Sans beau, there is no coup….

Posted on September 7, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A bird can fly, but a fly can’t bird.” — Tao of Pooh.

It occurred to me, yesterday, as I sat in my chair, looking at this picture (which I’ll explain below, momentarily…), most people don’t really believe that horses, or other “lower” animals, feel the emotions with which we humans are so familiar, which cause us so much grief, due to the failure of most people to understand their place in our existence, other than as a stimulus to either act, or not act… In short, they don’t believe that animals are smart enough, or complex enough to feel love, or affection, or grief, or loyalty, or any of those higher emotions they prize, yet do not comprehend at all…. and, they couldn’t be more mistaken, at all….

Pictures such as this one are but a small, yet consistently convincing piece of the evidence available to the contrary of most people’s opinion of animals, evidence which inarguably proves, not only do animals experience emotions; moreover, they also think, with a variable degree of imagination, at a level consonant with the needs of the evolutionary niche they inhabit. They also, as we do, have feelings about those thoughts, and show those feelings just as we do, but, with way less less drama, and, no apparent need to be cruel….. Well, maybe a little, in cats, when they play with captured prey…. Mostly, though, animals express only harmonious emotions, in support of each other, and, even tolerance, for other species…. far more than we show them, or each other…

Additionally, by my assertion of their emotional and cognitive functionality, I am implying, no, claiming, they are only as smart as they need to be, without being so smart, it becomes a barrier to the actual development of their nature, to reach the potential that is there, and almost never reached in the members of our own species…. In other words, people are too damn smart for their own good; rather than being an aid to survival, and advancement as a species, their vaunted intelligence often gets in the way of their ultimate success in life, in ways the greatest majority of them do not even understand, and which, from what I observe, very likely will prove their undoing, thus, ultimately preventing them from accomplishing their most critical life task, to wit: survival of the species….

The picture of the affectionate Clydesdales is one of many I’ve saved, from the weekly feature at the London Daily Telegraph, which they call Animal Pictures of the Week; this particular photo was saved quite a while ago, long enough I don’t remember what week it was, but, it was earlier this year, for sure…. Any who, to finish my thought(s)… Most people think that humans are the apex of the evolutionary ladder, merely because we are self-aware, and have a sense of that self over time… but, this demonstrates that most people just don’t understand the full concept behind evolution…

Unlike how most people tend to view evolution, it isn’t a ladder, unless one thinks of each species having its own ladder, that each member must climb… If one MUST use the tired metaphor of a ladder, then, I assert each species has its own, and, no matter how high up our species has actually climbed our own ladder, it doesn’t mean we have climbed higher, than any other species on theirs….

In fact, when one considers how well other species have adapted to this planet, how effortlessly they hold their place in the WEB of life, it becomes clear those species….. dogs, cats, cattle, ants, cockroaches, (especially these amazing critters; after 50 million years of thriving, without having to mutate at all, or alter anything about their form or abilities, they should be considered the absolute Masters of survival as a species…. Yeah, I know, creepy little buggers, but, fast, fertile, and tough as hell….), spiders, insects, and birds and reptiles, all on their own branches of the web….. well, if one looks at the Big Picture, it is only honest to admit, all of them are, in truth, much more advanced, and more efficient at surviving, than is Homo Bozoidus, (a word I coined, to very accurately give a mental image of the real evolutionary status of humans, in relation to other forms of life on this planet, as well as, perhaps, explaining a part of why we fail, so well, and so often, at becoming ourselves….).

“Give them an opposable thumb, and they think they’re special.” — Smart Bee

You see, the structure of Life more accurately resembles Reality when described by envisioning, not a hierarchy of species, arranged in a pyramid, with humans at the apex, as many people choose to see it…. but, rather, as a complex, beautiful spider’s web, (with no gravity, meaning there is no up and down, no one higher, or lower…. we’re all just in our own space…. with the choice as to whether or not to stay connected to the rest of the web…), a web shaped the same as any web on Earth, but, rotated through three dimensions, to form a sphere as big as the Universe, with each species of life inhabiting its own particular branch or segment (their strand, if you will….) of that web.

Each species has the same task as all the rest, the same inherent purpose, which is create and add our own part of the whole, one that will help to make the entire web stronger, melding the beauty of their weaving with the overall pattern of the entire sphere of life, working in harmony with all the other web dwellers…. Our purpose can not logically be found to be a matter of wasting our time and effort in life, by trying to take over the center, or steal another’s strand, or to indiscriminately kill the other inhabitants, who are peacefully living alongside us, going about their business in harmony with each other…..

Now, I’m not a religious man, as you know; I do, however, realize, as any educated man, that religions, of all types, use at least a small part of the truth to augment, and help justify the more delusional aspects of their beliefs… Jesus Christ was, in the most basic sense, a compassionate and brilliant socialist reformer, who used the methods he did to try to get the most important messages of his understanding established as part of the culture of his time… and part of his message was indeed, a large piece of the truth…

The idea that we, and all other forms of life, are one, and can only be successful if we act in harmony with the forces of nature, was not new, but, after he was killed to shut him up, this one concept was one of the first ideas to be buried; it wasn’t convenient for the Catholic Church’s founder’s plan, so, as with much of what Jesus actually taught, the final version of his churches in no way resembles what he probably, logically said…

For our purpose, it is enough to know that the concept of living in harmony with the other creatures on the planet was an integral part of his teaching…. NOT the concept of being the superior, entitled master of all creatures, but, in the truest sense of the words, their cohort, their compadre, one who cherishes and husbands life, not one who uses and destroys it….

In today’s world, very, very few people actually LIVE according to the precepts of behavior and understanding that Jesus laid down for his disciples and adherents to follow; of those who are high in the hierarchy of priesthood on this planet, or ever have been, in my experience, it is rare to see one come close to living as Jesus instructed….. One exception to this experience was/is Martin Luther King, Jr….

All in all, I thought he was a pretty wise man, very much like the current Dalai Lama, (and, possibly, the new Pope; don’t really know enough about him, but, he seems sincere thus far, in his intent to live a Christian life…); Reverend King, Jr., though, seems to have a bit of Bible Belt Revival Rapture type of preaching as part of his persona, just for balance to his sobriety…. Any who, Martin Luther made a very cogent, deeply insightful statement that I’ve always liked, because it isn’t particularly locked into a purely Christian view of the universe, but, is pertinent to all of mankind’s diverse cultures… to wit:

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”” — Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In a way, this is almost identical to a thought I’ve seen many times, uttered by the leader of a much different religion/philosophy than Christianity, to wit:

Since I have spoken so long on this subject in the introduction, I’ll try to count it as today’s rant, so I don’t go overboard, again… though, to be honest, I can see how I might already have done so…. I have been KNOWN to rant here in the intro before, but, not generally to the extent of today’s outburst, (which, I have to say, came to me pretty much out of nowhere, yesterday, when the picture of the horses flashed on my screen, as part of my ever-changing desktop background….). I will honestly give it the old college try, but, as you know, it’s hard for me to promise, or give any guarantees, because, I have trained myself, in the last three years, to NOT keep my self from speaking(writing) whatever comes into my head, even when I’m not pearling….

Now, let’s see if I can come close to meeting my commitment, by heading out to dive for pearls of virtual wisdom, just as if I hadn’t spent the last hour and a half, yesterday, spewing out my usual dross about human nature, and its so obviously flawed beauty….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Animals can be driven crazy by putting too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s — “Time Enough For Love”

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I said I wouldn’t rant…. So, naturally, this article is the very first one I see when I go to read the news yesterday; my crap detectors went off with a vengeance, damn near drowning out the full orchestra currently streaming on the computer; good thing I was done with my coffee, or I’d have had it all over my keyboard…Sheesh…. I WILL TRY make this short, before hitting SB for a pearl of pearls to say what would otherwise be a rant, of major proportion… But, I’ll keep my word, and limit myself to a comment, or two, after the link, then go straight into Smart Bee for a five, or seven-star pearl to make my point(s)…. See, I can be good…. or, at least, live up to my claim of honesty….

http://blog.sfgate.com/bottomline/2014/09/05/the-fed-yes-income-inequality-is-as-bad-you-thought/?cmpid=hp-hc-bustech

What more proof could anyone possibly need? I rant, and rave, and provide evidence, or links to evidence, then, spend copious piles of time, trying to explain how it is being done, right in front of us, and still, not enough people even realize what is happening in the world, because they walk around with their noses, upon which their entire attention is attached like a leech, pointing down at the ground, or up in the air…. anywhere but straight ahead, where they would be forced to pay attention to how they are being screwed around, without any excuse to NOT acknowledge what IDIOTS they are, and always have been…. or, if not, they’re all giving a damn good impression….

Okay, that’s all from me… if I haven’t made it obvious by now, I’m not going to do so at this late date…. Here are the pearls I found, so, please, enjoy, and if you wish, pass the word; maybe it will spread just a little beyond this blog, and a few others I’ve seen…. We need to kick a righteous portion of Asininny Ass, and we need to do it soon…

So for a good old-gentlemanly vice
I think I must take up with avarice.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) —

Don Juan, Canto i, Stanza 216

“Annoy a Republican: Remind them of the Reagan/Bush record.” — Smart Bee

“A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.” — Calvin

“Today the taxing power, rather than chattel slavery, is the instrument by which the parasitic element of the population subsists. And that element, which includes politicians, panics at the slightest reduction in the state’s power to plunder. Once you start liberating taxpayers, even a little tiny bit, nobody knows where it may end.” — Joseph Sobran

“America is a country that can choke on a gnat, or swallow tigers.” — Adlai E. Stevenson

“It’s no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another.” — George Bush, US President

“Every child born in America can hope to grow up to enjoy tax loopholes.” — Smart Bee

You may note that the pearls for this section were formatted to the center; this is because, they all are about Asininnies, of one type or another, so, no matter how I placed them in relation to each other, the character of their subject showed through, whereupon they refused to line up so they looked right, ignored instructions, kept up a huge uproar, talking all at once, because they wouldn’t wait for each other to speak; it was a mess, and the flow of ideas was stunted thereby…. After centering, making sense of what the Asininnies are, or what they say, or do, makes no more actual sense, but, it looks better, and the ideas aren’t slapping each other in the face, or rudely jostling for position….

SIGH…. That’s just like greedy, cruel, stupid people, such as those who end up as Asininnies, especially the rich ones, to make even this sort of process uncomfortable for everyone, because they think they’re better than everyone else…. And, if they weren’t assholes and jerks to begin with, the process of becoming an Asininny will always complete the process…. count on that…. I’ve begun to think USA now stands for United States of Asininity….

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

Today’s Pearl was, for the major part, completed yesterday; that may be why it ended up so damn long, as I had time to go back & add stuff as it occurred to me throughout the day… Since it did, though, you’ll need something nourishing to the brain to get through it all…. So, I went for a two-fer of most excellent poems, that are small, but, tasty, & high in protein content. If you know me at all, you’ll know who they’re from….. who else?….

A Wounded Deer—leaps highest—
I’ve heard the Hunter tell—
‘Tis but the Ecstasy of death—
And then the Brake is still!

The Smitten Rock that gushes!
The trampled Steel that springs!
A Cheek is always redder
Just where the Hectic stings!

Mirth is the Mail of Anguish
In which it Cautious Arm,
Lest anybody spy the blood
And “you’re hurt” exclaim!

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

After great pain, a formal feeling comes —
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs
The stiff Heart questions, was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?

The Feet, mechanical, go round —
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought —
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone —

This is the Hour of Lead —
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow —
First — Chill — then Stupor — then the letting go —

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

I am unaware of what kind of pain Emily may have had, or how she came to write about the subject as often as she did. I CAN tell you this; she knows her pain, and, it isn’t just a cute little pain, that comes and goes; it’s a big nasty one, that comes to stay, for as long as it can get away with…. So, I appreciate her words on the subject, as they parallel my own experiences with it…. That, to me, always seems to make them more of a balm to my oft-tortured spirit…. Now, if I can manage to get rid of the self-inflicted sorts of pain, I’d be good to go….

😉

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

“Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth. When perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth, any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.” — Tacitus

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Huge-Urban-Shield-law-enforcement-trade-show-5737076.php

In order to y’all a little compassion, I won’t start ranting on this…. Instead, I’ll let it speak for itself… I’ve put three excerpts from the article below…. The first is a statement of why the protesters present were concerned about the implications of the law and emergency crew ONLY trade show for the public. The second is a very telling comment from one of the attendees, a high ranking police official in SF….. The third, and most telling piece of evidence, is a piece of pertinent information, that, by it’s mere presence, puts the lie to the entire slew of justifications offered by the official rationale, given by the organizers of the show, which just HAPPENS to be the Sheriff’s Department of the county in which Oakland is situated….

Enough… the last line is the whole point…. and, guarantees that, whatever you hear, from the police, the government, or, the media itself, it’s not the truth…. The truth is, the police forces in this country, just like the government, is, and, has been for a long time, under the control and protection of the corporate interests who actually run the show in this planet, determining the laws written, the candidates elected, and the despots maintained, everywhere in the world….

The shadowy slave masters, from their hidden conclaves around the world, completely unknown to the general public, who control 98 to 99% of ALL the resources in the world, WANT the public to be afraid, and they WANT the police, and the armed forces, to be the ONLY ones with guns, or any means of using force to try to keep, or acquire, ANY rights they don’t want the populace to have…. Believe it, ffolkes, because the evidence is all around us, and, in this particular instance, right in our faces….

Again, note the last line, left in the article as an afterthought, yet, indicative of the opinion held by those in power, one all-too-true, that we, the people, are powerless to stop them, or to make them change anything from the way it has been for the last 5000 or more years….

Excerpted quotes:

“The history of the militarization of police is that it leads to oppression of poor and minority people, and that’s what we will see more of if this goes unchecked,” said Ali Issa of the War Resisters League. “Our message is, we don’t want Oakland to be a testing ground for war games.”

“Paul Miyamoto, assistant sheriff in San Francisco, said the chance to drill with hundreds of other agencies is invaluable, and far outweighs any concerns over militarization.”

“The $1 million cost of the four-day event is funded by the federal Department of Homeland Security.”

As to that last excerpt…… Oh, really?….. !!!!! I believe my point, and my assertions, about being lied to, have just been verified as truth…. I’d add Q.E.D., but, only a few ffolkes would get it…

Hmm… I suppose an “Oops” is in order now; above, I said I’d be compassionate, & not rant….. whereupon, I proceeded to throw that good intention clean out the window, hitting full-on ranting mode within a half-sentence of actually uttering those words…. All I can say is, this is one that really gets me, because of the deliberate nature of the choices made by the asininnies to whom I refer, in order to achieve their own selfish ends, at the expense of everyone else alive…. To me, that is sheer evil, plain and simple…. an idea hard to digest, I am sure…. It isn’t easy to acknowledge one’s own powerlessness in the face of such evil, and the hold it has on our culture, but, it is necessary to face our fears before we can conquer them…

To aid the process of absorption, here is the five-star pearl originally promised, with typically appropriate brackets by Smart Bee, that may, or may not, help the point come across more clearly…. but, it’ll definitely be more fun than ranting, which leaves me washed out and filthy, from the grimy, slimy, smarm-filled vileness of the subject matter, to wit, Asininnies…… I think I’ll go take a shower, & wash up…..

