, much less get any writing done….. Beset on all sides by obstacles to getting this Pearl started, (don’t even THINK about getting done yet…), I’m “dappled, and drowsy, and ready to sleep”…. to quote another song (Simon & Garfunkel, I believe….)….. Well, maybe not ready to sleep, but, not quite ready to be awake….

It’s a fortunate thing, for me, anyway, that I had completed a rant yesterday, after reading the news…. Some egregiously avaricious Senator had to come out with more bullshit to try to convince the public the XL Pipeline disaster should be allowed to go forward, and a new climate report, by some agency of the current administration, came out with their report, which, though sufficiently scary, is merely a repeat of other reports that were recently released by climatologists connected to a WORLD organization…. Put together by some group commissioned by the White House, it parrots much of the material that was first noted in the report released by the UN study on the same subject, earlier this year….

Now the White House has jumped on the climate change wagon, trying to convince the public that the administration actually intends to live up to the campaign promises by the potUS to address those self-same issues…. It is, unfortunately, more than merely a day late, and way more than a dollar short of what is needed to actually FIX anything…. But, hey, they’re TRYING, right? Doesn’t that count? In their eyes, it’s supposed to count enough that you’ll actually believe them when they tell you they will…

That, of course, is on YOU, and ME, for electing them in the first place, but, I guess, given the lack of viable choices from which we have to choose, I suppose it is to be expected… Even if it isn’t, it’s another case of too little, too late, and Bob’s your uncle, once again, for society…. That is, IF I have correctly translated that eminently British epithet correctly…. (Willow? Is that correct usage….)

To clarify, no matter WHAT the White House, or any other government agency says or does in re: climate change, they really don’t understand it, or give a shit about it, and will say just about anything to distract the public from the issue, so they may continue their primary function, of looting the treasury….

SIGH… There I go again, ranting away in the intro, just as if it was the right place for it…. One of these days, I’ll find the correct method for getting this done without all the CRAP it puts me through…. Until then, all I can do is all I can do, and THIS, sadly, is all I can do today….

It DOES mean, however, that I’ve reached a point where I can dump this, and get on with the rest of today’s effort…. Thank goodness, too, as I was about to get really, really weird, more than I think you would be able to deal with…. Dodged a bullet there, we did….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“But is such a thing fit to be discovered to the people? shall I do such an unworthy Act? Ah! my pen falls out of my hand. Yet my desire to help posterity, overcomes; for perhaps from this gleaning as it were, greater and more admirable inventions may be produced.” — Giambattista Della Porta, Natural Magick

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

“Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.” — Euripides (431 BC)

http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/Senator-Ukraine-unrest-shows-need-for-Keystone-5456253.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

A blatant, deliberate mix of misguided ignorance, implied corruption, fear-mongering, and outright lies perpetrated by a $250,000/year paid lackey of the energy lobby, er, government is the primary focus of this article. The statements made by this Senator, who, no doubt, has a DIRECT interest in getting the pipeline completed, so he can cash in on the lucrative lobbyist money being thrown around by the companies wanting to build the damn thing, are so egregiously biased, it’s a wonder he ididn’t fall over from the imbalanced weight, in spite of his desperate grip on the podium.

His justification for wanting it to happen? Because Putin and Russia are in conflict in the Ukraine, and we wouldn’t want anything like that to happen here, just because we were too wimpy to build the pipeline…. That’s it, I guess… You, too? I’m still waiting for the rest of the reasoning, that seems to be missing…. I’m having a hard time making the connection with this one, since I don’t have any particular fear about that issue to be fanned…. and I certainly don’t see any way the two issues are connected in Reality….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Fed-report-Warming-disrupting-Americans-lives-5455672.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

Here, though, is an issue that is firmly entrenched with Reality, tied in a relationship so close, there are NO degrees of separation… Indeed, global warming/climate disruption (the identified new term for that process we’ve initiated with our idiotic, self-serving obsession with carbon-based fuels and the internal combustion engine, along with the attitudes that allow that obsession to permeate all levels of our society), is an issue connected to our very existence.

The worst part of this report, mild and non-accusatory though it may be in tenor, is that it is merely another repeat, of the same information that has been available since the 1960’s, when the environmentalism movement began, & we, the public, first began to take note of the coming changes….

That’s correct, you heard me…. the 60’s…. I went to college starting in 1968; by that time, the basic groundwork of assessing the damage caused, and the potential harm to come, had already been completed, and available to read, for some years.

The green movement was at a grassroots level, but, after a comparatively short time, it was EVERYWHERE, in essence; all of the information that is in this article was already basic knowledge by 1968, readily available to anyone, though not commonly known among the mainstream, of students, or the public at large….

So, I figure, what this article speaks about is an issue that has been around for, let’s count…. If we start at 1964, (during the Free Speech movement in colleges across the country) that makes it an even fifty years….

Fifty years…. This stuff has been around fifty years, at least…. I know this, for a fact, because I WAS THERE; I READ ABOUT IT, AND HEARD ABOUT IT, IN A NUMBER OF VENUES. There were hundreds of people, all standing right next to me when I heard it, or in the room, reading or listening to the same public radio/TV report, or otherwise exposed to the same information, so, it’s pretty well verifiable….. and, has been so for all that time….

I cannot say whether society’s failure to take the warnings of impending problems seriously was the result of a conspiracy, by those who feel they’d be harmed by this getting out (there are a large number of candidates who fit those parameters….), or whether the public hasn’t the wit to comprehend such scientific information (probably true for at least half the public…. but, then, the other half COULD explain it to their peers….), or whether we’re all just too disorganized, individualistic, and stubborn to pay attention to what is important, preferring to focus on what we FEEL, or WANT to be true….

My best guess is a combination of all three are true… Whatever the ultimate reason, I think we’d BETTER pay attention to this issue, as a society; moreover, it had better happen as close to NOW as it can…. or, we aren’t going to have the time, knowledge, or resources to be able to fix what we’ve broken….. Our parent’s aren’t going to be able to pay the damages, either, so, the planet, our landlord, isn’t going to be very happy, I’m certain….

In defense against any further stimulation of my own depression, here is a viewpoint, on living well, I penned a while back, which gives us at least a chance to find a way to figure out how to not feel so bloody bad about all of this; in the long run, this can only help….