“An optimist — Someone who hasn’t been given all the facts yet.” — Smart Bee

“We expect them [Salvadoran officials] to work toward the elimination of human rights–the elimination of human rights in accordance with the pursuit of Justice.” — Vice President Dan Quayle, 2/3/89 — (reported in The Chicago Tribune, 2/4/89)

VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Ah, you know the type. They like to blame it all on the Jews or the Blacks, ’cause if they couldn’t, they’d have to wake up to the fact that life’s one big, scary, glorious, complex and ultimately unfathomable crapshoot — and the only reason THEY can’t seem to keep up is they’re a bunch of misfits and losers.” — A analysis of Neo-Nazis, from “The Badger” comic

“It takes 17 muscles to smile, 43 muscles to frown and only 3 to raise your middle finger!!!” — Smart Bee

As for the last thought, it only seems right, to me…. One may perform the last, then, the first, and still not be as tired as if they hadn’t, and felt bad for missing their opportunity, thus stimulating the second exercise….. which probably explains where the phrase, “an exercise in futility”, originally came from, from a time when somebody was trying describe their experience attempting to cope with asininnies, and the like….

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Well…. sorry ’bout that, ffolkes…. I seem to have lost all sense of proportion when it comes to my rants…. But, it’s all fresh stuff, and needed to come out, so it didn’t rot where it sat, there in my head…. To be truthful, if it does sit there too long, the resulting stench, and my reaction to that, can, in its own way, be mildly entertaining…. BUT…. and this is a big BUTT, the aftershocks from THAT have been known to cause side effects that, in the past, have contributed significantly to global warming, and, in extreme cases, has been known to put entire regional police forces on red alert status, just from the vibes….

Okay, sorry, had to indulge in some last-minute fantasy…. sure felt good, after all that ranting above…. Hopefully, by tomorrow, I’ll have re-learned a bit of restraint, and will manage to write fewer than 4000+ words…. I suppose we’ll have to see what happens, eh? For the nonce, (I LOVE that word, and phrase!….), I’ll take my leave, & head out into the day, to see what kind of damage I can cause out there to some unsuspecting bureaucrat’s day…. Ta then, ffolkes, I’ll see you mañana, if they don’t catch me before then….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Polly frigging HATES crackers!…..

Posted on September 6, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“As great scientists have said

and as all children know,

it is above all by the imagination

that we achieve

perception, and compassion, and hope.”

— Ursula K. LeGuin

On some occasions in the past, it has been the habit on this blog, here at the beginning, to engage in either fictional, or personal, or public subjects, in order to fulfill the inherent function of an introductory passage, to wit: provide a from here to there, with here being the space to be filled after the word, “Ffolkes,”, and there being our first section, regardless of what might, or might not, be in that segment…. It sounds simple, but, as I’ve found in the past 3+ years, it isn’t as easy as it sounds, or looks, or IS…. and, GOD! I love my magic cream!!!

Having thus removed all the possibly advantageous trust and belief in the seriousness we had so engagingly presented as our first offering today, with one short expression, we see the meaning, and relevance of the old proverb, “The reputation built up over years may be destroyed in the blink of an eye.” So much for literary plot devices, eh? There I was, setting up a rather nice, simple discussion on the process of writing this, or any, blog, when the pain in my shoulder got so intense, I paused to apply some magic cream; within seconds, the pain was receding, and my fingers took over my brain in celebration, again proving the truth of another old saw, “Never let a Bozo shine your shoes!”…..

Well, perhaps that wasn’t the exact wording of the one you heard, but, you get the picture, I’m sure…. We are all Bozos on this bus, (thank you, Firesign Theater…), but, our backgrounds may vary, according to the mental outlook of each one’s parental units, and what we hear as we watch our noses grow, is that every Bozo has his own color nose, so, tolerance should be our first watchword, right after the words, ‘rubber ducks’…. It’s all in the manual, in case you’ve forgotten those first, bright days in Bozo School, otherwise known as Brooklyn….

Okay….

Well, that was interesting, though somewhat confusing, I’ll bet, for the reader. Hell, I’M confused, and I wrote it…. For the life of me, finding word to put here at the front, at least for this morning, has been an exercise in futility, if not downright suicidally depressive; nothing came into my head that would work, even after the infusion of some Mozart with my coffee… Hence, the semi-existential treatise you see above, with no actual connection to reality, or even, for that matter, this blog…. but, on short notice, which is only kind I get, it’s the best I could come up with…. and, apparently, it’s good enough….

Look, over there…. see that? Yep, it’s a rather aggressive looking #4 emergency method, and it’s looking like it wants to charge…. and, wouldn’t you know it, we’re without our charge machine, so we can’t run any, even a MasterCard/Visa, much less the one most of them carry, American Express…. when we got the new card reader, we got rid of all the old paper slips to use as backups…. Man, they get pretty riled when they aren’t allowed to charge…. Maybe we should just,…. wait. Look out, here it comes! Hold on!….. BLAM!!!….. Okay, it’s all good now, it’s been tranquilized…

Whew, just in time, too…. If we hang around this intro section any longer, we’re going to see our insurance rates go up again, so, I’m using this #4, even if it IS unconscious, to get us out of here…. You can watch if you want, but, don’t blink, whatever you do….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Thou seest how few be the things, the which if a man has at his command his life flows gently on and is divine.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ii, 5

For those unpracticed at translation, from an English translation of a Greek or Roman philospher’s original words, (said translation usually performed by an over-educated, stuffy, pompous scholar of undetermined age, yet certainly not less than required to initiate calcification of the brain), into a more modern version of English, allow me to express the idea Marcus is stating, in a simpler way, into a more modern speech pattern…. It is an idea which, indeed, can be quite useful in formulating one’s approach to living… I’ll use the most simple, modern format, used by many organizations to teach this lesson…. you may have heard it previously…. The above quote from Marcus, in modern terms, means this:

K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple, Silly, or, as we curmudgeons like to say, to provide the proper degree of motivational anger, Keep It Simple, Stupid/SFB/SF/YI/Einstein, take your pick….. To avoid prosecution for public display of vulgar taste, you can supply your own meanings for the acronyms…. I’ll tell mine to anyone who requests them in the comments, but, will only send them via email…. At least those, since I started using the Tor network, are a secure form of communication….

Now, if I could only learn to DO that…. keep it simple, that is…. SIGH…..

😉

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“A very ancient and fish-like smell.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Tempest — Act ii, Sc. 2

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Lawmaker-calls-for-redirecting-PG-amp-E-s-blast-5736844.php

Want to feel enraged, disgusted, and spiritually soiled? If this article doesn’t do it, nothing will… I felt it immediately, that outrageous sense of entitlement displayed by the big corporations, such as PG&E, or, any modern corporation large enough to spawn a bureaucracy, in support of their oligarchy that is modern society….

These are those companies, and, to a great extent, governments, who exist in this world, according to the evidence of their actions, and their words, for the sole purpose of continuing their own existence, with the caveat implied, or, in this case, expressly stated aloud, that, what they do is so important, they deserve to be allowed to do that HOWEVER they please, because they are ENTITLED to be above the laws that regulate the rest of society, and, to make as much money at it as is possible, simply because the function they serve is one society cannot do without. The subtext, and implied threat, is the expressed intimation that, if the public, the common man, wishes to maintain a quality of living that includes shelter, electricity, heat, and water…. four things that are essential to every individual alive, then, those who control those items MUST be allowed to have free rein, without suffering the indignity of being questioned about their methods, or their performance….

PG&E is one of the largest energy sellers on the market, as large as any other in the entire world… Mostly larger, in at least one respect; there are other companies to rival their size, but, few of those are as focused in one area of the energy market as this particular behemoth, required to cover several of the parts of the energy grid that need the maximum available power at all times…. Nor, by any standards, is there one that has been LESS regulated, over the entire time since the early twentieth century, when the company saw its beginning as the major public supplier of gas and electricity to much of the western half of the US…. For that entire time, they have pretty much had things completely their way, as they have built what used to be called a practical monopoly for the products and services in which they deal….

For the last hundred years or so, they have been allowed to charge as much as they want for their energy, in order to maintain a certain profit for their “shareholders”…. not for the public, whom they serve, but for the few who own their stock…. Along with that, as evidence now shows, not only have most of their costs for doing business been passed along to their customers, for all these years, billed as “improved services”, thus increasing their profit each year, but, they NEVER ACTUALLY SPENT ANY MONEY ON IMPROVEMENTS, AND THEN LIED ABOUT IT TO THE PUBLIC, hiding their lack of safety upgrades to lines and equipment, and their lack of concern for improving services, deliberately, KNOWING they were increasing risk to the public, for the sake of increased profits….

But, according to their lawyers, they aren’t receiving, and I quote now from the above article, “the credit they deserve,…” for the money they have recently spent on improvements, a mere couple of billion dollars worth, compared to the 75 YEARS of not spending ANYTHING, for what the public now knows are improvements LEGALLY REQUIRED BY LAW….. which, I might add, they only paid, to perform the improvements due decades ago, AFTER they were caught, a couple years ago, when an unsafe line, ( a line typical of MOST of what they have in place. due to their decades of cheating, and overcharging the public), blew up, due to flaws they already knew about, but, had not fixed…. a blast that KILLED eight innocent people, injuring dozens more, while destroying most of an entire block of individual homes….

According to these same lawyers, who belong to the corporate slugs at the huge bureaucracy that is PG&E, the arrogant assholes who run the company not only want us to give them a little slack, (direct quote: “They deserve more credit for the money they’ve already spent…”) for ponying up a FRACTION of their profits, AFTER they were caught red-handed lying about what they’ve been doing for 50 years, but, they have the damn gall to want us to believe they’ve, first, actually MADE the improvements they SAY they’ve made, in spite of having lied about that very thing for over 50 years, and, second, to give them a break, and let the money they just spent count toward their fines….. Next, they’ll tell us they’re raising prices again, to be able to pay for these fines they’re so unjustly being held accountable for….

Now, later today, I also read that there is one politician, already, who wants the money from the tiny little fine amount, (a mere $1.45 billion, a drop in the bucket to this huge money machine….) which, by law, is suppose to go into the State’s general fund, for the general benefit of the people of the state…. Of course, politicians believe it is their money, too…. but, this one politico, no doubt a PG&E supporter, with a number of large plants and utility facilities in his district, meaning a lot of voters work for the company, says the money should be used to make even more safety improvements, which will supposedly, somehow, help make up for the years of not getting those upgrades.

I don’t suppose he even stopped to consider that this act gives the fines right back to PG&E, to use, allegedly, for improvements…. It occurs to me, the company is the one who decides that the work is done, or not, and when, and where…. because, hey, they’re the ones who know, right? But, who’s to say they’re telling us the truth about what is needed? They’ve got a long history of lying about that very thing, already…. What guarantee would there be that this money would actually be spent for that? Is someone going to stand over their shoulder, to see that it goes where it should? Would any corporation allow that sort of oversight, especially one who believes it holds a monopoly, and thus, a stranglehold on society? One who already has lied to the public, cheated them with overcharging, for services and work that was never done, for decades? Get a grip, ffolkes….

Now, do you believe me? Now can you see how ubiquitous, and dangerous, is the sense of entitlement held by all these corporate snakes, (and, their flunkies, politicians….) who live to lie, and cheat, and do whatever they must to make more and more money, even if it means placing in danger the lives of millions of innocent people, either by neglect, or design, and then, turning around, and whining about it, as they stall, and appeal, and do all they can to wiggle out from under the weight of any responsibility for their own actions?

These assholes will be the death of us all, ultimately, and, you can be sure, all the way to the door of Hell, these foul, gibbering demons from the nether regions of that address, masquerading as human beings, will be trying to figure their angle, to see if the Devil can be manipulated into some sort of profit making venture…. and, they’ll enjoy it, especially if they can screw somebody else while doing so….

Okay… I’ve run out of steam on this; nobody ever listens, and, if they do, they are either like me, powerless to change it, or, feel the same sort of resigned frustration, causing us all to look the other way, until we can find something to feel better about, or, let time purge it from our awareness, if not our memory…. In closing, here is a short, five-star pearl, with some thoughts on what I’ve related above….

“Only the brave deserve the fair, but only rich, fat, cowardly merchants can afford same.” — Chinese Proverb

“Admit nothing, deny everything, and launch counter-accusations.” — Excerpt from the PG&E manager’s training manual, page 2, on dealing with any request for service from the public, or for handling questions from the media…. Honest, ffolkes it’s right in there…. I’ve seen it….

Our ignorance of history makes us libel our own times. People have always been like this.”” — Flaubert

(S’truth, too…. ain’t it a damn shame? ‘Cept, now, it’s probably too late to even hope for any changes, before we’re all gone….. gigoid)

“In the words of Shankarachaya, “All impossible things can be made possible save the bringing of the fool’s mind to the point of truth.” — Hazrat Inayat Khan (Sufi writer)

(The truth of this is why the quote from Flaubert is so relevant…. and so true….)

“And sometimes the bear eats you.” — Everyone’s feeling of resignation, upon receiving their monthly bill from PG&E

“Please hold. A service representative will annoy you shortly.” — An excerpt from another PG&E manual, this one for phone technicians, with lists of the approved recordings. for frustrating anyone who calls with a question, about anything…. These are the statements that are officially sanctioned by the executive board, as suggested by their legal department….

‘Ere you go, ffolkes….. deal with it. We’re all going to have to, one way or another, very much more shortly than anyone believes, I’m afraid…. I hate to be a cynic, but, ever heard of permafrost?…. Look it up, if you’re in the mood to feel some real, visceral terror for the future of mankind, and all the other animals, and most of the plants & tiny organisms, on this planet….

There MAY be SOME sort of life now extant, that will be able to adapt to what is coming…. but, if so, we don’t know what it may be, because, while smart enough to cause our own demise, and smart enough to actually see it coming…. we don’t seem to be smart enough to do anything about it, or to know exactly what will happen; only that it will, and we can’t stop it…. So, according to all the evidence, we WILL die, and sooner than we ever thought…. I guess it’s what you might call a surprise ending for mostly everybody….

Excerpt from:

The Hollow Men

V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

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

After that, only one poet exists for me, other than Teddy E…. Since my need for the soothing properties of a poem is great, and Emily’s poems tend to brevity, we’ll go with a two-fer…. Enjoy, please…. I intend to….

A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!

A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!
Your prayers, oh Passer by!
From such a common ball as this
Might date a Victory!
From marshallings as simple
The flags of nations swang.
Steady—my soul: What issues
Upon thine arrow hang!

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

I died for beauty

I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth – the two are one;
We brethren are,” he said.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

“Some students drink at the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle.” — Brilliant Bee

Some times, when I’m sitting here, as I am now, with more than usual the amount of energy, in a relatively pain-muted state, I’ll do as I am now…. I got an email, advertising the latest Grateful Dead CD release, with a link to listen to one of the live cuts, from a concert on Long Island in 1989, of the song, “Deal”…. so, I clicked over to listen, turning my new speakers up to their not great, but adequate maximum level, take out my ponytail holders, to free my hair (now down to my mid-lower back….), laugh loudly& long, and, then…..

Then, sitting down, I will take a hit, or three, lean back, and begin to rock out in my chair, as much as I can without creating more stunning pain, essentially immersing myself in hedonistic memories of days past, when I was young, actually AT the concert I’m listening to, dancing my ass off with some twenty-something like-minded goddess, with no inhibition or restraint…. I do that, because, all my life, I’ve believed in the above, in gulping down knowledge, and, LIFE in general, in great big bites, refusing to gargle ANY of it, unless it was actually toxic for me to consume….

As Robert Heinlein taught us, via the vehicle of The Notebooks of Lazarus Long,

“Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.”

I first read the Notebooks, or, this part of it, in my early teens…. When I left high school to attend UC Berkeley, in 1968, it was my full intention to do just that…. to take big bites of Life, to savor each one of them, with delight, appreciation, and gratitude….. So, I did, every day from then, until now…. Having also adopted another of Lazarus’ quotes as a life rule, to wit: “No regrets, ever. When the ship lifts, all bills are paid. Life is too short to hold on to the past.”, I have never regretted a single moment of my past…. ANY of it, even the bad parts…. Nothing lasts forever, “but the earth and sky”, as the song says, and it’s true; so, since they, too, shall pass, the bad parts only make the good parts that much sweeter, when they come back around….

I could, conceivably, talk/rant about this one for a long while, as the concept forms a large part of my philosophy of life (See axiom #1, # 2, #3, well, actually, all eight of the axioms have this running through them, in a way….), Peruaosophy…. but, I think I’ve already made the point sufficiently well, that an old-school pearl, with this idea, of “drinking deep of the Empyrean fields”, as the focus of parameters, should suffice to finish the thought, without having to listen to me spout off any longer…. See, I CAN be a nice guy, when I work at it a little…

“Death to all fanatics!” — Bumper Sticker

(Just a small demonstration of “irony”….)

EXISTENCE, n.

    A transient, horrible, fantastic dream,
    Wherein is nothing yet all things do seem:
    From which we’re wakened by a friendly nudge
    Of our bedfellow Death, and cry: “O fudge!”

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“The bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo.” — Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) — Natural History, Book xviii, Sect. 249

I see my life go drifting like a river
From change to change; I have been many things –
A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light
Upon a sword, a fir tree on a hill,
An old slave grinding at a heavy quern,
A king sitting upon a chair of gold –
And all these things were wonderful and great;
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all.
Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow
Lay hidden in that small slate-coloured thing!

— William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid”

“A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly,

science into superstition, and art into pedantry.

Hence University education.”

— George Bernard Shaw —

In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of thee.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Stanzas to Augusta

(Augusta was Lord Byron’s sister…. There are lines, such as these, that solidify my opinion of him as one of the two most passionate masters of metaphor, and, one of the two most insightful poet to ever put pen to paper…. as well as being known as one of the most adept romantic poets to ever wear the name… He wrote incredibly beautiful, deeply insightful, cunning, delicate, yet, powerful poems, in his tragically short life, that still stand as some the finest ever written, and will never be forgotten….)

“Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.” — Lao-Tzu

Ffolkes… this is a very fine, very subtle pearl, deep in metaphor and spiritual feeling, yet, all of the pearls bear good advice for living, or, demonstrate a valuable skill to be learned…. I couldn’t be prouder of Smart Bee, for coming up with such an excellent group of gems, lustrous and shiny….. Plus, bonus round; for the price, it’s an unbeatable bargain….

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

For some unknown, and ungodly, reason, the sleep I got yesterday seems to have completely screwed up my system’s routine…. I had so much energy, I was up until after 10 PM, which meant, even with only five or six hours of sleep, I would be a bit late getting up… not a big deal, but, I hate making myself feel rushed, which I do, every time, in spite of the fact there is no deadline, other than my own feeling of wanting to get it done, and posted between 6 and 7 AM…. which, this morning, is well within reach, but, doesn’t feel like it…. go figure…. I guess that much sleep at once is a message my mind, and body, which tend to work together when I’m not watching, a message they don’t like, and refuse to acknowledge….

SIGH…. it’s tough, when your own mind actively works against you… But, forewarned is forearmed, so, I know what has to be done…. which, right now, entails finding just the right note on which to leave you, happy, but wanting more…. and, I think I just found it…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. Keep your shoes shiny, and your nose clean…. it honks louder that way, and the cops will know you care, because of your shoes…. Don’t overthink it, just wave bye-bye now, and go home…

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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

All those attending the apocalypse, board here….

Posted on September 5, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go.”

~~ Bertrand Russell ~~

What vivid, beautiful morning glories! (Well, I THINK they’re morning glories; if not, can a gardener tell me what they are? I’m clueless about plant ID’s….) I’m happy with this shot, simple as it is, because of the colors that came through in the final result…. gorgeous plant, it was, and the only pictures I managed to get on that walk, were of it, and its flowers…. Out of the four or six shots I took, (shaky hands, couldn’t get one centered…. I was on my way to the magic cream shop, in dire need of their products….), this one, and a study of the whole plant, which was in a yard next to a store, were lovely enough to use for today, and tomorrow’s Pearl…. sufficient reward for the misery I had to endure to get to the store….

And, you are NOT going to believe this one…. Last night, I slept (yes, slept… Me, gigoid, sleeping…. quite a concept, eh?) for ten hours, straight and solid, with only two awakenings, to take the scheduled opiate…. I feel GREAT! (Well, I’m discounting the hips and shoulder, which are in their standard state, but, a bit of the ol’ magical topical cream, and I’m good to go…. You may have already noticed how my mood is at a level of, oh, I’d say, a good three steps from usual…. I really don’t know what to do with it; I haven’t suffered this much ‘good will toward men’ in ages…. Maybe I should go out tonight, & try my luck at meeting somebody new…. Nah, I’ll just enjoy the glow….

Besides, by 10 AM, if the world’s routine hasn’t altered significantly, my arthritis should be kicking in, and I’ll be back to the steeplechase, running as slowly as I can, chasing after the pain, trying to knock it down far enough to stop, if nothing else, the whimpering, which tend to embarrass me, even though nobody can hear me when I cry out…. SIGH…. It’s been a tough week, if you couldn’t tell….

Enough whining, though, I feel too good to be pessimistic about how long it will last… I’ll just take advantage of the moment, and enjoy feeling relatively normal, at least for a while…. Plus, look, it gave me enough to fill in this space, which means we can use one of the emergency release mechanisms we have in place, to get us out of here, and onward into the rest of today’s mess, er, missive… Whattyathink, eh? Shall we use #4? It IS sitting right there, ready…. Okay, we’ll do that….

Shall we Pearl?

” — I’d love to, but… I have to study for a blood test.” — 79 of 101 Easy Ways To Say NO

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

“Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.” — Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”

I’ve been writing a lot recently on this subject; one reason makes itself obvious today, or, more accurately, was demonstrated yesterday, as several stories in the news caught my attention, stories that demonstrate the ubiquitous seriousness of the issue, that of the militarization of the police, with the concomitant result, and motivating factor, of the elimination of the basic rights as covered in the original US Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution…. If you think, even for a moment, that you have all those rights by law, in today’s world, then, ffolkes, and, folks….. y’all just aren’t paying close enough attention to what is happening, right in front of you….

In support of that obviously arguable contention, I offer the following discussion, with two appropriate expressions as a preface:

“No sheath shall hold what finds its home in flesh.” — Proverb

“The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Measure for Measure — Act ii, Sc. 2

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Fast-food-protests-expected-in-push-for-higher-pay-5732532.php

Oh…. I get it now…. We, the citizens, are now allowed to protest, without fear of arrest by overzealous police forces, UNLESS we are “disruptive to traffic”, or refrain from “blocking streets”, as a way to express our grievances, to petition the government for redress of those grievances… Sounds to me like the same line of reasoning used by the large communication companies, such as Verizon, or AT&T, (as well as just about ALL companies these days…. they all saw how well it worked for the big guys, & jumped right on that wagon…), who make it impossible to even SPEAK to an actual live person, to try to address any issues of customer service….

They all say their primary goal is customer satisfaction, or, in the case of the police, the protection of the rights of the public, but, have arranged matters (i.e., passed laws…) that enable them to refuse to speak, or listen to anyone who wishes to obtain any such thing…. Same same attitude, in my book…. They don’t want to talk to us, and they don’t want to listen to any complaints about that, or about anything else…. so, they’ve made it damn near impossible to exercise the right we were allegedly guaranteed by the sacrifices of our ancestors….

“The simple rights, the civil liberties from generations of struggle must not be just fine words for patriotic holidays, words we subvert on weekdays, but living, honored rules of conduct amongst us…I’m glad the American Civil Liberties Union gets indignant, and I hope this will always be so.” — Senator Adlai E. Stevenson

(Obviously, by the evidence of this, and other quotes from the good Senator, and, because I was around to watch the rest of the established incumbent politicians of the era, who were, ostensibly, his peers, deliberately and ruthlessly destroy his credibility, and his reputation, with lies, innuendo, and political skulduggery, thus effectively shutting him up, and preventing him from causing any real harm to them, or their incumbency, it’s clear, to me, and to many others, Adlai was one of the rare exceptions to the established rule….)

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/09/03/black-oakland-firefighter-says-white-cop-held-him-at-gunpoint/?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

According to this one, the officer involved was acting “within policy”…. So, by that standard, it’s okay, policy-wise, to profile, to NOT call for backup, to use intimidation as a method of controlling a situation, and to assume that the officer saying, “Sorry” for being a total asshole, is sufficient reason to ‘overlook’ his behavior from the police’s obviously expert, objective viewpoint….. Right…..

“If our behavior is strict, we do not need fun!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Doesn’t this bother anyone else, but me? Why is it okay for the police to act like this, without any consequences at all for the officer involved, and the department that encourages this sort of asininity? Can ANYONE explain this to me, any way at all? I’m pretty smart, and will be able to understand just about anything that makes any sense, from any objective standpoint, based on a full understanding of the intent of the founders of the Constitution when they created that document, and a pretty extensive knowledge of human nature, so, any sort of evidence will do….

“Pluck out the heart of my mystery.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 2

I’m willing to bet, some serious money, that there is no one who will, or can, respond to those questions, at least, not in any way that will lessen the responsibility for immoral, unethical, and illegal actions of the policeman, and the department that echoes the WRONG attitudes of almost every other force in this country, and all over the world…. I say this because I’ve looked for any such evidence, already, many times, and have yet to find anything to alter the way I look at it, not by the analysis of the available FACTUAL evidence….

Ever since the middle of the nineteenth century, the government of this country, (and, by that, I am including all three branches, which are supposed to balance each other’s powers, thereby protecting us, the People….) has been under the influence and control of corporate interests, which translates as the monied elite, who have, and will protect viciously, all the “legal” rights they now possess, rights to the control of almost ALL the resources available to society…. With this influence, hard-won by the bribing of a major Federal Court judge in the mid-1800’s, some legal rulings were made, rulings that defined corporations as “persons”, with the legal rights of a person, and, more, providing a legal precedent for future flunkies, er, judges to fall back on….

PRECEDENT, n. In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those in the line of his desire. Invention of the precedent elevates the trial-at-law from the low estate of a fortuitous ordeal to the noble attitude of a dirigible arbitrament.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

This opened the door to other rulings, all of which, over the years, based on the original decision, and, all of which, essentially, give more and more of the rights we flesh and blood citizens have to those “corporate persons”, such that, now, corporations not only have MORE rights than any single citizen, composed of mere flesh and blood, but, have extended their control, using the same basic method of bribery, to the other two branches….. They did so in Congress, by convincing that august body to vote itself the right to make laws that were separate from those that were Constitutional, thereby making them not subject to the same restrictions that now define that document…. In other words, they voted themselves the keys to the treasury….

(Some time, if you get a chance, check out the health plan that the members of Congress, and other Federal government elected officials, are set up with when they get elected, along with their retirement plans…. You will be shocked at what they have given themselves over the years, all without even notifying any of the public what was going on…. Most of the American public is not even AWARE that a member of Congress, when they leave that august body, get to keep their health plan (much better than any available to the public, more extensive coverage, and free of any out of pocket cost to them….), AND their congressional salary, now in the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS range….. FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES….. even if only elected to one term…. Pretty good deal they’ve handed themselves, eh, what?….. If you are ANYTHING like me, it will convince you to go buy a gun, and to use it…..)

The Executive Branch, while attempting to maintain the appearance of independence and proper assumption of its Constitutional duty, fell in with those same shadowy corporate snakeheads on Wall Street, and came up with the simple concept of “Executive privilege”, giving themselves the power to make laws, bypassing Congress, and, thus, the people, altogether…. Cute, eh? And, clever, too, for making it all seem as if the White House, Congress, and the Courts, were, and are, all doing their jobs, providing balance to the powers of government…. when, in fact, the people of this country have NO ONE representing their interests, in any level, in any branch of our government….

There are 455 very rich, white men, (with a very few exceptions to that particular description….) who determine the course of life in this country…. add it up yourself. Their average income is over a million dollars…. the average, mind you… Many of them are multi-millionaires, many times over…. What do they know of the lives of the common man? How can anyone believe they would have the same set of interests to pursue, or that the agendas they hold are, in ANY way, concerned with making things better for anyone but themselves….

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” — Mark Twain

As I said, there are a very few exceptions, who, basically, are powerless to change any part of the big picture…. too much money, power, and inertia working against them… Plus, every one of those at that level, who accidentally make it to the national stage, and are those who would work for the people, sincerely and honestly, are always isolated by the rest, to make them completely ineffective…. witness the only moral president of the last century, Jimmy Carter…. from the current crop of Congressmen with any honor at all, I’d say Al Franken comes closest, and he is under massive political assault, by the Republican Party, the Tea Party, AND the Koch Brother’s Super PAC, Citizens United….)