We’re going to need all of our wits about us, if we have any chance at all to survive our own foolishness…. our lack of true understanding of the Universe, and how it’s supposed to work will eventually eliminate us from this plane of reality, if we don’t figure out the correct answers, and pretty damn quickly…

From 7/15/2012:

“Don’t ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun — and neither can stop the march of events.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

I suppose one could say I am pessoptimist, a word I have just coined to help me conveniently explore another facet of the duality of existence. I watch society, with both anticipation and trepidation, both of which are justifiable when dealing with something as capricious as human behavior. Reality itself is enough of a problem to deal with, given its wildly unpredictable nature, but the universe doesn’t care at all that it is a frightening experience, just to breathe and open one’s eyes to the chaos that surrounds us. Reality marches on, regardless of our opinion of it; since we have the choice, why not look at the brighter side, eh?

It’s the pessimist in me that sees all of humanity’s flaws; the optimist sees all the beauty that we CAN create when we so desire. What’s difficult is, one never knows where or when the beauty will surface, whereas the flaws make themselves as obvious as dog poop on the shoes, on a daily, sometimes hourly basis…. The pessimist in me knows this, which is why I view each moment rushing at us from the future with a certain small degree of justifiable fear.

Fortunately for me, the optimist in me knows this about Reality; fear is always balanced by that aspect of duality which is inherent in the nature of all that exists, which dictates that whatever takes place has an equal chance of being the kind of experience that brings joy to my world, as it does to create pain. So much bad happens in the world, it can be hard to slough it off; it can come at us unrelentingly, like physical pain from a broken nose, or problems with the DMV….. But, one joyful perception can easily balance the scale…. and will even make us glad for the negative, since it provides the contrast that makes the positive so much sweeter….

“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” — Emerson

SIGH… I guess all one can say is, I’m glad that I have the choice, even if making that choice can be a problem in and of itself…. One must remember that the Universe is, no doubt, proceeding as it should, so I’ll just keep my eyes, and options, open….

********************************

Read the articles, ffolkes…. Think about them, and pass your thoughts on to others, even if they’re bozoid, like mine; that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, you know…. In any case, we are all of us, and by that, I mean everyone on the damn planet, going to have to grow up, learn how to accept reality, and yield to the laws of the universe, which we (well, SOME of us…) have been ignoring for a long time…. In the Court of Universal Life, there is no appeal, no do-overs, and no pity…. You obey the laws, as they are, or you die…. It’s that simple….

Me, I’d rather live, so, I’m going to do my best to see that the assholes who don’t believe any of this, but habitually act in ONLY their own self-interests, DON’T get their way, thus, saving us from waking up one final morning, dead…. or something worse…. to be alive, but no longer human….

So be it…. gigoid has spoken…..

“Oh, well, I guess this is just going to be one of those lifetimes.” — Smart Bee

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

As is my habit, when I find myself without any idea of what kind of poem to include, I turn to my favorite poet(ess), knowing I can always find what I seek, or, if nothing else, something worthwhile, that will suit our (sorry, MY…. gotta break that habit, of using the royal “we”….), my purpose…. Today, Emily seems to end her poem with a metaphorical allusion to what we do here…. or not…. Regardless of my delusional hopes, please enjoy!….

Arcturus” is his other name

“Arcturus” is his other name—
I’d rather call him “Star.”
It’s very mean of Science
To go and interfere!

I slew a worm the other day—
A “Savant” passing by
Murmured “Resurgam”—”Centipede”!
“Oh Lord—how frail are we”!

I pull a flower from the woods—
A monster with a glass
Computes the stamens in a breath—
And has her in a “class”!

Whereas I took the Butterfly
Aforetime in my hat—
He sits erect in “Cabinets”—
The Clover bells forgot.

What once was “Heaven”
Is “Zenith” now—
Where I proposed to go
When Time’s brief masquerade was done
Is mapped and charted too.

What if the poles should frisk about
And stand upon their heads!
I hope I’m ready for “the worst”—
Whatever prank betides!

Perhaps the “Kingdom of Heaven’s” changed—
I hope the “Children” there Won’t be “new fashioned” when I come—
And laugh at me—and stare—

I hope the Father in the skies
Will lift his little girl—
Old fashioned—naught—everything—
Over the stile of “Pearl.”

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

Aha…. I get it now… So, it’s not about Pearls, but about “Pearly Gates” or a “stile of “Pearl”, in Emily’s mind…. So, too bad, so sad, my bad….. but, it’s a nice poem, isn’t it?….

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

Having thus disposed of the hardest part of these Pearls, we come now to my salvation…. or, at least, my partial redemption, which translates as the last section for today…. I guess, actually, we’ll leave the redemption up to the preachers, and not worry about trying to fit into the small little round hole they are always trying to fit my hexagonal mind into…. I keep telling them it won’t fit, but, they’re bound and determined it will….

In any case, I think, today, I’m not even going to tell Smart Bee what I’m looking for; we’ll let the inherent nature of Universal Entropy have its head, and let SB pick out whatever strikes its fancy…. Should be interesting…. and, at the very least, you won’t have had to try to unravel any mysterious concatenations of my inner demons, which is always a bonus…

“C’est la vie, C’est la guerre, Say no more.” — Smart Bee

“Nothing is more damaging to a state than that cunning men pass for wise.” — Francis Bacon

“The cruelest lies are often told in silence.” — Robert Louis Stevenson, “Virginibus Puerisque”, 1881

“The idea of absolute freedom is fiction. It’s based on the idea of an independent self. But, in fact, there’s no such thing. There’s no self without other people. There’s no self without sunlight. There’s no self without dew. And water. And bees to pollinate the food we eat… So the idea of behaving in a way that doesn’t acknowledge those reciprocal relationships is not really freedom, it’s indulgence.” — Peter Coyote

“People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they’ll have good voice boxes in case there’s ever anything really meaningful to say.” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Breakfast of Champions

“It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.” — William G. McAdoo

“Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.” — Aristotle

Well, that was close…. I almost couldn’t find anything to close this out with any dignity, or elegance, or any other adjective of a positive nature… Well, other than a very strange quote from Zippy (what else is new?)…. In the end, I managed to find Aristotle at his finest, instead, at just the right moment…. Serendipity is alive and well, and happily surprising people coast to coast…. Well, maybe not, but it’s a nice thing to hope for…. and, it did come up with a decent pearl, so, back off…. Just kidding….. We’re done here, and a damn good thing….

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

Well…. I’m at a loss for anything to say, which, as we all know, isn’t likely to last long, so, I’ll take this opportunity to just tell you, as required by law, that we’ll be back tomorrow…. Of course, this means you are allowed to begin the process of arming yourselves adequately beginning today…. More kidding, of a half-serious nature, but, accurate in one sense…. We’ll see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, rain or shine, Armageddon or not…. as long as the internet is still there, I’ll be posting…. so, see ya, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Baklava, balaclava, it’s all Greek to an Armenian….