Ah yes, Citizens United…. that famous Supreme Court decision, which makes my contention, about the bought-and-paid for servile indenturing of the Supreme Court, not so very hard to believe, giving, as it did, the very clear message the Court’s belief in the sacred status of corporate personhood, and the inviolability of corporations to do whatever they must to protect and preserve their bottom line, which is the profit they make on all the predatory hoarding of resources, and the control that gives them over society and culture at large…. Anything at all that interferes with smooth flow of money into their coffers is not to be allowed….

There is a bill now in the Senate, awaiting a vote, that, if passed, will do away with the decision by the Court re: corporate donations to political campaigns; it is a Constitutional Amendment, which was the ONLY way to stop the decision from becoming the law of the land. It will prevent the corporations from having completely unlimited power to influence elections, by removing the restrictions they, as corporate persons, to political campaigns, effectively halting the formation and continued existence of Super-PAC’s, such as Citizens United….

You know, the one owned by the Koch brothers, ultra-conservative billionaires, with a sense of entitlement you have to see to believe…. incredible assholes, both of them…. Sorry, just can’t stand people like that, who have no compassion or “fellow-feeling”; in my estimation, they do not deserve to be called human, and, to be honest, I consider them to be a total waste of sperm….

This government, as it now exists, has NOTHING to do with the Constitution that allegedly forms the basis for its existence…. Almost every statement in the Constitution, especially in the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights, is no longer in force, essentially, and we can no longer count those rights as anything but a memory….

The experiment in government started by our founding fathers, who wanted a government that would protect and support the people, not oppress them, as every other government in history has done to its citizenry; once in power, every human being alive seems to fall prey to the urge to put aside all of their compassion, all of their integrity, and all their altruism, whereupon, they begin to make changes, that will ultimately server their ends, which are ONLY concerned with meeting their own needs, not those of the people…. It has happened EVERY TIME….

I challenge ANYONE to find an example, anywhere in the past 5000 years, of a government that demonstrated any appreciable degree of care for the people, ahead of what was important to the ruling class…. Just one will do, because even that will provide hope that it can be done…. but, I’m a pretty well-read guy, and I can’t think, or remember, any government in history who were considered to be any such thing as “compassionate” or that actually made life better for its citizenry….

As one of the Shrubs said one time, “Bring it on….”

I think that’s all…. I cant, at this point, think of anything more to add to this discussion, so, why don’t we give it up now, and move on….

“Sorry, my mind was on edible underwear today.” — Smart Bee, providing gigoid with an excuse for the above….

Whoops! How’d that get in here? Oh, I remember…. After the somber sobriety of the above politirant, I went to look for an appropriate pearl to close with, whereupon I found this, & couldn’t resist…. Okay, here is a proper thought with which to end this piece….

“May you have eyes like a hawk and a spouse with warts.” — Smart Bee, being a smart ass….

Sorry, I’m not taking the rap for that one; it’s on SB…. It just showed up when I pasted the right pearl, I THOUGHT…. THIS is the proper ending I was looking for, when I was so rudely interrupted, by a bloody database!……

“A conqueror is always a lover of peace.” — Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)

~~ from “On war”; copied by Lenin in his notebook, with notation, “Ah, Ah, witty”. ~~

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Whew! Good thing the first half of that rant was already done, or I’d have been there forever this morning…. After that, I need something to cheer me up a little bit…. no, make that a LOT…. I know…. In this mood, some pure, cold, clean, powerful brilliance is just the ticket…. Since none of mine quite fit that bill, this one will do just fine….

Witch Burning

In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.
A thicket of shadows is a poor coat. I inhabit
The wax image of myself, a doll’s body.
Sickness begins here: I am the dartboard for witches.
Only the devil can eat the devil out.
In the month of red leaves I climb to a bed of fire.

It is easy to blame the dark: the mouth of a door,
The cellar’s belly. They’ve blown my sparkler out.
A black-sharded lady keeps me in parrot cage.
What large eyes the dead have!
I am intimate with a hairy spirit.
Smoke wheels from the beak of this empty jar.

If I am a little one, I can do no harm.
If I don’t move about, I’ll knock nothing over. So I said,
Sitting under a potlid, tiny and inert as a rice grain.
They are turning the burners up, ring after ring.
We are full of starch, my small white fellows. We grow.
It hurts at first. The red tongues will teach the truth.

Mother of beetles, only unclench your hand:
I’ll fly through the candle’s mouth like a singeless moth.
Give me back my shape. I am ready to construe the days
I coupled with dust in the shadow of a stone.
My ankles brighten. Brightness ascends my thighs.
I am lost, I am lost, in the robes of all this light.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

“Poetry is the eloquence of truth.” — Joseph Campbell

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

Boy…. reading Sylvia is certainly a roller-coaster of an experience, isn’t it? I feel lots better now; all the lingering dregs of angst and resentment at the shenanigans of the BRC, and the rest of the asininnies, have departed, forthwith, leaving me relatively normal, in re: all-around feelings of contentment with life…. Since I’m 63 years old, I know that won’t last forever, or even very long, so, I’m intent on enjoying every minute of it….

Do be, do be, doo….

Okay, that’s enough normal for me…. I’m going to do what I do, which is put together a fresh, random harlequin style pearl, with parameters set at the extreme end of SILLY, right smack up against the backside of INSANITY…. Should be fun!…. Let’s go annoy Smart Bee for a while, okay? Okay! Let’s go!….

“It is a mistake to think of all demons as being exactly alike. Some are short while others are tall; some are yellow, others are blue; some are nasty and others are extremely nasty. Some of the nastiest are quite fast as well. Should you encounter one of these, it is a mistake to think at all. Much more appropriate are such responses as running, screaming, and the very rapid formation of a last will and testament.” — The Teachings of Ebenezum, Vol. IX

“Reality does not exist – yet.” — Smart Bee

“If I kiss you, that is a psychological interaction. On the other hand, if I hit you over the head with a brick, that is also a psychological interaction. The difference is that one is friendly and the other is not so friendly. The crucial point is if you can tell which is which.” — Dolph Sharp, I’m O.K., You’re Not So Hot

“Being normal is driving me crazy.” — Smart Bee (who obviously was listening all those times gigoid was talking to himself…. he thought….)

“The mind is everything,” wrote Proust. No doubt true, when you’re dead from the neck down.” — Edward Abbey

“Fear always springs from ignorance.” — Smart Bee, and, the Bhagavad Gita, paraphrased

“For I never have seen, and never shall see, that the cessation of the evidence of existence is necessarily evidence of the cessation of existence.” — De Morgan (1839-1917)

— Bother! said Pooh,as he rolled over into the wet spot.

(Oops, sorry, that was supposed to go somewhere else…. oh, well, we’re on fun mode, so, I’ll let it stay….)

“The only very marked difference between the average civilized man and the average savage is that the one is gilded and the other is painted.” — Mark Twain

“Before you criticize people, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’ve got a mile-long head start. And you have their shoes.” — The Lion

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.” — ee cummings

“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” — Henry David Thoreau

When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit,
‘Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet;
Nor ever ever shall, until that I die,
For the longer I live the more fool am I.

— “Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy” (1684)

Okay…. I know, I went a bit overboard, again; chalk it up to having so much energy, after my marathon sleep last night…. Bonus: You have, and I have, without realizing it, witnessed the creation of the very first 13-star pearl…. I have no clue as to how it happened, other than forgetting where I was while collecting…. The clipboard appends each quote, but, doesn’t allow me to look at it, to count, before pasting… It doesn’t matter, at all, really, because, in this case, it worked, just fine, which is a word we could easily use to describe this pearl… Without getting overly wordy, or overly long, these 13 ideas present us with some fine entertainment, and a few pokes in the conscience, as well as a good portion of silliness… I like it….

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

So much for serendipity and planning…. In spite of the sleep, and, in spite of the plan my unseasonably clear mind came up with this morning, I’m running a little late…. this, even though over half the rant was already done… But, when I sat to go over it, it just got me going again…. Then, the long pearl in section three got going…. Happily, it’s done, and I’m not going to fuss with it…. I will see y’all tomorrow, with who knows what new and exciting ideas, given an entire day of relative clear-mindedness? Not me, certainly, though I’ve got as much chance as anyone of guessing…. But, where would be the fun in that?…. Bye, for now….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Dorothy, this is DEFINITELY not Kansas!….

Posted on August 29, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A thing may be too sad to be believed or too wicked to be believed or too good to be believed;

but it cannot be too absurd to be believed in this planet of frogs and elephants, of crocodiles and cuttle-fish.”

~~ G. K. Chesterton ~~

— Maycock, The Man Who Was Orthodox —

It is said that one can find anything, anything at all in Portobello Road, and, if the hour or so I spent wandering there on my stay in London can be considered as typical, I’m inclined to believe it to be true. The photo above, which I took when I was there, shows just one small alleyway market, off the side of the road’s main thoroughfare which, though a street only 20 feet wide from curb to curb, was jammed with market stalls holding what appeared to be every variety of movable commerce known to Mankind…. There was, of course, a lot of modern crap, repeatedly, if not rudely offered by many vendors, but, there were also great deals on antiques, rare books, stamps, and thousands of, well, anything anyone wants….

Now, if you were to ask me why I picked this particular picture this morning, I doubt I could tell you, since I didn’t. Pick it this morning, that is…. I picked it out yesterday, as has been my wont of late…. Now, five minutes after cutting & pasting it in, I no longer remember, and will have even less clue tomorrow morning, when this is actually being written, using notes made by the Time Lord software, about what will, or even what is supposed to happen then…. which takes me even further from knowing anything about WHY this picture is so perfect… but, it is, so, I’m not going to worry about it, or we may never get out of the intro section…

Not that we ever had a real chance to do anything about that; since introducing the rather special and appealing side effects of using the powers of a Time Lord, a number of contradictory, yet, unfathomable patterns of the apparent rules by which the Universe operates have shown themselves to have been altered to a very small, but significant degree… This wouldn’t be any cause for alarm, if it weren’t this particular set of rules…. These are those rules that all of us depend on, like, the sky is blue, and one moment follows the next; you know, the basic structure of the Universe rules….

Anyway, they’ve been changed…. just a little, but, now we can no longer depend on this moment being anchored where it is in Time; it could break loose at any moment, and end up sending us a millennium into the past…. or, it could dump us three days into the future, with events already happening about which we have no clue, with no chance to ever find out what happened…. It could get a bit ugly, if the BRC happens to notice; it may take a while, as they are usually pretty well focused on their own bullshit, but, it’s bound to come to their attention, when nobody is paying any attention to them while watching the incredible light shows that always accompany such alterations to the fabric of space and time….

There…. I see it only took four paragraphs of almost pure blather to set the proper tone for today’s missive; this is good, as it’s relatively late, according to routine. Since it is, I won’t bother to drive all this home any deeper; we’ll just sort of fade out here, like with a good sound system that uses a good control system that can keep the tone pure as it fades from our perceptions, leaving us ready to absorb all the finer nuances of what may follow…. Nice, eh? Not bad for a low-tech solution to a high-tech issue, especially given the lack of advanced engineering or programming techniques available to us by law….

Shall we Pearl?

(I don’t usually use any pearls that may cause any friction, or feelings of divisiveness between the genders; it’s a fruitless and actually destructive pastime. But, this little gem from Balzac, though it sounds as if it would, is actually a very deep piece of insight into human nature, and into the proper and loving relationship between a husband and wife. In short, it’s deeper than it seems, and requires one to look beyond the surface words to the meaning beneath… which is always good exercise for the mind, anyway…. This COULD have been expressed MANY ways; I like this one, just because it’s got a tone of phlegmatism that appeals to me….)

“He who enters his wife’s dressing room is a philosopher or a fool.” — Balzac

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

The lateness of our start today has resulted in some good luck for y’all…. I don’t have the time, or the inclination to rant; I’d have to go find something to rant about, and while that wouldn’t necessarily be difficult of time-consuming, the ranting itself could easily get out of hand, time-wise…. So, I’ll be nice, and just create a nice random, old-school pearl for this section today, and worry about ranting later….

Have fun, & I hope y’all appreciate this; it’s more difficult than you may realize to hold in what I customarily spit out each morning, and there could conceivably be a price to pay out in the real world, as whatever angst I’ve built up since last letting it out builds up…. If it gets too hard to hold in, it could come out on some unsuspecting bureaucrat, or even a police myrmidon, and that can conceivably be either a good thing, or a bad one, depending on which end of the rant one ends up on…..

Ah well, that’s the chances we all take in life; there’s no way to think of EVERYTHING, and sometimes, Reality is just on its own, y’know? Like today…..

“Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xxvii

“At birth we woke to dream in this world between.” — Kan’ami Kiyotsugu

“It is a fundamental law of nature that nothing ever quite works out.” — Murphy’s Seventh Law

Government Intelligence – Another OXYMORON! — Smart Bee

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)

“Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.” — Oscar Wilde

“At ebb tide I wrote a line upon the sand, and gave it all my heart and all my soul. At flood tide I returned to read what I had inscribed and found my
ignorance upon the shore.” — Kahlil Gibran

What an excellent pearl! It showed itself quickly, and managed to take a good poke at government, religion, and human nature, and hand out some good advice for living seemingly, all without breaking a sweat…. Nice!

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

I’m in the mood for a bit of classical poetry today…. Enjoy! In fact, let’s make it a two-fer…. Have a care, ffolkes, these are small, but, they’re filling….

A Coat

I MADE my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world’s eyes
As though they’d wrought it.
Song, let them take it,
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_________________________________

A Crazed Girl

THAT crazed girl improvising her music.
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,

Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling She knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,
Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare
A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing
Heroically lost, heroically found.

No matter what disaster occurred
She stood in desperate music wound,
Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph
Where the bales and the baskets lay
No common intelligible sound
But sang, ‘O sea-starved, hungry sea.’

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

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

This is another of those rare Pearls, which created itself by merely popping up on screen, one after another, in a row…. How can I say no to such persistence and dedication? I can’t…..

“Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love for power.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)

“All the world ‘s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. At first the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school. And then the lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier, full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard; jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances; and so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side; his youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide for his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), As You Like It — Act ii, Sc. 7

“I call that a scumhead.” — James Joyce — Finnegans Wake

“The palpable obscure.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Paradise Lost, Book ii, Line 406

“Dreams have only one owner at a time. That’s why dreamers are lonely.” — Erma Bombeck

“Asked from what country he came, he replied, “I am a citizen of the world.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Diogenes, vi

“I’m in direct contact with many advanced fun CONCEPTS.” — Zippy the Pinhead

I’ve said many times previously that Shakespeare was overrated, and isn’t one of my favorite playwrights, even though I fully admit he is possibly, overall, the best that ever performed that particular act of literary expression. I just don’t like a lot of it; to my mind, and ear, much of it simply sucks, big time…. That said, he wrote so damn much, some of it just had to be fucking brilliant…. The above quote, known by heart to a large portion of mankind for over 400 years, falls directly into that category, effortlessly. Possibly the greatest soliloquy of all time, it shines with a luster that outshines virtually all other of mankind’s works, to give us the truth about ourselves…..

Maybe that’s why I write so much…. I’m hoping to hit on, and create, at least ONE piece that shines like this, if not quite a match for its degree of brightness…. SIGH…. Well, I guess I’ll just keep trying; I have a ways to go to be that good…. And, in the process, I’ll try to remember this…. which was the last one that popped up; the one after this was so bad, I knew it was done….

“The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.” — Eugene Delacroix

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

Not bad; I’ve shaved over 40 minutes off the hour I got up late… I’ll take it, and y’all, I think, are fortunate that I am. This one is a good pearl, and not nearly as long as they have been for the last few weeks… I suppose even my fertile brain has to take a creative break now and again…. Enjoy it while it lasts, though; nothing I do or see these days is liable to shut me up for long…. Just sayin’….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, and remember, in spite of how it may seem at times, I love you all…. I can’t claim I like it, but, there it is, so, I deal…. you’ll deal, too, I’m sure….

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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

It was planted only yesterday…..

Posted on August 20, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.”

~~ Aldous Huxley ~~

Reader’s Digest, 1956

Essentially, I am still an unskilled photographer; I’m never completely happy with most shots I take, and have developed the, no doubt, common habit of taking a LOT of pictures, of each subject, to make sure I can print, or use at least one of them… While in Europe last year, I had not yet come to that point of knowledge about the process, so, I had to just take what came as I went along. After all this time, after looking at the couple of hundred photos I did take, (most of which I’ll never show, as they are not very good at all…. But, I was there, & I took them, so they mean something to me….), the above effort may be the one that will end up as my favorite, simple as it is…

It’s a picture of a defensive castle, somewhere off the coast of, I think, Ireland… This would mean it was either defending the approaching waterway to Cork, Dublin, or Belfast, which were the three Irish ports we saw on the cruise…. After a time, to me, the approaches to all ports seem the same, in some ways, so they tend to blur a bit in the memory, unless there is some reason for it to stand out…. I don’t THINK that makes me a jaded traveler, does it? I hope not, because the ports themselves are very different….

I never learned the name of this fort, but, that didn’t prevent me from imagining the battles fought in defense of the coast, and city it protected, and the picture is good enough to have captured some of what I saw….. Well, I like it, anyway…. It isn’t as easy as it might seem to take a good picture on the deck of a ship; it’s always moving, if only a little, which has an effect on the hands holding the camera…. A certain amount of luck is needed to get a clear shot some days, so, I was happy with this one…

I know for a fact my routine is shot to shit; hell, this isn’t even being written today…. Wait a minute…. How can I not be writing today, whatever day it is? Hmm… There’s one I’ll need to think about; this may be a conundrum even the powers of a Time Lord can’t cope with…. I hope not, the Doctor is busy with the new TV show, so, I’ve got to figure out how to operate the Tardis on my own…. Okay, maybe coming clean will turn the trick….

I’m writing this yesterday, but, posting it today, so I can start working on tomorrow, today, get it? No? Well, neither do I… and I’m the one trying to do it. This may just be the one that does it ffolkes; it may be the one that puts us all right over the edge, into realms of reality where nothing we already know will be of any use to us…. What the hell have I done…. All my caution, all my planning, for naught…. Sorry, ffolkes, I thought we had this under control, but, I’m afraid that there’s no denying it now…. We’re sunk….

The frammistan won’t hold any longer; we’ve pushed it too hard, too long. By the time we could even get a replacement, we will have already consumed enough of the space-time continuum to produce a chain reaction in the remaining dark matter, which will lead, inevitably, to the next Big Bang…. in about twenty minutes…. I’m sorry, but, I couldn’t help it…. it SEEMED like the right thing to do at the time…. (Boy, that would be a good epitaph for Mankind wouldn’t it? “It sounded like a good idea at the time….”)

Oh, wait…. hold on…. what’s that? Oh, look it’s our missing piece! Well, how convenient is THAT? Okay, scratch the doomsday routine; it’s all okay now…. Instead, we’re going to just put this piece right back HERE…. and, we’re good to go to the next section of today/tomorrow’s Pearl…. How ’bout that, eh? It’s almost like magic…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Socrates, xvi

Well, of course he did…..

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

This is a long rant, ffolkes…. When I start on this particular subject, I have a hard time stopping…. this time, to the tune of over 2500 words…. I figured I should give fair warning; this is not an easy rant of read, nor will it give any quarter to those it targets as the evil protagonists…. If you don’t feel up to it, then you can skip it…. However, this is an extremely important subject, to me, so, I’m asking you to take the time to read it, think about it, and maybe pass it on…. This needs to change, for sure, and for certain…. I’ve even given it a title, in case I decide to publish it alone, elsewhere….

A True Plague upon Our Houses….

In which we take issue with those who would call themselves Men, having none of the qualities of a Man…..

“Resolved, that the women of this nation in 1876, have greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776.” — Susan B. Anthony

As we know now, 1976 has come, and gone, along with 1776, and 1876; yet, the oppression and ongoing abuse of women continues, unabated and unchecked, in spite of any progress shown by society, which would be thanks to Ms. Anthony, and others, for having instigated, and overcome a number of the legal challenges involved in securing full rights for women, efforts resulting in SOME legislation that SEEMED to make some needed changes, not the least of which was voting rights…

In too many ways, unfortunately, things are worse, due to the ubiquitous attitudes, of misogyny and unreasoning fear of sexuality, which is so ingrained in both the male, and female members of society, there are few who even acknowledge the issue, unless pressed…. at which time, they generally become either defensive, feign indignation, or go into active denial…. This fear, based on ignorance, of course, is complicated by religious attitudes heaped upon men and women from birth, which only encourage such ignorance, in favor of dogma….. Now, 40 years into the next hundred years since the beginning of the women’s movement in America, the same can be said to be absolutely true….. Nothing below the surface has changed at all….

“You, you, you shouldn’t, you shouldn’t traumatize women with sexual intercourse. I should know, I’m a medieval doctor, I own a mansion and a yacht.” — excerpted from the AMA manual of advice for teens and newlyweds, 1910, 1926, 1933, 1947, 1955, and, every year since then, without changing a word….

Okay, so, it’s not really there…. but, it certainly would be, if they could get away with it…. and, is definitely there, in place, in the ingrained prejudices of virtually every male doctor alive…. This idiocy is an example of the attitudes of which I’m speaking; the hidden, slyly perverted belief that women are no more than the sum of the misguided and totally false characterizations placed on them by men, who insist on perpetuating the false image of women, in general and as individuals, as weak, feeble-minded, emotional, sex-crazed, or frigid, selfish creatures concerned only with using their beauty and sex to control men….

These claims are, of course, completely untrue in reality, but, the unreasoning, innate fear of their own sexuality, and the fear of being controlled by women, that permeates male attitudes, causes them all, or mostly all, to believe all of it, true or not… Thus, as the quote below from former President Jimmy C. notes, this belief in a full set of delusions, falsely accusing women of evil intent, is used to justify all of the pervasive objectification, abuse, and oppression of women throughout history, continuing today, no matter how much anyone says to the contrary….

Jimmy Carter sez:

He would know, wouldn’t he?…..

Below this paragraph, I am placing a link, to the web site/blog of a woman who rescued herself from sexual slavery; there is no other term that fits. She was forced, at a young age, to become a prostitute, and spent most of her childhood and teen years trapped in the sex trade…. Her experiences should never happen to anyone; when I read her writing, it takes ALL of my control to keep from jumping up, buying weapons, and going hunting, for human males…. I get so angry it wouldn’t even matter to me WHICH males I started wasting; all bear equal guilt, from at least one point of view…. Otherwise, why would the rest of us, we males who do NOT wish to oppress our species’ mates, ALLOW this to take place? How can we know of this, and not act?

http://rmott62.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/are-we-not-human

Lack of honor is the only answer that occurs to me; there are not enough men, it seems, with sufficient honor to stem the tide of idiocy, gross perversion, and lack of moral fiber that infuses the greatest portion of humanity’s male members…. I would guesstimate that 98% of all males never even THINK about the issue of how women have been oppressed throughout history; most are perfectly happy to enjoy the lack of responsibility that such moral and ethical blindness allows; we are, as a species, after all, lazy by nature…. (Nothing wrong with lazy, as long as it’s not a way of life, but a tool, to make one look for smarter ways to do things….) But, to allow that laziness to act as an excuse for not acting in this respect, can only indicate a complete lack of what I call HONOR…..

This may sound like a harsh accusation; to that charge I say: Yes, it is and so fucking what? It’s a harsh world, and what men have been doing to women for millennia….. not years, not centuries, MILFUCKINGLENNIA, PEOPLE! No exaggeration or hyperbole is necessary or, in my case, desired….

Listen up, all of you men out there, because I am talking to YOU!…. It IS harsh, and I make the accusation without apology, because, I must in all honesty include myself in the group of those who have not done all they could to see the issue addressed; if it is never addressed, it can never be resolved…. I’ve done more than many, perhaps, and I do acknowledge the seriousness and urgency of the issue…. but, I, too, am guilty of NOT doing enough…. S’okay, it just makes me madder, & more determined to keep writing about this….

You see, the whole issue illustrates one small, but, critical facet of human nature that is part and parcel with those other character flaws in us which are leading us merrily down the road to hell, blithely wishing we had a bigger handbasket….. This tendency on the part of human males, to abandon honor and ethical behavior, in favor of allowing their fears and misapprehensions rule them, for our ENTIRE history, has held us back, from becoming all we have the potential to be, as rational creatures with an understanding and appreciation for what is good and beautiful in life.

Instead, we have witnessed, over those thousands and thousands of years, virtually unending wars, conflicts, slavery, abuse of women and children, or anyone considered weak and unable to defend their rights. We have seen people learn to use lying, cheating, aggressiveness, and self-interest as their primary tools for obtaining the resources needed to live, and to hoard what they have taken, by right or threat of force; this process is, in today’s world, considered to be a blueprint for successful living, with the ultimate goal in life being the fulfillment of one’s own personal goals and desires, at the cost of whatever it may take to wrest it from other people, and the world at large….

“Get it while you can!” Do unto others before they do unto you.” Bigger is better!” “One nation under God!” (It would be more honest if they just said what they REALLY believe which is, “As a Christian, I have more rights than anyone who isn’t….”)

Okay, so the last line, in parentheses, is one most people will only say under their breath; you can be sure, though, that every “Christian” alive believes they are the elite of the species, the only ones with the true answers…. This, you see, naturally gives them all a completely unwarranted and false sense of entitlement, one that really annoys the rest of us, who haven’t fallen under the spell of that particular delusion, and couldn’t care less who they think they are…. I GUARANTEE, even if there WERE a God, such as the figment they seem to believe in, I’m pretty sure, as an omnipotent entity, She wouldn’t want to have anything to do with such idiotic wastes of sperm….

Ooh! That was harsh, too, wasn’t it? Oh well… Again, I have to say, so fucking what? If people insist on showing their lack of intelligence in public, they are fair game for anyone who cares to come along and poke holes in their lack of logic, and/or foolishly naive belief in delusions that someone taught them before they could defend their own minds…. It isn’t my problem if they are offended; that is their own reaction, for which THEY bear ALL the responsibility….

I welcome dialogue, and will listen to any argument, as long as it is evidence based…. However, don’t even think about coming at me with something that has nothing more to verify its veracity than “ispe dixit”…. You will regret it to your dying day….. And, so will I, for I am not really mean, or cruel by nature; I just can’t abide people acting as if being stupid is better than ANYTHING else; it isn’t, and wishing won’t make it so…. But, it’s better to put such folks out of their misery, before their ignorance can spread to others….

Men and women are in this together, ffolkes; neither sex can possibly survive without the other, and why would anyone wish to? But, the way things are going now, if we don’t figure out, soon, how to take care of each other, instead of being at odds all the damn time (as all the people who spread jokes about the “war between men and women” keep yelling about, thus keeping the divisiveness alive, and actively harmful….), we will surely reach the point, in the not so very distant future, when our insistence on making the worst of our differences will result in the only possible ultimate end, to wit: our own extinction as a failed species.

The abuse of women, and anyone else; war; sales of drugs and/or arms; and the relative insanity of the divisive elitism as acted out by all organized religions….. All of these blights and plagues upon the spirit and growth of Man, carried out for thousands of years by those in our species who refuse to embrace any sort of beliefs that do not serve their own ends alone, all spring from one source in human nature; the expression of that negativity in our spirit has held sway since the beginnings of recorded history……

It is that part of our inner selves which compels us to use our innate talents for violence, treachery, and selfishness, using them to take advantage of others for our own benefit, using fear, and the threat of reward or punishment to control others, the use of which has led us to the impending threat of doom we face in coming days…. In order to survive, human nature MUST change…. Hmm…. not terribly good odds, I should guess….

I wish I had the ultimate answer; I wish I knew just the right words, and could say “THIS, THIS, and THIS…. just do that, and we’ll all be okay….” I don’t have them, though, any more than anyone else has had so far…. The worst part is, I know what needs to be done; but, due to the fact that I can only make changes to myself, I can’t just DO it, or even just SAY it…. It has to come from all of us, or it won’t work at all….

SIGH…. Damn if I know what to do…. I guess I’ll just go out, shoot a couple of pimps, and call it a day….. Oh, and if those pimps happen to be wearing a uniform of some sort, you may count on them being fully guilty as charged, with sentence carried out according to the dictates of justice…. in spite of any loud noises they might make to the contrary. Any noise they make in these situations is merely an automatic defense against the insistence on them taking responsibility for their actions….

Any lawyers who may try to involve themselves may try to make us feel differently, but, we can discuss that later, right? (We can decide what to do about them when we figure out where to dispose of the bodies….) For the moment, my day will be over, and justice done; it’s all I need to get to sleep….. especially knowing the women freed by my good aim will have the choice and opportunity to start the process of changing out of their slave clothes, into something a bit more free, and of their own choice….

Well, we all have our fantasies, right? Now, the trick is to remove all the above from the realm of speculation and imagination, and make it so, in Reality…. I guess we’ll see how it goes, eh?…. Later, ffolkes, & remember…. Free our sisters, and we free ourselves….

This took a long time to write, because it’s important to me…. Hence, I took a long time to pick a closing pearl, one that had the right feel to it, to express the depth of emotion involved, while still giving a nod to importance of addressing the issue’s less palatable aspects, such as the way women having to live in today’s world, or any world we have seen, are consistently, often brutally, abused, made to feel secondary, and at the very least, completely misunderstood, by their own alleged mates.