Posted on April 30, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

NOOOOO!…. I’m MELTING!….. Well, perhaps not, but, it sure feels that way….. it’s almost like a bad flashback, like those we saw in the propaganda films back in the 60’s, where they showed the guy’s face melting in the mirror as he watched, horrifyingly stoned to the gills on LSD, or “acid”, as those who used it named it…. Or, maybe like the Wicked Witch of the East in “Dorothy In The Land of Oz”, the classic child’s horror story by L. Frank Baum….

What? You think the Oz books weren’t horror stories? Who are you kidding? Have you actually read them, because, if you have, you’d know they’re some of the scariest books for children ever written… In the original book, those flying monkeys were NOT cute, nor cuddly, at all; their favorite battle technique was to dismember their opponents, ripping off their arms, legs, and heads…. Nasty creatures, and not what I’d call the makings of a fanciful daydream for a child….

I’m not sure how I got off into that little foray into book criticism, but, I’m cutting it off here, as I’m experiencing some rather new and disturbing pain messages from my body…. Now, my right thumb is getting extremely painful, as I type; each time I hit the space bar with my thumb, a shot of excruciating pain shoots through to my wrist, and the whole joint feels stiff and arthritic, which, I suppose, it is…. That, and the swollen tendon, that has occurred before, back when I was cooking for work…. It comes from a tendon over the thumb-pad, that gets strained and swollen from overuse….

Back in the day, when I was cooking, it would start to catch on another ligament, freezing the thumb in place, painfully…. It isn’t quite that bad yet, which is good, because, then, the only cure was a shot of cortisone in the joint, which hurt like hell, but provided amazing relief for the condition…. Since it isn’t that bad yet, I just need to rest it, which I’ll do, once this Pearl is done…. I guess the typing is getting to the joint, after almost three million words created, and placed on screen…

Many of those words have been crafted right here, in the introductory section of these Pearls, as they’ve gone from short, to long, to medium, all searching for that one consistent format that I could use daily…. That has never been found, but, I keep managing to put down enough CRAP to fill up the page, so, that’s something, I would suppose…. I’d say it’s better than the alternative, which would eventually have driven me completely bonkers, without the advantage of doing so in an orderly fashion, as I do here at ECR….

Why, look! I’ve done it again…. I’ve blathered and spewed sufficiently to meet all the requirement, so, since each word takes me to a new level of pain, we’ll cut this off here, and get on with the rest of today’s effort…. I’m thinking it would be the wisest course, given the predictable ending…. Well, it’s predictable for me, cuz I’m writing it, but, even the dimmest bulb in the box can see I’d be stretching the limits of believability if I tried to tell you it wasn’t…. Or, I would, if I could, but, I can’t, so I won’t…. so there…

Shall we Pearl?…. Actually, I think we better go do that NOW….

“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.” — Carl Sagan

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

Since a lot of typing has been removed from today’s equation, I’ll adjust the format a bit, and keep my personal ranting to a minimum…. First, some links, to articles in the recent news, from some European and American sources…. Each one demonstrates yet another aspect of modern life that shows how the BRC and their shadowy masters are running around, killing, stealing, lying, buying court decisions and legislators, and generally doing pretty much whatever they want to do, as long as it benefits them more than anyone else….

Just read the articles with a big load of salt nearby, to supply an adequate number grains of it to balance out the lies and bullshit being poured upon our heads by our beloved leaders…. I’m not even going to comment, until afterward, and even then, we’ll pull from the archives for the arguments of indictment …. For now, just be aware of this….

The governments of this world, ALL of them, ours especially, are NOT concerned, at all, in taking care of, or protecting, or helping, or in any way benefiting the people over whom they rule…. They are concerned with filling their own pockets, increasing their own sense of control over others, and justifying their own sense of entitlement…. If the people benefit, even the tiniest bit, you can bet it is because they have calculated that it is MORE beneficial for them, or it wouldn’t be happening….

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/drone-civilian-casualties-senate-bill-feinstein-clapper?CMP=ema_565

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Sheriff-s-deputy-not-charged-in-fatal-crash-5437026.php?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/downton-abbey/10796808/Julian-Fellowes-Modern-version-of-wealth-and-power-can-be-very-ugly.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10793543/Story-of-four-year-olds-near-death-experience-transfixes-America.html

Sorry, I HAVE to comment on this one…. The most significant statement in this article came from a quote regarding the film made by a self-proclaimed atheist, who said, “”Only in America could a book like this be classified as non-fiction…..“At age four, an inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality is charming. But among American adults, widespread identification with the mind of a pre-schooler is scary.”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/29/supreme-court-cellphones-privacy-search-seizure

All of the above are pretty scary, taken either individually, or as a group; the implications for society of the flaws exposed by such reports is, to me, just about as obvious, and as frighteningly real, as it can be…. especially the last article, which examines our own Supreme Court, in an article written published in a British news outlet, but with what is apparently a very clear-sighted view of the issues….

It also points up how the asshole who is the Chief Justice of that court is, in my opinion, the most egregious example of a judge who has been bought and paid for by corporate interests…. His every legal opinion, for his entire judicial career, has been obviously motivated by the need to protect his business dealings, and his corporate masters….

Oops, caught me ranting, didn’t you? Okay, I’m done for now…. Instead, here is an older politirant, that, oddly enough, still makes perfect sense…. well, it does, to me, anyway…. Enjoy…. or, if not, pay attention, because it’s all true shit, and shouldn’t be forgotten, or ignored…. We do so at our own risk….

From 4/14/2012:

“We, the people, are not free. Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.” — Helen Keller

Odd, don’t you think, that the most insightful views of society are often presented by those who have no sight at all? Helen Keller was, obviously, an intelligent woman; no matter how patient the teacher, a stupid person could not have become the woman Ms. Keller became, without at least a modicum of basic ability to think. To think well, one must learn to observe well, and she has definitely got that down, for in no other way could this statement have been made. And that, to me, is the point. She is(was) a smart woman, and this observation can be considered to be true. (Differences of opinion on that point may be presented, and welcome, but for another discussion…. for now, lets discuss this….) If so, why isn’t anyone doing anything to address the issue?