I am speaking of men who, in the final analysis, are failing their own species, not to mention failing to understand the concept, or to comprehend the importance, of such old-fashioned words as honor, compassion, and duty…. any one of which requires much more strength than any sort of aggressiveness, or shows of physical prowess…. Such behaviors are those of a child, based on fear, a child who never grew out of being selfish and/or afraid of girls, (i.e., afraid of their own sexuality, and of women’s….), refusing to grow up and truly BE a man…..

We need each other, men and women; nature’s other creatures have shown us how it is supposed to work, using the blueprint of nature’s design…. Each gender of a species is made to contribute certain characteristics to the solving of the puzzle of living, in concert with their opposite half, with the caveat being the simple FACT, that neither can survive, one without the other. Both are needed for the species to prosper, and grow…… It’s a shame there are so many men in the world who are so afraid of themselves, and of women, they can’t learn to act as men….

Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
The Genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.

— William Shakespeare ~~

Julius Caesar — Act ii, Sc. 1

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

Some poetry requires nothing from me, and, in fact, is the better for it…. This is one of those poems…

Flower of Love

Sweet, I blame you not, for mine the fault was, had I not been made of common clay
I had climbed the higher heights unclimbed yet, seen the fuller air, the larger day.

From the wildness of my wasted passion I had struck a better, clearer song,
Lit some lighter light of freer freedom, battled with some Hydra-headed wrong.

Had my lips been smitten into music by the kisses that but made them bleed,
You had walked with Bice and the angels on that verdant and enameled meed.

I had trod the road which Dante treading saw the suns of seven circles shine,
Ay! perchance had seen the heavens opening, as they opened to the Florentine.

And the mighty nations would have crowned me, who am crownless now and without name,
And some orient dawn had found me kneeling on the threshold of the House of Fame.

I had sat within that marble circle where the oldest bard is as the young,
And the pipe is ever dropping honey, and the lyre’s strings are ever strung.

Keats had lifted up his hymeneal curls from out the poppy-seeded wine,
With ambrosial mouth had kissed my forehead, clasped the hand of noble love in mine.

And at springtide, when the apple-blossoms brush the burnished bosom of the dove,
Two young lovers lying in an orchard would have read the story of our love;

Would have read the legend of my passion, known the bitter secret of my heart,
Kissed as we have kissed, but never parted as we two are fated now to part.

For the crimson flower of our life is eaten by the cankerworm of truth,
And no hand can gather up the fallen withered petals of the rose of youth.

Yet I am not sorry that I loved you -ah! what else had I a boy to do? –
For the hungry teeth of time devour, and the silent-footed years pursue.

Rudderless, we drift athwart a tempest, and when once the storm of youth is past,
Without lyre, without lute or chorus, Death the silent pilot comes at last.

And within the grave there is no pleasure, for the blindworm battens on the root,
And Desire shudders into ashes, and the tree of Passion bears no fruit.

Ah! what else had I to do but love you? God’s own mother was less dear to me,
And less dear the Cytheraean rising like an argent lily from the sea.

I have made my choice, have lived my poems, and, though youth is gone in wasted days,
I have found the lover’s crown of myrtle better than the poet’s crown of bays.

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

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

Old school is still the best school, particularly when speaking of Pearls of Virtual Wisdom…. Why, look! Here’s an old-school pearl right here! Fancy that! One might almost think it was deliberate, unless one knew me…. Then, of course, they’d KNOW it was deliberate…. Enjoy, ffolkes, it’s a random, harlequin style, the very best kind, in my world….

“Things equal to nothing else are equal to each other.” — First Postulate of Isomurphism

“You know, Callahan’s is a peaceable bar, but if you ask that dog what his favorite formatter is, and he says “roff! roff!”, well, I’ll just have to…”” — Jake, a number of times since moving South….

(Bonus prize: Anyone who actually knows the references made in the previous quote [To wit: You should know where Callahan’s bar is situated, and why, and, which dog?] may now take the opportunity to relay that knowledge in the comments section, whereupon they will receive the ultimate in prizes…. Full acknowledgment of their superior intellect right here on this blog, assuring them of immortality as a celebrity of the highest acclaim…. All fourteen of my regulars will also give their kudos, as an added treat…. Cool, eh?…)

“People who have what they want are very fond of telling people who haven’t what they want that they really don’t want it.” — Odgen Nash (1902-1971)

“If you are wearing one brown and one black shoe, you have a pair like it somewhere in the closet.” — The Rule of Elderly Survival

“Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words;” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Cleobulus, iv

“Bed Spreaders spread spreads on beds. Bread Spreaders spread butter on breads. And that Bed Spreader better watch out how he’s spreading or that Bread Spreader’s sure going to butter his bedding.” — Dr Suess

“He is the MELBA-BEING… the ANGEL CAKE… XEROX him… XEROX him –” — Zippy the Pinhead

I really, really LOVE nonsense; especially when it makes so MUCH DAMN SENSE!….. I really don’t much care if anyone else enjoyed that one…. I sure did…. I’ll tell ya, though, if you don’t get it, don’t fret…. It’s only teenage wasteland…..

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

Well…. it’s done, and about damn time, too. I believe this may just be the longest Pearl I’ve ever created; without checking, I can’t be certain, but, I don’t recall anything even close to the size this one grew into…. So be it…. It’s early morning, and I’ll now go post this, then come home, and hunker down until the urge to write strikes again…. I haven’t decided yet whether to post from home tomorrow, after my new service gets set up, or to go post before the technician gets here…. I suppose we’ll find out tomorrow…. If I post late, after 10 AM or so, it’s from home; if it is there earlier, you’ll know I went out to post it…. Either way, see y’all then…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

In my left ear, sir….

Posted on August 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Pearls should…

Long, deep thoughts always

bring truth to the eyes of man,

and light into dark.

~~ gigoid ~~

Today’s Pearl will be, to some extent, similar to the above picture, in that, the participants of the activity recorded are having as much, or more, fun, than those who are observing and recording…. Now, it’s true, such a statement only takes into account such factors as how much fun it is to watch others work, how much the elephant enjoys being sprayed, but, has no clue as to whether or not the guy washing the beast is gay, straight, or in-between… Of course, the latter has nothing at all to do with anything, but, it was shocking enough to get your attention, wasn’t it?….

Just a little trick to open up…. sort of like the old pull a coin from the ear trick, but, with letters…. None of what is included in the above paragraph had any particular meaning, or significance; it was all a set-up for the punch line…. I also know that it is currently considered a faux pas to use gays, lesbians, or other alternative choice adherents as the butt, or even the subject, of any sort of joke…. I guess they’re too sensitive? I don’t know, and don;t care; it’s a fucking joke, ffolkes, so get over it…. Nobody here is laughing at gays; I laugh at those who are afraid of them, or hate them, as I know, for a FACT, it is usually because of their own fear of feeling attracted to the same sex that prompts them to be cruel or stupid.

I didn’t mean, actually, to get into anything so controversial right off; in fact, I was trying to figure out how to tell y’all I was just going to re-blog an older post…. then, I sort of fell into this discussion, whereupon I decided I was up, so I may as well Pearl…. So be it….

I don’t know where this will end up; I do know we won’t be targeting any hapless LGBT enthusiasts in any of our rants, as I figure they don’t need any help from me…. The last twenty or thirty years of constant societal interaction has brought the issues to a head, and, in the process, has made veteran activists out of many people who otherwise would never have even thought about it…. There is still a long way to go, as there are a LOT of ignorant people out there, none of whom care to admit their ignorance, or try to learn anything new, but, the tide has turned in society, and the forces of ignorance are currently in full retreat from their position of intransigence regarding sexuality…

This isn’t saying I won’t support them, I’m just not devoting this entire Pearl to their issues…. In fact, I haven’t a clue as to what issues we may touch upon, but, it’s not going to be that one…. unless, of course, some headline jumps up, grabs me by the eyes, and says, “here, look at THIS!”…. It’s been known to happen…. I think I’m beginning to unravel here….

It’s probably best if I stop here, and get on with the rest of today’s effort…. I’m getting further and further away from any sort of coherency in this section; we’d be better off to get on to the next….. This means, naturally, since we are so firmly entrenched in this, we’ll need to apply another emergency exit strategy, in order to return to any semblance of dignified competence…. Not that such is anything like normal around here, but, we do try to maintain a certain level of protocol and tradition, even if it constantly blows up in our faces….. Who knew Murphy was allergic to protocol?….. Not me….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Belief gets in the way of learning.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

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

After reading the following diatribe-style pearl, it is clear that two pearls are necessary to start it off with the correct frame of mind…. anything less would be hazardous to your mental health….

“Perhaps I know why it is man alone who laughs: He alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“Kids, don’t gross me off.. “Adventures with MENTAL HYGIENE” can be carried too FAR!” — Zippy the Pinhead

When I first began today, I had intended to re-blog an older post, and still may use something from the archives….. for now though, I’ve collected another set of links to articles that continue to explore the problems we have in society that are leading us to our extinction, more rapidly than we are willing to admit…. there are only three articles, but, the two issues covered are, perhaps, two of the more serious issues we face, to wit: climate change, and the effects of racism on modern society (that racism, as I see it, is the primary contributing factor behind the militarization of the police forces in this country, as well as around the world….)

If you don’t think I’m being accurate, or that the police forces around America aren’t becoming militarized, allow me to provide you with some Art that clearly indicates what I mean…. The picture you see (which has been used in a number of sites and reports…. I believe it’s an Associated Press picture….) shows the county police in Ferguson, Missouri, during one of the community protests over the shooting of an unarmed civilian…. This, ffolkes, is how the modern police force is views the public they allegedly serve…… as their enemy….. After looking at the picture, read the two articles, which, of course, are from a European news outlet…. our own news companies won’t talk very much about the issue…. Oh, they’re reporting on it, but, they don’t even MENTION any of the military style equipment or tactics, except in passing….

These yahoos are in a small town in central Missouri, but, by their dress and equipment, you would think they were about to be attacked by armed Jihadi forces in another country…. And, let me ask you this….. are these guys going to carry around all those neat battle toys, and not want to USE them? Just a thought, as it seems to me, they would WANT to see what all their new stuff can do…. I mean, just LOOK at all that weaponry, the armored assault vehicle, the radar or sonic weaponry, the battle helmets, armored vests, automatic rifles, sharpshooters…. it’s a regular assault force there….

Also, just what IS that thing on top of the battle truck? I believe it is a targeting device for some sort of automatic weaponry, or possibly for rockets?…. I’m not currently up-to-date on weapons tech; I just know it doesn’t make a lot of sense to see ANY of these articles of war deployed against our own citizenry…. You think? Okay, read the articles, then tell me if you disagree with any of this….

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/14/obama-ferguson-police-excessive-force-michael-brown

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/14/ferguson-cops-military-weapons-michael-brown-shooting-protests

“…witnessed teargas being shot directly at a camera crew with al-Jazeera America. Photographs later showed police officers dismantling al-Jazaeera’s broadcasting equipment after the crew fled. ”

Now, of course, we see why the American news reporters are reluctant to write about what the police are doing…. The people who would report on them are being targeted; in the article you will see where the county police arrested two reporters in a fast food restaurant, then released them only because the chief of police intervened…. Do you think maybe the reporters are getting a bit leery of making the police the subject of their writing? I certainly do; they’re human, and aren’t going to put themselves at risk if they can avoid it….

Next comes something about the issue of climate change, from one of my favorite columnists, who always has an even-handed, insightful approach to such issues…. I’m giving up now, as the picture above tends to send my outrage through the roof…. After that, if I start in on this issue, I’ll overload, and possibly end up in bed again from exhaustion…. Not going there, believe me…. Instead, after you enjoy Mr. Carroll’s words, I’ll put together an old-school pearl, to try to soothe my fevered brow….

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/Tons-of-methane-tons-of-garbage-What-fun-5684628.php

Okay, lets see if I can work off some of this angst with some pearls that shoot in the direction of the Asininnies….

“Teach a parrot the terms “supply and demand” and you’ve got an economist.” — Thomas Carlyle

“We haven’t the time to take our time.” — Eugene Ionesco

“The difference between a lawyer and a rooster, is that the rooster gets up in the morning and clucks defiance.” — Smart Bee

“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“A very ancient and fish-like smell.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Tempest — Act ii, Sc. 2

“When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school…” — Paul Simon

(Okay, so, it makes more sense when the next line is included….)

“It’s a wonder I can think at all….” – Paul Simon

Well…. It seems that seven stars don’t quite cut it…. we’ll need to expand to nine…. hold on, we’ll find two more, & be done with it…..

“The award for All-Time Champion and Protector of Youthful Morals goes to Representative Clare E. Hoffman of Michigan. During an impassioned House debate over a proposed bill to “expand oyster and clam research,” a sharp-eared informant transcribed the following exchange between our hero and Rep. John D. Dingell, also of Michigan…..
DINGELL: There are places in the world at the present time where we are having to artificially propagate oysters and clams.
HOFFMAN: You mean the oysters I buy are not nature’s oysters?
DINGELL: They may or may not be natural. The simple fact of the matter is that female oysters through their living habits cast out large amounts of seed and the male oysters cast out large amounts of fertilization…
HOFFMAN: Wait a minute! I do not want to go into that. There are many teenagers who read The Congressional Record.”

— Smart Bee

“There is no freedom without the power to defend it.”– Smart Bee

Close enough…..

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

First posted on 10/24/2012:

“What do you want me to do? Say it again in worse English?” — Robert Frost, when asked about the meaning of one of his poems.

A Late Walk

When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words

A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.

~~ Robert Frost ~~

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

Rather than try any more to do what I cannot do, I’m going to the archives, for a piece I wrote a couple of years ago that seems to fit in with my mood today, if not my subject matter under discussion…. I guess, all in all, this one’s got a bit of a lot of things in it…. Enjoy, please….

From 10/27/2012:

“I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word I am saying.” — Oscar Wilde

AOL!….. LOL…. “AOL!” is hacker slang for “me, too!”, patterned after the typical AOL user’s response to a witty statement in a chat room…. in this case, I can honestly say that Oscar and I have this in common, especially the part about not understanding a word I’m saying….. I would say that puts me in some pretty good company, what?….

“The trouble with using experience as a guide is that the final exam often comes first and then the lesson.” — Smart Bee

Oscar once made a statement that ran parallel to this one, as well. It is a hard lesson for all of us to learn, but, it is one of those common pieces of natural law that affect all of us at one time or another in our lives. Life, like the physical universe, just doesn’t care whether or not we are ready for an experience, it just happens. It is our own reaction to that which determines whether or not we are able to cope with the experience, and learn from it, or whether it buries us…. an all-too-common fate. It’s a tough room, as the comedian said….