Well, I’ll tell ya, pardner, it’s like this…. Tweedledum and Tweedledee already fixed the election, and nobody noticed. Yup. It’s true. I would say that the voting process in this country has been a sham for oh, about 49 years, give or take a month or two. It got shot to hell, right about the same moment the rifle bullet struck the back of Jack Kennedy’s neck on that fateful day in 1963 when he was assassinated, and the last hope of the American people died with him……

When LBJ took office, it was the end of democracy as we know it. From that time to now, there has been NO candidate for the Presidency of this country who would be allowed to run, if the true rulers of the nation did not approve. Our true rulers have been underground, in the background, for a long time; they don’t like the public’s eye turned upon them, for they know that if the light falls on them, it won’t take long for all their evil to start to show. These men (there are no women in the group, other than those who become even more male than their counterparts, in their vicious disregard for the rest of humanity) have been in effective control of the political process for even longer; it just became more obvious at the time of Kennedy’s demise, and has been harder to cover up ever since.

I find it disturbing to see Mitt Romney out there, seemingly with their approval, as he is far too close to what one of their inner circle looks like, and they aren’t shutting him up. This implies they no longer care if anyone sees their manipulations, and that they believe they don’t need to hide as much as before, because there is NOTHING anyone can do to change the outcome that they have already decided on. Or, it could be a sort of sleight of hand…. present Romney for people to watch, then get Obama safely elected, and settle right back into the process of eliminating the Bill of Rights, a project they’ve been working on for some time now.

I feel I must point out to all the folks out there who believe our current president to be a new hope, that this is the same man who signed the National Defense Authorization Act into effect on New Year’s Eve, while the American public was busy drinking and celebrating the new year, completely unaware that their oh-so-liberal president had just handed the Bill of Rights over to the National Security Agency, and its myrmidons, to do with as it pleased….. If you doubt me, check the news from that day…. It’s a fact, it happened, and it is now too late…. officially.

The first and middle rounds are done folks. It is now the final rounds, and we are now officially at war with our own government, by their own decree. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m stocking up on ammunition, food, water, and body armor…… because the day of the final showdown is not far away. One of these days, and it is not far off, the gloves are going to come off all the way, and you will see the government of this country firing weapons at its own citizens, in the name of “public security”….

I’d think about this, if I were y’all, and think seriously. Try not to believe whatever they tell you; examine anything with a critical eye, and speak up. But, be ready to duck, because I have a feeling they are no longer going to even give a warning shot, or yell, before they fire at us….. If you look at them, you will see that the ‘executive orders’ in the NDAA say they are not required to do so….

Don’t be distracted, ffolkes, by all the yammering going on about taxes, or healthcare, or racism, or any of the other bullshite that is currently touted as “what the American people care about”. I care about my rights. I care about being able to live my life as I choose. I care about human dignity, and freedom, and compassion for others. But this election isn’t about any of those things, not what is in the papers, and not what s in the people’s hearts. It is about control over society, and money. That’s it.

It has been about that for a long time now. Unless the American public comes to its senses, it isn’t going to change, either, until Mama Nature steps in, and sends us all back to the drawing board as another failed biological experiment. That is Reality folks, and is not subject to our manipulation. We can control what we see of Reality, but we can’t change its nature, and it will end us as surely as the sun comes up every morning, if we don’t make some drastic changes. And, unfortunately, none of those changes will be allowed by the beloved ruling class, so….. end game…… Deal with it….

Once you’ve tried to change the world you find it’s a whole bunch easier to change your mind. — Smart Bee

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

I’m in the mood for gritty…. so, we’ll go with my own stuff… to save time, and embarrassment for anyone else’s reputation…..

Geezer to Congress, with Love

Politicos don’t care much ’bout seniors and their ilk,
except for their money, I thinks;
Though they talk as if they’d cozen them in silk,
what they actually do, it stinks.

“The banks are failing, we can’t allow that!”,
steal from the aged, that’s their plan.
“Their life’s ending, that’s plainly where they’re at,”
lie shamelessly, because they can.

Maybe just once, if we all act together,
it couldn’t miss.
Right on their shoes, no matter the weather,
take careful aim, and piss.

Why the hell not?
It’s worth a shot!

~~ gigoid ~~

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

It’s been a while since I ranted on religion, though I’ve managed to include them in some of the recent politirants, as supporting cast members of the show to which we are treated daily on the public stage…. Reminds me of Punch and Judy, sometimes… Any who, relax, I’m not going to rant now; what happened in section one fulfilled all the daily requirements, and I’m not motivated for that just now….

So, old-school, of course, but with the parameters set to find aphorisms, quotes, taglines, or punch lines about those happy, deluded creatures, the preachers, priests, pastors, vicars, reverends, cardinals, bishops, popes, shamans, imams, sadhu, or, whatever other titles are accorded to those who encourage others to buy into their divinely inspired delusional systems…. Enjoy, and be careful not to step in any of it….

“Our hope of immortality does not come from any religion, but nearly all religions come from that hope.” — Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)

“I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.” — Garrison Keillor

“THINK! Your brain’s only evolutionary advantage over sponge cake!” — Smart Bee

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin

“Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.” — Lazarus Long

“Men have fiendishly conceived a heaven only to find it insipid, and a hell only to find it ridiculous.” — George Santayana

“Boys, you have ALL been selected to LEAVE th’ PLANET in 15 minutes!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

THAT was simply amazing! The entire group of pears for this section, minus the first one, which I found yesterday, came up in SB in less than two minutes, and the whole seven-star version was completed in five…. It may be, for a pearl of this quality and shine, the fastest ever….

And, as a bonus, all of the chosen aphorisms are perfectly appropriate, without the usual smarm…. well, maybe there’s a little smarm, but, not so much it will call for a trip to the dry cleaners…. That, by itself, shows the beneficial nature of this pearl, and proves my point nicely…. Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did…. and do….

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

It is most likely for the best that I’m already done with this…. Since I barely noticed it while in the process of creating it, it’s probably appropriate that I have no clue about what it may be like, or much of what is in it, to be honest…. Maybe if I proof it….

Well, that was fun, but, I’m still not sure about what happened here…. but, I’m not going to let it worry me, because, hey, it’s done, right? Right…. And, since I’m in charge, I get to say this, on my way out the door….. See ya, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Complex & time-consuming? Try making felafel for the masses!….

Posted on April 27, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“From the depths of Hell I will follow thee; to the heights of Heaven, and back, I will hate thee.” Weird, huh? Often, in these early morning sessions with the computer, phrases will come to me, out of nowhere, apparently, niggling at my mind for attention, until I either put them down, like the one at the head of this paragraph, or dismiss them to the limbo of wherever stuff like that goes when it is deleted….. As with a computer, deleting something doesn’t mean it goes completely away…. with a bit of finesse, we can even find such items, if we know where to look, and how to get there….

Now, if that isn’t obscure enough for you, I can try again…. I’m pretty sure, though, that I can’t possibly BE any more unclear as to just what the hell I’m talking about, or where we might go with it…. The funniest part of this particular opening is that it doesn’t matter at all whether it goes anywhere, or even whether or not it informs us of our destination, or not…. Yep, none of it matters at all, not in THIS reality, anyway…. Maybe if we were in some OTHER reality, where they cared about this stuff, we WOULD care about that, but, as it isn’t, we aren’t, so we don’t, and we won’t….

Aren’t, won’t, don’t, yep, that’s got it covered….There, that probably did the trick…. If you’re not confused yet, I’m doing this wrong…. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, this is Consensual Reality, not some cheap imitation, so you can expect that level of quality confusion with your order every time you grace our presence with yours….

Of course, that sort of luxury doesn’t come cheap, so the price is somewhat higher than the normal level of confusion you find here; we had to adjust all of our menu venues to reflect the new service levels, but, as I said, it was worth it, to keep that same high level of quality in whatever Reality we explore….

Not that we go too far afield; consensual MEANS we have to stay at least within sight of the parameters under which we operate, or we can’t claim any consensus….. But, it doesn’t mean we don’t get out of the box now and again, to go where no mind has gone before, just to see what it looks like out there on the fringes of human imagination…. and when we do, you can bet we’ll be taking y’all along for the ride, because, hey, that’s the kind of ffolkes we are….

Now that I’ve completely gone bonkers, again, I suppose I ought to start winding my way back toward that reality we share here in the cockpit, so I can at least complete the proper paperwork for our journey today…. I mean, it’s like Tommy Toilet always says, ffolkes…. “The job isn’t finished, until the paperwork is done!” With wit, and wisdom, such as that, how can you lose? Of course, it’s also good to remember what else Tommy reminded us about, when he said, “Remember to always wipe thoroughly, kids! Rectal itch is NO picnic!”…. Ya gotta love it, right?….

On THAT note, I think it would be best if we just slip quietly into the water, to begin our dive for pearls for the day, yes? Yes…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I might make you feel, but I can’t make you think.” — Gerald Bostock

“Oh, thou hast a damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me Hal, God forgive thee for it. Before I knew thee Hal, I knew nothing, and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act i, Sc. 2

(I know, I know…. My opinion of Will is well-established, and well-known…. but, he wrote so damn much, SOME of it HAD to come out good!….. I’ll use ANYTHING, if it’s good….)

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(Note: You will find a number of pearls scattered throughout the text of the following rant; they kept popping up AFTER it was done; each one fit so perfectly, I had to add them to the narrative at the appropriate points…. They actually do add quite a bit of punch to what is related, so, deal with it, okay?…. Thanks… We now return you to your regularly scheduled program….)

“That the gods superintend all the affairs of men, and that there are such beings as daemons.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Plato, xlii

Well, ffolkes, the wait is over…. at least, for now…. I found this article in the news yesterday, 4/26/2014…. My immediate reaction was to realize we had finally been graced by the boon of receiving word from our Beloved Leader, the potUS, His Most Puissant Self, Barry the Obama, of the planned next steps they will take, all of which I predicted weeks ago, in the ongoing saga of Eric Snowden’s revelations, the NSA, the White House, Congress, and the American public, which has been such riveting entertainment for so many months now….

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/White-House-Discrimination-potential-in-data-use-5431708.php

“If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.” — Noam Chomsky

“President Barack Obama requested the review in January, when he called for changes to some of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs that amass large amounts of data belonging to Americans and foreigners. …… The technology that enabled those programs also enables others used in the government and the private sector. The White House separately has reviewed the NSA programs and proposed changes to rein in the massive collection of Americans’ phone records and emails.” — excerpted, verbatim, from the above article

It seems the White House, and the shadowy corporate masters who “advise” them over there, have, in their infinite wisdom, decided how to address the public’s fears about how they are spying on them, and how the data they have stolen is to be used…. In this article, in essence, they artfully begin to lay the groundwork for their next set of lies, preparing the public’s perceptions to be distracted by what is essentially the same scam they pulled after 9/11…..

Thanks to the candor of Herr Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, exhibited in his statements at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII, we know this is is easily accomplished, by fanning the public’s fears of what CAN happen, thus convincing them they are working to protect them from the depredations that MAY, potentially, disrupt their feelings of security, giving lie to their sense of false entitlement, to a life without thought, danger, or, ultimately, liberty…. Lots of security, but no freedom, you know? Just the way the corporate masters like it….

“Ignorance is no excuse — it’s the real thing.’ — Irene Peter

The above excerpt from the article states that the President called for changes to what the NSA was doing…. It says that right out, just as if it were true…. Well, no, ffolkes, I hate to point this out, but, actually, he didn’t…. Back a few months, in January, after the most recent disclosures of the extent of the spying came out, he did make one (Yep, that’s one…. 1….) suggestion for a change, one that, in reality, had no teeth to it whatsoever…. but, by all the evidence to date, that one, I’m pretty certain, never got instituted, either, just suggested…. If it did, THAT information wasn’t published anywhere I was able to find…

Nothing of what the NSA has been doing in the last ten years has changed at all, as far as I can see…. There have been lots of noisy, vague statements made, all talking loudly and insistently about changes, but, to my knowledge, no actual reforms were ever actually instituted…. Go ahead, check that out…. I’ll wait while you do, because I know it won’t take long to discover there isn’t anything to find…. It’s perfectly true, you know….

The government has made lots of noise about it, but, there has been absolutely nothing done or said, anywhere, that actually states that the laws, that enable the NSA and their cohorts to do what they do, have been changed at all…. Not a bit, nowhere…. I’ve been watching….

There have been deliberately timed articles stating This, That, or The Other, but, none of them have claimed to report any actual changes, just the noise that both parties are making over it…. Fake arguments between the Senate and the CIA are not changes, nor are they anything other than distractions, designed to get people thinking along certain lines, which will lead them where the administration wants them to go….

Now, after the matter is beginning to fade from the public’s consciousness, they come out with this article, which seems to be yet another attempt to get me to believe that something is actually happening, or has been…. when all that has been taking place, in reality, are a lot of strategy sessions, where groups of spin doctors put together their pointy heads to figure out how to approach the task of altering the public perception of what has taken place, and what continues to take place, in the shadows, where the public cannot see, thanks to the blanket of secrecy thrown over the whole mess by the White House, and the rest of the 455 assholes who think they have the fucking right to impose their own beliefs on the other 300 million of us who live here….

Whew! Sorry, ffolkes, sometimes I forget to take a breath, and the sentence in which I’m stuck goes on forever…. Any who… onward….