“If you’re smoking after sex then you’re going *WAY* too fast!” — Smart Bee

This is not a perfect segue into the next item for discussion, since I’m a) not sure what that was, and b) this wasn’t it, but it does exemplify what I like to call the “silly factor”, an offshoot effect of the natural bozoid tendencies that all of us humans possess as members of this silly species…. Murphy’s Law is merely an observation, but is one that could only be made by our species (even though I’ve noted that other species, that associate with us, can sometimes be pulled into Murphy’s influence, to do his bidding, and occasionally, to act as co-victims….), because he takes full advantage of our tendencies toward bozoid behavior, to set traps for us; traps that cannot, and never do, fail to catch us unawares.

“I sometimes think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Even if one considers that God did not exceed his capabilities when making Man, he certainly made a rush job of it, and left certain design characteristics out of the final production, facets that would have gone a long way toward making this world a lot more pleasant a place than it has turned out to be, with Man in his current foolish state. Ah well, it just goes to show that one shouldn’t depend on a notion like creationism to provide us with excuses for our behavior….. accepting that kind of indulgences, or even assuming it, has obviously led us to the state of affairs we now face in the world, as the great majority of people continue to behave just as if they had the right to use the universe as they choose, rather than as they should do as moral creatures….

“Instead of being born again, why not just grow up?” — Smart Bee

That about says it all, don’t you think? Mankind would be far better off if we all decided to act as grown-ups, rather than clinging to the ages-old fantasies that have put us in this position. Only a child acts without regard to consequences; our species has been refusing to grow beyond that avaricious stage for millennia now, and the world is showing the deleterious effects of that sense of entitlement. We cannot continue to treat this planet as our toy, to be used and discarded like it was some piece of manufactured plastic, or we will most certainly suffer the very real consequences of that foolish attitude.

“Morals today are corrupted by our worship of riches.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

In spite of all the massive quantities of evidence that it is harmful, we continue to pump millions of tons of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere every minute of every day…. the effect of that on the balanced ecology of the planet is reaching a critical flash point, and may already be at a point from which there is no turning back…. This is FACT, not supposition….. but, the world carries on, certain that we may depend on the same old idea, that we are invulnerable, and not subject to the laws of nature…. a sincerely stupid idea at best…. It is almost enough to make one want to tear hair out and start shooting…. but, unfortunately, there isn’t enough ammunition to shoot all the folks who need to be shot, and it’s probably too late now, anyway….. Besides, who wants to be the one who has to decide who to shoot first? (I do! I do!…. which just proves that we humans can’t handle that sort of godly decisiveness….)

“All the secrets we may be able to keep from any and every god and human being do not in the least absolve us from the obligation to refrain from whatever actions are greedy, unjust, sensual, or otherwise immoderate.” — Cicero, On Duties

It’s really too bad that this idea never caught on…. oh, many folks learned to use it, to lie to the rest of us, but, in reality, nobody ever really does this, they just say they do….. It kind of makes one wonder whether we deserve to keep living, doesn’t it? Well, it makes ME wonder…. with not a little bit of sadness, for our species holds such promise…. a promise we have never learned to keep….

“It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man’s deeper nature is soon found out.” — Oscar Wilde

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

Well, ffolkes, it’s done; I wasn’t completely sure I would be able to get it to this point when I started, and, half-way through, I almost gave up again…. I think we can mark this one down under the “Serendipity” category tab, as I don’t know how to explain it any other way…. I’m only guessing here, but, I think proofing would be superfluous at this point, so, off we go to post…. See y’all tomorrow, given half a chance….

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

Fear is both tool, and weapon; use them, or be used by them….

Posted on July 31, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“He had that rare weird electricity about him — that extremely wild and heavy presence that you only see in a person who has abandoned all hope of ever behaving “normally.””

— Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939), journalist — Fear and Loathing ’72

Look! It’s a plane! No! It’s a turd! Hooray! It’s Toilet Man!….. Enough! I can’t do it…. I am, as the theme above suggests, NOT normal. It’s okay, I never wanted to be, anyway, so, it’s not going to hurt my feelings to be accused of missing out on that particularly noisome state of mundanity. Me, I could never figure out why it was so attractive, or so important for people to feel they were either on their way to becoming normal, or were already considered to be one of the conformist crowd…. Sure, I like people, occasionally, but, I sure wouldn’t want to BE like any of them…. But, no matter how I feel about normal, I can’t take advantage of it that way….

That, of course, is just the curmudgeon in me talking, which I can’t seem to stop from happening, all too often. According to the training rules for us curmudgeons-to-be, we are supposed to USE our skills, but, we aren’t supposed to make other people feel bad thereby, necessarily, although it is acceptable under certain conditions, such as being accosted by one of the stupids, and needing to put them out of their misery. That’s okay, but, generally, we aren’t supposed to load our foul moods onto other ffolkes; only if they deserve it, for which there are strict requirements to fulfill, to ensure they are a deserving recipient of our ire….

At this point, I’d probably do well to mention that we are still quite a far piece from reality, so, you shouldn’t be taking any of this too seriously, or trying to figure out whether or not my tongue is in cheek, or somewhere less appropriate than that. This is also a good point to tell you, the picture is from SFGATE, from a photo feature a few days ago, highlighting signs around the world with funny or odd statements, such as the above, and the name of the photographer is on the picture (in VERY small letters…) …. I have actually seen a sign very similar to this, in Beijing, during a visit there in 2004. Such signs were a constant source of amusement, as many of the English translations in the advertisements on billboards were simply hilariously mashed up….

Of course, it’s important for me to remember…. this kind of opening, as fun as it may be, does have its own potential risks…. For example, here we are, a good three to four paragraphs down the pike, and we have yet to whine about being late, or how lazy I’m feeling (somewhat….), or any of my usual techniques to draw your attention away from the lack of any sort of elegance, not to mention the lack of any sort of visible evidence of intelligent life as we know it. The risk in this should be obvious, even to…. no, I won’t go there. I’m not going to be one of those bloggers who insults my readers, just to show I can, or some other misguided reason….

I am, however, going to have to call a halt to this, even though we’re just beginning to have some fun with it, and it’s starting to flow nicely…. Too bad I’m completely out of any more ideas as to what to put here…. In fact, my brain is emptying out so fast, I’m getting dizzy, and had best take a break…. You know what this means, so hang on….

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

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

In keeping with the theme which has thus far characterized today’s effort, let’s see what the headlines around the web have for us….

http://www.theonion.com/articles/exxonmobil-chevron-locked-in-bidding-war-to-acquir,36561/

Oh. My. Gosh….. Okay, well, so it doesn’t quite have the same impact, or cathartic release factor, as the usual blasphemy I could be expected to come out with in such cases, but, I think employing the use of such a mild epithet will, no doubt, save me some hate mail…. Of course. that would help, if I actually got any…. Nonetheless, expletive expressions notwithstanding, I was a bit surprised to see the above headline, which, since you can’t see it all, says, to wit:

“ExxonMobil, Chevron Locked In Bidding War To Acquire Lucrative Pennsylvania Senator”

Flabbergasted, flummoxed, flustered, and, just a little bit surprised, I was, when I first saw this…. Then, of course, I noticed where it was published, on The Onion, and, so realized it was only humor…. pointed, sharp humor that accurately skewers Reality in America, but, humor…. In this case, what needs to be noted is the source of the humorous nature of the piece, which is rooted in the fact that it is probably true, though not necessarily for the exact companies named here….. You may be certain, however, that the concept itself is NOT completely out of the realm of possibility in the US Senate…. not in THIS Reality…..

I’m almost certain my creative juices aren’t quite up to turning this into a rant; it’s just too ironic…. which, coming from me, is pretty ironic, as well…. True, though, so, I’m going to go with my instincts, and go with an old-school pearl, a collection of pointed sticks to jab in the eyes of all those in our Beloved Ruling Class who are so diligent in their efforts to screw the rest of us….. Enjoy!….

“Anyone who has had a bull by the tail knows five or six more things than someone who hasn’t.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

“I’m not against the police; I’m just afraid of them.” — Alfred Hitchcock

“A little truth helps the lie go down.” — A direct quote from the US Senate publication, “Communication Tips for New Senators”

“Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.” — Tom Robbins

“Not all the conservative are stupid, but all the stupid are conservative.” — Benjamin Disraeli

(The oddest part of this quote? Disraeli, by modern standards, would call himself a conservative…. To me, it just goes to show, ALL of them need help…. and, by that, I mean professional help….)

“This sickness doth infect
The very life-blood of our enterprise.”

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act iv, Sc. 1

Well, there you have it, ffolkes…. I’m thinking I may have been a bit too eclectic; most of these wouldn’t be understood at all by any of the people it targets…. which rather eliminates part of the point, doesn’t it? Oh well, there’s always tomorrow; I don’t think they’re going to add on any IQ points overnight, so we’ll have another chance to make a dent in their intransigent stupidity….

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I repost this poem at least once a year, just because it is one of my favorites, it goes so well with much of the material I end up producing…. and usually ends up saying what I was trying to say, better than I said it…. Enjoy, please…..

À Bas Ben Adhem

My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What’s he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I’m supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn’t it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction racket?

To make the matter more succinct:
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician’s voice
He names himself as Nature’s choice.

The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And come from storks instead of eggs
They count the spacious firmament
As something to be charged and sent.

Though man created cross-town traffic,
The Daily Mirror, News and Graphic,
The pastoral fight and fighting pastor,
And Queen Marie and Lady Astor,
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life.

Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
Or hold the wrinkled elephant
A nobler creature than my aunt.
It’s simply that I’m sure I can
Get on without my fellow man.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

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

Y’all are getting the benefit of my laziness again today; a rant just doesn’t seem attractive right now…. I guess there’s only one thing to do, as I don’t have any goo Art to go with…. another old-school pearl, which will serve several purposes, at least three of which cannot be discussed in this venue without notifying certain officials, which we don’t wish to do…. so, those purposes shall remain secret, as long as y’all can keep quiet…. In fact, I insist…. Why don’t y’all have a seat right there, and listen up….

“Could you tell night from day?” “No, I regard all such distinctions as logically impossible.” — Heraclitus

“Be ruled by time, the wisest counselor of all.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Pericles (B.C. 495-429)

“He who receives a good turn should never forget it; he who does one should never remember it.” — Charon

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

“A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs…” — Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)

“Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“If one studies too zealously, one easily loses his pants.” — Albert Einstein

Well…. This turned out quite well, thank you; balanced, sharp, and deep. Plus, a new quote from Albert that I’d never seen…. I’m happy there are still a few left in Smart Bee for me to find…. especially when they’re like this, and help to create a fine pearl…

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Wow… I got so jazzed about the potential to be finished, I forgot to close it out…. Now I haven’t a clue as to what to say here; two minutes ago I had it all planned out, but, after going back to edit, it went away, to whatever place in my mind where such ideas go to cry themselves to sleep…. Not a particularly rational image, but, poignant…. Any who, it’s done, such as it is, so, I’m outta here….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Practical methods simply won’t do…..

Posted on July 21, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.” — Goethe

More often than not, sitting down to write in the morning becomes problematic, at least from a mental standpoint…. These days, the physical aspect of almost everything is complicated by the aging process, thus removing itself from the onus of discussion; I decided if I can’t feel 25 any more, at least I can show some dignity about it, and quit whining about it…. Sure, I wake up tired… doesn’t everybody this age do that? It sure has become more common over MY lifetime, so, I figure it must be one of those things they forgot to put in the manual, and one of those things we just have to deal with….

Fortunately, today’s physical outlook was greatly improved, by the application of a long-needed massage to this tired old wreck of a body…. Yep, I broke down, & spent the extra money to get a massage, and I feel at least 100% better for it….. The effects last for days, before the pain levels again get to the point of ridiculousness, and I have to drug myself into oblivion, so I’m cruising on good vibes now, left over from yesterday morning’s hedonistic, most welcome rubdown…. It also makes me realize I’m going to be doing it more often…. it’s just too damn good for me to ignore….

It’s pretty nice to wake up without the usual degree of stiffness & pain; one forgets what it is like to go without such morning gifts….. which probably explains the picture…. The flowers were arranged for maximum color effect, as part of the display at a Farmer’s Market, and appealed to my sense of artistic appreciation, as a form of art that creates itself, so to speak…. Looking at the picture makes me feel good…. it’s really just that simple, and that good feeling will, I can tell, get me through a lot of the day before it wears off….

I feel so good, I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to rant, even though there is a good headline to work with; sexual predators are one of my favorite targets for vituperation and/or vitriol, but, today, I won’t be vicious enough to do it justice….. Pedophiles, as a group, and individually, are one of my most hated categories of human perversity, right up there with pimps, politicians, bankers, and preachers…. If and/or when one of them appears before me, my hands tend to curl into claw-like appendages that I cannot prevent from reaching for their throat, to throttle them, and watch them die right in front of me, experiencing the fear and shame they give their victims, as they steal, and pervert their victims’ innocence….

I’m not sure what may happen at this point…. I’m going to take a break, then come back and decide how to proceed…. In the meantime, refresh your coffee, or your adult beverage of choice, and make sure you are well-fastened in, because the ride today could get a bit bumpy…. or, it could go as smooth as a baby’s bottom…. Let’s go see….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“You’re aware the boy failed my grade school math class, I take it? And not that many years later he’s teaching college. Now I ask you: Is that the sorriest indictment of the American educational system you ever heard? [pauses to light cigarette.] No aptitude at all for long division, but never mind. It’s him they ask to split the atom. How he talked his way into the Nobel prize is beyond me. But then, I suppose it’s like the man says, It’s not what you know…” — Karl Arbeiter: former teacher of Albert Einstein

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

Below is the article I mentioned above, about the newest information from Britain, regarding the revelations of a pedophile ring in the Houses of Parliament, what they call “Westminster”, back in the 60’s and 70’s, a ring that included numerous peers of the realm, dukes, earls, and the like, and a number of Members of Parliament (MP’s), of both houses, all of whom used their positions of authority to hide their perversions…. I read it, and, can only say, one has to consider the source that printed it….

It’s pretty salacious, and depends a lot on hearsay…. but, it’s clear that, in spite of any lack of hard evidence at this point, the investigation is going to reveal a LOT of cover-ups and abuses of power…. In short, there will be more examples coming out, you can be sure…. Before they are done, I’m pretty sure that a large percentage of the British aristocracy, and a significant number of the political class, will have been taken down due to their part in the crimes being found out….

Count on it…. and that’s all I’ll say on the matter, for now…. Below the link, you’ll find a seven-star pearl, to drive home some of what I’m trying to say by not ranting…. whatever THAT means….