The decision as to how to handle the hullabaloo, as it appears from the evidence in this article, seems to be to fan the flames of fear in the public, telling them how many different ways the data that has been stolen, and continues to be collected, can be used to compromise their well-being….

Back when I was in high school history class, learning about the early days of the Information Age, (they called it the Cold War back then….), this was known as “propaganda”, ffolkes…. and, theoretically, it was something the governments of OTHER countries engaged in, not ours….

In my history classes, we were taught to recognize these essentially “communist” techniques of mind control, so we could resist them…. The examples we saw were just like these info-bits with which we are now being insulted, straight from the White House lackey’s statements…. Large, impressively overblown, inflammatory statements of dubious plausibility, designed to create fear, of the unknown, or of the unknown “other”, in the hearer, without the superfluous need to tell anything resembling the truth…. It only needs to SOUND as if it could be true….

“Creative semantics is the key to contemporary government; it consists of talking in strange tongues lest the public learn the inevitable inconveniently early.” — George Will

I’m sorry, but they aren’t telling me anything I didn’t already know about their data collection; anyone with any technical knowledge at all knows what CAN be done (which is just about anything, if you throw enough money at it….), so, telling me how many ways the information is potentially harmful is NOT making changes; it is deliberate fear-mongering, and not even particularly well-disguised mongering, at that…..

In case you couldn’t tell, this has pissed me off royally…. It’s all just more posturing and noise by the BRC and their lackeys & myrmidons; nothing is actually changing at all…. Only their story, which they will change ad lib, as they blatantly attempt to transform the lies they’ve told already, from those folks might not want to believe, into something people WILL buy into, thus proving, again, how gullible is the public, and how egregiously unscrupulous are those who pretend to care about serving that public….

Just in case you might think this is all new subject matter for me, I give you now a short diatribe, against the same group of unscrupulous assholes as those who stimulated the above rant, but, written over two years ago, posted on the date shown, here on this blog…. It fits right in with the above, and it’s been sitting around, asking to be included in another Pearl for some days now, so, you get it today, as a bonus, and as added evidence of what I contend in the current missive….

From 3/28/12:

“By calling attention to ‘a well regulated militia’, the ‘security’ of the nation, and the right of each citizen ‘to keep and bear arms’, our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fears of governmental tyranny which gave rise to the Second Amendment will ever be a major danger to our nation, the Amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic civilian-military relationships, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason, I believe the Second Amendment will always be important.” — April, 1960 (Then) Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)

President Kennedy was a pretty smart guy; not exactly the most ethical bulb in the box, but he had his head screwed on his shoulders fairly solidly. He also took the unusual political stance of actually wanting the American people to have a chance at what they deserve, and are promised by our form of government, i.e., a shot at “the pursuit of happiness”…..

However, in this statement, he makes an unwarranted and dangerous assumption, to wit: “it is extremely unlikely that the fears of governmental tyranny which gave rise to the Second Amendment will ever be a major danger to our nation.” Jack was an optimist…. and as is often the case, the pessimists were closer to right on this one…..

Our rights are in imminent and clear danger of being abrogated, permanently. This is an indisputable fact. This kind of fact is provided with partial proof of its truth by the reaction of those responsible for this subtle attack on our legacy of freedom, who, when confronted with knowledge of their intent, immediately accuse the confronting entity of “spreading communist propaganda”, or “attacking the principles of freedom” or my favorite complete lie, “you’re threatening our national security.”

It’s would be somewhat amusing, if it weren’t so dangerously disgusting…. I mean, do they really expect the American people to sit around and do NOTHING? I kind of hope they do believe that…. it will be then a bigger surprise to them, when the American people stand up, point their gun at the head of these idiots, and take their rights back….. call me treasonous if you will; I call it patriotism, of the first water…..

“Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First, his Cromwell; and George the Third [“Treason!” cried the Speaker]–may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.” — Patrick Henry (1736-1799) — Speech in the Virginia Convention, 1765

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

“You can lead a yak to water but you can’t teach an old dog to make a silk purse out of a pig in a poke.” — Opus

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Since the first section combines a new rant with an old one, I figure a reprint of a full second section wouldn’t be inappropriate today…. Hence, the following….. which you will find to be mercifully short….

From 12/15/12:

“Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave.” — James Thomson (1700-1748) — The Seasons, Winter, Line 393

The only possible comment is the same word that made up the first thought in my head when I read this… WOW…. Such an incredibly powerful line, so gripping and real, it makes me as jealous as I allow myself to feel. To write such a phrase would be enough for me; I could die happy. I’ll do so anyway, (die happy, that is….), just to spite Murphy, but, if I can write one line half as strong as this, I’ll be content, for sure…. Here is something that came to me last night…. at least, it began last night…..

Territorial imperative….

Beauty must define,

as augment to existence,
as life must be

more than mere subsistence.

Nature demands more.

Truth helps.

~~ gigoid ~~

It ain’t long, but it’s much…. and better for being so, rather than the reverse….. Just as an afterthought to this section, I offer the following as proof that even genius can feel insecurity and jealousy….

“There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

There you go…. Even as smart a guy as Oscar could fall prey to the weaker emotions, eh? We all do stuff that, upon reflection, we may wish we hadn’t…. It doesn’t mean we’re bad, just momentarily weak…. What matters is how we react to that weakness; do we accept it as part of our nature, or work to change it? That, I believe, is just as, if not more, critical to becoming the person we are most desirous of being…. Well, it works for me, anyway, and that will have to do, won’t it?….. Onward…..

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The rant in section one today was actually written yesterday; when I saw that article, my outrage exploded, and what you see above poured out in about ten minutes or so; it’s all been in there percolating since January, or longer, so, it flowed right out, just the way I like a rant to do…. As a reward, for you, and for me, here is an old-school, random harlequin style pearl, fresh as the day is long…. Abondanza!…..

Joshu asked the teacher Nansen, “What is the True Way?”

Nansen answered, “Every way is the true Way.”

Joshu asked, “Can I study it?”

Nansen answered, “The more you study, the further from the Way.”

Joshu asked, “If I don’t study it, how can I know it?”

Nansen answered, “The Way does not belong to things seen: nor to things unseen. It does not belong to things known: nor to things unknown. Do not seek it, study it, or name it. To find yourself on it, open yourself as wide as the sky.”

— Smart Bee Tzu

“If you go to a gunfight, take a gun” — Charles Nichols’ Law

“Lord, how the day passes! It’s like a life – so quickly when we don’t watch it, and so slowly if we do.” — John Steinbeck

Uhura: “This isn’t reality…this is fantasy!” — “Star Trek III:The Search For Spock, Stardate 8210.

“Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“In the world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants and the other is getting it.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

And, last, but, most certainly, NOT least…..

“Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke.” — J. R. “Bob” Dobbs

Well, there you go…. Such as it is, this pearl is what I like to think of as “special”, but, not for the reason you may think…. In fact, there isn’t any reason at all, just as there is no justification for such inanity before dawn…. But, at least we’ve stuck to inanity, without tipping over into insanity…. This is good, yes? Yes….

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I am almost afraid to look at this one; it felt pretty powerful coming out, so I don’t know how it will come across… I suppose I’ll have to trust myself, at least that far…. So be it…. Okay, I’m confused, and so, too, will you be, in the end…..

My work here is done, ffolkes….. 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

“Patently absurd,” said Blackie, from the grave….

Posted on April 26, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Back in the 1970’s, George Carlin used to have a routine in his stand-up shows, in which he discussed the “forbidden words”, to wit: shitfuckpisscuntcockcrapvagina, conveniently listed for you here without spaces, making them one vast, effective expletive, rather than seven small verbal bombs…. In this format, the seven unacceptable words are, in a small, illegal way, legitimized, formed into a word that is not only less offensive to write, and to hear, but, makes a quite efficient swear word, one that, as I can testify, releases a lot of tension, if stated rapidly, in a loud, assertive voice…. Well, maybe not…. but, it DOES make you feel better, even if it’s a bit too vulgar for regular usage among crowds of people….

Those seven words, when viewed as a list, comprise the majority of the words that TV and media censors, aka the FCC, using the standards provided by the Mrs. Mabel Grundy Foundation for Fundamentally Overbearing Morality, (rated at 8 on the 10-point Crackpot Scale….) decided should never be uttered on ANY media venues in this country, lest the morals of our children be forever compromised….. Of course, this does not take into account that nobody, not even the FCC, mostly, listens to them at all, but, hey, it keeps them busy and out of our hair, so, let them issue their little lists, and we can get on with the day….

Those words, in the order in which I wrote them, without spaces, as one very dirty word, are from another old literary cult classic, a book called “Candy”, an egregiously sexist, pornographic, thankfully short novel by a contemporary author, which I, being the adolescent dog I was back then (in the 60’s….), read avidly, behind locked doors, having been surreptitiously been provided the book by a friend who had stolen it from an older sibling (the most common method for sharing books among adolescent boys at that time….), passing it to me with much clandestine mummery after class one day, with the admonition, “Man, you GOTTA read this shit!”….. As may be guessed, at 13 or 14 years of age, boys are rather fixated on the subject of sex….

Hmm…. I suppose, if I had a clue as to what this is all about, I’d have to share it with you, so you would understand why we are laboring through this patently useless, and, sadly, mainly charmless discussion of stuff that means little, and has no apparent relation to anything remotely intelligent, or even interesting…. unless, of course, the antics of sexually frustrated adolescent males has some appeal for you…. It doesn’t have much for me, having lived through it once; it’s really no fun going back there, so I don’t…. and, I won’t…. at least, not now….

No, this has all been just another attempt to find something worthwhile with which to begin one of these Pearls…. Obviously, it’s another relative failure, except for the actual fact that it has gotten me where I need to go…. As you can see, my blathering has again pushed us far enough down the page that we can legally get on with business, suffering no financial or ethical penalties, for having subjected the public to unwarranted floods of wordy bullshit so early in the day….. Not that it bothers ME, but, the Feds get shitty, so I try to follow SOME of their rules, just to keep from having to wrestle with them every day….

All of that having been said, as it often is, we can now begin today’s dive for some suitable pearls…. That is, we can, if y’all have your masks, and your spear-gun, already in place, ready for today’s adventure, as we bravely set out to explore the wilds of consensual reality, naked and unafraid….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.” — Plutarch (46 AD-120 AD)

This is very true, so, it would behoove all of us to remember to be nice….. especially to those who inadvertently cause us mild discomfort, by making us read such useless crap….

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One of the hardest parts of blogging on a daily basis, I’ve found, is keeping the chosen material fresh, especially when I tend to rely on a small set of subjects upon which to rant on a regular schedule…. As you know, if you’ve been here previously, I do like to take my shots at the BRC, which consists primarily of the men who prey upon the rest of humanity for their own benefit; most especially, I like to take my best shots at those assholes who prey on women and children, enslaving them as sexual objects for their own profit and sick indulgence….

However, as I tried to explain in the last post in which I spoke of this, it is extremely hard for me to write about, as it tends to kick in my PTSD symptoms…. I get a large jolt of adrenalin when I start to think about this, and my mind turns immediately to buying weapons, ammunition, and starting the planning process to go hunting, for pimps, snakeheads, and any other assholes involved in the sex trafficking trade….

Bleeding hearts may proclaim all the sad stories they know, or speculate, stories that might explain why these assholes are the way they are, but, I don’t really give a shit how they got the way they are; to do what they do, a conscious choice must be made, and, to my mind, that is enough to warrant removing them from the society of decent people, permanently…. If that means I’m playing God, well, so be it…. I am liable to be as good at it as any of the delusional versions; I have the advantage of actually having a physical form that can be touched, so there’s no question of my involvement, or my reality….

Just writing those last two paragraphs has me so worked up, my breath is speeding, my heart rate has jumped over a hundred, & my musculature is loosening up, relaxing and stretching…. I’m starting to breathe more deeply, too, as the adrenalin widens all of my blood and air passages in preparation for fight, or flight…. Having spent eleven years living with random adrenalin attacks, while working at Atascadero and Napa State Hospitals, frequently wrestling with the violently insane to save their life, or my own, I am all-too-familiar with those symptoms…. which include the necessity for waiting for up to three or four HOURS for them to wear off completely…. It’s a pain, to be honest, and I don’t like it at all…

Which is why I am going to cheat…. I’m going to reprint a rant from the archives, one of several I wrote during the year it was first posted, when I first began to write about this issue regularly…. This is one of my better rants, so I hope you enjoy it…. I have added, here at the beginning, a perfect pearl that I found as an appetizer to what follows…. Here then, our rant for today…..

“Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” — Frank Leahy

From 12/4/12:

“Free enterprise ended in the United States a good many years ago. Big oil, big steel, big agriculture avoid the open marketplace. Big corporations fix prices among themselves and drive out the small entrepreneur. In their conglomerate forms, the huge corporations have begun to challenge the legitimacy of the state.” — Gore Vidal

In his book, “Friday”, Robert Heinlein details a society of humanity’s possible future, one in which corporations have continued to grow beyond the boundaries of mere countries, until their interests become paramount even over that of the state, as observed by Mr. Vidal. We, of the society here on Earth in the early 21st century are witnessing that growth, as I write, and as you read…..

The small enterprise markets still exist, but only on the fringes of the economy, the major portion of which is busy manipulating the population into serving the economic trends that the corporations control, in the essential markets that cover everyone… In other words, the corporations monopolize most of the economy, allowing the fringe markets to exist to provide exotic, alternative toys and entertainments for the working classes.

Mr. Heinlein’s character, a young woman with designer genes, genius IQ, and Heinlein’s innate sardonicism, as part of an assignment, is required to perform a research and analysis of how the large multinational corporations affected the political and economic scenes of their society, obliquely referring, of course, to the one we have now. It is a very interesting part of a very good book, and well worth a read, not only for its perspicacity in explaining the piracy we are seeing today, but because Heinlein was a master storyteller, who created fascinating characters in fantastic situations, making it all seem perfectly normal and real.

“The phenomenality of organic, conscious existence should, could have made impossible the sadism, the unending hurt of our ways. The impotent fury, the guilt that master and surpass my identity carry with them the working hypothesis, the ‘working metaphor’, if you will, of ‘original sin’. To this expression, I am unable to attach any reasoned, let alone historical substance. On the pragmatic-narratological plane, stories of some initial crime and inherited culpability are universal fables — uncannily profound and lasting. Nothing more. Yet in the presence of the beaten, raped child, of the horse or mule flogged across its eyes, I am possessed, as by a midnight clarity, by the intuition of the Fall.” — Rudolf Steiner, Errata: An examined life, Phoenix — (a division of Orion Books), London, 1998), p. 169

At first, this quote may not seem to be related to the first. However, it is this “original sin” of which he speaks that is the root cause of the problems with corporations in society. Those humans who reject commonality with the rest of humanity are the villains, in this play that passes for modern culture, for they do not accept their debt to the rest of the species, and have determined that they will use whatever means they need to become ascendant over the rest of us. Greed is only the most obvious of the ills that this group has subjected our culture to, with cruelty, dishonesty, and lack of compassion as side attractions. Through the actions of their corporate entities, they work to maintain their power and control of others, all for the sake of their own aggrandizement….

These are the men who run the trade in human trafficking, abducting and abusing children and women, for sex and slavery. These are the men who run the brothels, and the underground casinos, and the money-lending, and the protection rackets, and the drug dealing rings. What many folks don’t realize is that they are also the men who run for political office, or become preachers/priests, and the bankers, and the CEO’s, and other corporate officers, who make their decisions based on self-interest, never on altruism. They seem, and act like, they are the leaders of society, when, in fact, they are the very reason our society is headed for extinction….

Unfortunately, these men (and they are almost ALL men….) will not give up their power and control without a fight. They will not respond to reason, giving up all their wealth and perceived power, to benefit the rest of mankind. They will not suddenly see the light, and give it all back. They will have to be rooted out like weeds, tough, hardy weeds, and destroyed, if we are to have any chance of survival…. It is unfortunate, but no other method will work, and it brings with it the danger of falling into the same kind of behavior by which they operate. But, I can see no other way to solve the issue, since they will not cooperate with the rest of us for the benefit of all….

1. If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting.

2. What you settle for is what you end up with.

3. If you think that worrying about a problem is the same thing as solving it, then you must live in some other universe where different laws pertain.

–Smart Bee

Note from 2014: To finish this, here is one last pearl, with a perfect description of the assholes who prey on their fellow men, or worse, women and children…. Pearls like this are good channel markers, for helping to identify the dickheads….

“Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.” — Epicurus

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I’m going with another of my own poems today, mostly to keep from allowing any of what takes place here to ever be blamed on anyone else…. This one is a long comment on my constant companion in life…. No, not Patricia, but, that old friend (one learns to live with it, or go crazy, you see…. better to have a friend, than a constant enemy….)…. Pain…..

Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists, again, upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid ~~

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So…. today’s Pearl has been created on a fairly typical morning, of those that have come of late…. That is to say, I’ve gotten a goodly amount of sleep, more than I have been used to for many years…. (How much more? Well, let’s see… I fell out at 6:15 PM, and got out of bed at 3 AM…. That makes about 8+, almost nine hours, in my book, which is four or five more than my average for the past three years…) What does this mean?….

Not much, in truth…. It does mean, however, you get a freshly composed old-school pearl today, instead of more from the archives…. I found these two aphorisms from Cicero, which make a nice pair of bookends for what I think will be a fine, upstanding example of a very serendipitous pearl…. Enjoy!….

“No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate who considers pleasure the highest good” — Cicero

“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.” — Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” — Yogi Berra

“If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it if you have love, compassion, and tolerance. The clear truth of a person’s love of God is if that person genuinely shows love to fellow human beings.” — Dalai Lama

“Making fun of born-again christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope.” — P. J. O’Rourke

“There’s no easy quick way out, we’re gonna have to live through our whole lives, win, lose, or draw.” — Walt Kelly

Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:

Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;
Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;
Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;
Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

— Cicero

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

He was pretty big, Ma, but, I beat him….. Well, I got this far, even if I didn’t win…. Hey, maybe I did! I forgot, I’m the one who makes the rules by which I play the game; hard not to win in that case….

Okay, I’m done playing around with the power of metaphor for one morning…. and if you don’t catch that reference, well, I have to ask…. Are you listening at all?….. Metaphor is what we do here, very nearly ALL we do, so, pay attention, ffolkes, or you’ll miss the most important ones, which can come at you from any direction, at any point in this narrative…. Speed, and staying alert are your best weapons in this dangerous world, and nobody will ever be able to say we didn’t try to prepare y’all to deal with that, to the best of our ability….

Tongue firmly in cheek, of course…. 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

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

Posted on April 24, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

Let’s try this…. No, better not….

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Thomas Moore (1779-1852) — Corruption

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

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

See? It’s all in the wrist….

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

No ups, no extras, just a poem….

A Dubiously Soft Morning

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

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

From 10/21/12:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

gigoid

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

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Robert Heinlein

Subject to NSA review, it’s done….

Failing that, we’ll go subterranean….

Revolutionary changes are imperative, it seems….

Cats don’t do intangible….

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

Horrible examples of overt penitence….

Baklava, balaclava, it’s all Greek to an Armenian….

Complex & time-consuming? Try making felafel for the masses!….

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

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