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/10978492/My-father-was-a-sexual-predator-like-Jimmy-Savile-says-son-of-former-Tory-MP.html

“America will tolerate the taking of a human life without giving it a second thought. But don’t misuse a household pet.” — Dick Gregory, The Shadow that Scares Me, 1968

“Wherever there is a crowd there is untruth.” — Soren Kierkegaard

“The ass is still an ass, e’en though he wears a lion’s hide.” — William Shakespeare

“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” — Leona Helmsley, quoted in the NY Times, July 22, 1989

“Populus vult decipi.” [The people like to be deceived.] — Some random Caesar

The Bible is true this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.

— Jordan Henderson

(A most perfect example of the term “ipse dixit”….)

“What kind of sordid business are you on now? I mean, man, whither goest thou? Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?” — Jack Kerouac

Hmm…. It came out a bit eclectic, but, I think you’ll get the picture…. Onward, he said, hopefully….

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To keep from spreading the blame around to those who don’t deserve it, we’re going with another of mine…. Enjoy, please….

Roses for Noses

I have a bozoid personality, of the first degree;
nobody, I mean nobody, knows that better than me.
I often wonder, as the world goes around, and around
how many others have realized just what I’ve found….

I know for a fact, I’m not the only bozoid one;
too many people laughing out there, having fun.
Is their laughter, though, at themselves first?
Or is it some other impulse, like purple liverwurst”….

I’ve always loved to make others laugh and giggle,
since my tender youth, when my ears began to wiggle.
The world is full of humor, but not always easy to find
so laughing at myself I learned never to mind….

We bozos know each other, here, there, and everywhere
there’s no hiding such joy, it just wouldn’t be fair.
We all have one feature, our great bulbous nose,
and there’s no doubt at all, cuz it just grows….

There’s nothing like a good, big mistake, a disaster,
to show us the folly of living life faster and faster.
Nothing in the world can ever take the place,
of seeing in the mirror, a happy, smiling face….

Don’t be shy, just let it all hang out;
we bozos have more fun, there’s no doubt.
Life’s too somber and gray if we let it get on top
if we don’t stay loose, the pain won’t ever stop….

My advice to all of you, out there in the world,
let noses grow round & red, keep hair tightly curled.
Find a way to let your spirit out often to play,
you’ll never once regret any price you pay.

~~ gigoid ~~

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I’m running late, having slept too well, and too long….. So, sue me….. Here, then, as a time-saver, is a discussion from last year, a “retrospective” that is actually pretty okay…. Enjoy….

From 11/30/2013:

A man who can fool chiefs, and even gods, must still face the monsters he himself created.” — Old Maori saying

Introspection has always been a hobby of mine, but, since turning the ripe old age of 63, it seems to have become even more of a time-consuming process for me than has been true for most of my life….

I can remember lying on my bed in the state of Washington, when my father was stationed there at Fort Lewis…. I would stare at the bottom of my brother’s upper bunk, and imagine all manner of things, including about myself, and my place in the universe…. Even at the tender age of 8 or 9, as the son of an Army sergeant, I had been many places, and seen more of the world than is usual for anyone other than Army brats…. our proud designation for ourselves…. The quest to maintain one’s personality in the face of all the changes going on around us gave me the impetus to perpetually be aware of more than is the norm for kids of that age; at least, it always seemed so, from what I can tell from my knowledge of others of that age….

Now that I’ve reached an age that completely got skipped in my earlier musings of what life would be like, I seem to be thinking back and forth more often, making connections with the past that explain certain elements of my own persona as they manifest today…. My hair, for example…. (I know, I know, my hair isn’t generally the subject of a rant, but, that’s not really what this is…. this is more of a…. a retrospective, yeah, that’s it…. a retrospective…. so, calm down, I’m not going to get all graphic, or gloomy, or pick at anyone in particular, other than myself…. ‘kay?…. ‘Kay!….)

So, I was looking at my picture on my About page, and can only say that, well, there I am…. My hair is even longer now, (a bit grayer, too….). as I see no particular reason to cut it…. which is the root thought that stimulated this entire subject today…. A little while ago, I was standing outside a moment, with my hair not yet tied back into the usual ponytail, and the wind was blowing it around a bit…. I started to get annoyed, then realized I could only blame myself for it getting in my face, because the solution to that problem is right over there in the drawer, where the scissors live…. I thought to myself, how many times has someone asked me, “why don’t you cut your hair?”, and realized I couldn’t count that high….

My own reaction to that particular query is to think, (again…), to myself, “Well, actually, the question that occurs to me to ask is, why don’t I NOT cut my hair?”…. It seems to me, when I stop to consider the matter logically, and reasonably, that if the hair grows, as it has always done, it must have some sort of evolutionary purpose for doing so, right? It seems logical to me…. Therefore, it seems logical to ask, as well, “who am I to fuss with evolution?” This line of reasoning, naturally, tends to piss of most of the folks who make the original statement to me…. but, I figure that sort of anger is a personal problem, don’t you? I can’t go around taking the heat for what other people don’t like about me, when their anger is based on THEIR beliefs, not mine….

In a way, I suppose it’s the old hippie in me…. Aha, you say, now we’re getting to the meat of the matter! And, typically, I am supposed to say, at this point, “Just what do you mean by that? I don’t know what you’re talking about….” Then, I smile, and get on with what I was doing, which is explaining why being a hippie is not what most people would think…. I mean, there were a lot of popular misconceptions floating around all during the 60’s (Believe me, it was a very confusing time…. I know, I was there….), when there were a lot of people who thought that there was something wrong, or even evil, about being described as one of those misunderstood knights of the sub-culture….

Yes, I said knights…. Jedi knights, before they were the iconic, eternal, peaceful warrior as made popular in later years…. Hippies were the knights of the 60’s and 70’s, diligently tilting at all the windmills we could find, poking our noses into the business of the military-industrial complex, which I now refer to as the BRC, until they were sick of the sight of anyone with long hair…. Back in the day, even the most rigid of conservative hawks understood that they were witnessing a change of culture, and there was nothing they could do to alter the course that history was taking…. The power of love, and compassion, and freedom swept through the entire world, as well as refreshing American society, with repercussions still being felt today….

One of the most important characteristics of hippies that I don’t think most people understood is that we were only interested in revolution in the sense that revolution means change; no hippie worth the name ever wished to violently overthrow anything that didn’t threaten violence first…. But, it is also true that real hippies have no objection to using violence to defend themselves, a fact which always comes as a big surprise to those who would try to oppress them. As with any tool, honor has to be the regulatory agency for determining which tool should be used, and how…. This, sadly, is a concept that those who prey on other people, who seek power over them, can never truly understand, as it is not a part of their perception of reality….

I see that I’ve reached a point where this must either get very pointed, or fade into the background for the time being…. I’m feeling mellow, due to re-connecting with the halcyon days of my youth, so I’ll show mercy here, and opt for the latter…. Besides, I’m all out of introspection for the nonce, and there’s no telling when it might drop back by…. I’ll leave y’all with one final pearl, to seal the deal….

“Oh, how we fear the metamorphoses through which we truly become fledged humans, real mensches of the species homo sapiens. Yet even if we do not willingly undergo them, changes pursue us just the same. The woman who never bears a child metamorphoses in different ways. We may dig in our heels and dare life never to change, but, all the same, it changes under our feet like sand under the feet of a sea gazer as the tide runs out. Life is forever undermining us. Life is forever washing away our castles, reminding us that they were, after all, only sand and sea water.” — Erica Jong: Parachutes and Kisses

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All things considered, it came out okay; that’s actually just a guess, but, I guess we’ll go with it, trusting to my basic skills to carry the day…. That may be ill-considered, but, what the hell…. It’s Monday, right? I can always blame it on that….. Tomorrow, it’ll be Tuesday, which means all bets are off, so, we may as well get started on getting there…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Morning becomes eclectic….

Posted on July 20, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Dharma: What is the greatest mystery of all?

Yudishthira: That each day, death walks the earth, and we continue to live as though we were immortal.

— The Bhagvad Gita

A while back, I posted another picture much like this one, both of which were taken somewhere on the Irish Sea. One was taken at sunrise, one at sunset, but, for the life of me, I can’t tell which is which, as they both appear to be capable of passing as either one….. I’m ALMOST sure this one was taken in the morning, but, since I can’t be sure, I’m not going to commit myself one way or the other…. Especially since they can pass for each other…. I will, though, say this… photography isn’t as easy as it looks….

None of which is particularly cogent, or meaningful, in the larger sense. The quote from the Bhagavad Gita is one I’ve used often, as it speaks to a facet of human nature against which I rail continuously, or consistently, anyway…. I’m talking about the human sense of entitlement, that sense of fatalistic egotism that motivates much of humanity’s actions toward each other, and reality at large….. Humans seem to believe in their own immortality, despite having the reality of death staring each one of us in the face….

Perhaps it is this dichotomy that is the true motivation; we know, deep down, we cannot expect to live forever, but, as a species, it is possible to envision mankind stepping into the future, though it may not look just how we had imagined. Whatever is the true case in each person’s existence, many people seem to think that, because they are entitled to live, they are entitled to everything else they desire, as well…. So, they take it, regardless of how the process of acquisition harms others, or denies the simple rights of others, to live, in peace, without fear….

It sounds pretty simple, and, it is…. This simple fact of human nature, this overweening egotism, and the false sense of entitlement that goes along with it, is the root cause of most of what is wrong in this world….. Most of the problems faced by mankind are connected to the danger of extinction as a species we face, due to that same sense of entitlement, which prompts us to continue the use of carbon based fuels to run our society, to fill our ever-growing needs for more and more power, in spite of the very obvious negative results of doing so….

The evidence is clear; if we continue to walk down that path, we WILL die, all of us, and there isn’t anything that will stop it, once the catalytic process has begun….. which it did, several years ago…. Yet, mankind continues to skip merrily down that path, eyes closed to the possibility they just might be wrong, while the pollution continues to pile up, and the moment of no-return draws ever closer….. In fact, we’re so focused on ourselves, and our own wants and desires, the point has probably already been reached, and passed, without us ever realizing what we have done….

SIGH…. I did it again, didn’t I?…. I didn’t mean to rant, but, when I get started on this, I can’t seem to stop myself from ranting about it….. People are SO STUPID! It makes me crazy, to sit here and watch them go through all this idiotic bullshit, spinning madly in place while Rome burns, laughing like loons and cursing the gods…. which are laughing their immortal asses off at the stupid little humans, pretending to be something they’ve never been….

I have an early appointment out in the Big Blue Room this morning, so a large part of this Pearl was completed yesterday…. I have to warn y’all, this one turned into an epic, but, it’s got a lot going for it…. a new, fresh poem nobody has seen before, unless you were one of the two or three people reading this blog back in June of 2012, and a fairly long discussion of “the properties of love”, in the inimitable words of Steve Miller…. Lots of good stuff, so, I think, given the already out of control size and content of this intro, we can easily get by with calling it a finished product…. so, I will…

Shall we Pearl?….

How much a dunce that has been sent to roam
Excels a dunce that has been kept at home!

~~ William Cowper ~~

(1731-1800) — The Progress of Error, Line 415

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I cannot tell a lie…. Well, that isn’t true. I can, but, I have a hard time justifying it to myself, so, I keep it to a minimum, and mostly succeed… It’s not usual, I know, for people to even think about it, more’s the pity, but, that’s just the way I am…. So, since I can’t, I’ll tell you right now, I don’t have the wherewithal to rant any more this morning…. The intro took most of my angst away; the emotional power just isn’t there now, so, anything I did write would be a bit frail; I like my rants to be robust, if nothing else….

So, we’re going to do this…. Below is a link, to yet another example of A) how egregiously the governments of the world, ours, the Brits, and all of them, are bumbling around, spying on you, me, and each other, while the public sits and watches as they try to justify their insane paranoia by telling the public it’s all for their own good…. It’s bullshit, of course, but, that’s their story, and they are sticking to it….and B) how the lies aren’t even being addressed by those who are telling them, but, rather, are being labeled as legal, by the passing of legislation making it so….

Since I’m NOT going to rant about it, I’ll follow the link with a seven-star pearl that takes aim at those who are involved in the whole ugly mess at the top of the heap, which, in my mind, is beginning to resemble one of those snake pits we hear so much about…. Hiss, hiss, wriggle…..

Enjoy the pearls, ffolkes, and try not to let the article depress you any more than necessary…. If you must, you can be glad this is the BRITISH government that is being exposed in this article…. at least it’s not our own….. THIS time, anyway…. Of course, ours is busy with its own illegal spying programs, none of which have been shut down, or even restrained, in spite of all the hullabaloo over it…. Ah well, see you in the poetry section, ffolkes….

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/18/intelligence-services-email-database-internet-tribunal

“This message has been personally tested and certified by Big Brother Bill, Senator Exon, and the Religious Right to be PC, containing only the best of family values, and Safe For The Children ™. Disclaimer: The caffeine made me do it.” — Smart Bee

“The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes and fears rather than with their minds.” — Will Durant

“Americans used to roar for Liberty, now they bleat for Security.” — Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

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

” — I’d love to, but…the President said he might drop in.” — 4 of 101 Easy Ways To Say NO

“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

“It ain’t me; it ain’t me; I ain’t no senator’s son!” — (Creedence Clearwater Revival) The Fortunate Son

Yep…. As I’ve noted previously, it’s all in the wrist….

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Yesterday, after writing the new poem, (Which, I have to say, came as a total surprise to me; I thought I was done for the day, intending to find somebody else’s work to post…. Without any warning, it just pumped out, like I’d sliced an artery, or some major blood vessel in my mind….), I was looking at some old Pearls, from 2012, when I came across the following poem, apparently one I wrote, and posted, on a day near the entry I was searching for….

Seeing it again was a surprise to me, I think, not just because I didn’t have it in my collected poetry, but, because I only vaguely remember it, and had completely forgotten it in the process of collecting the poetic works I’ve done here…. I vaguely remember I wrote this at a time when I had all but given up on writing any more poetry in my life…. I suppose it serves as more evidence that poetry produced in times of uncertainty or stress turns out more powerful than other times…

It occurs to me, this kind creative outburst, for me, anyway, is a matter of the necessary internal dynamics undergoing, or perhaps, processing, some sort of energy, which arises from friction between opposing internal emotional responses…. a long winded way of saying I feel conflicted, or repressed, or stressed in some way, so, a poem bleeds out…. Hell, who knows, and who cares? Not me…. If I can do this, then forget it entirely for two years, analysis isn’t needed, and might even cause problems, so, we’ll leave speculation to the critics, and just go on to the poem… Enjoy, please, it’s pretty good, I think….

From 6/13/2012:

Unbidden, treasure unfolded…

Taken by surprise, Psyche sits numb
Amidst tall phrases worn of elder time
Seeking a not-new place from which to come
No shiny new horizon, nor altered paradigm.

Sudden regrets shape dreams as times maintain
Shades of memories bring poignant clear sight
Visions of duty, each chosen wild campaign
Shouts echoing clamors to enfold the night.

Arisen from less than eternal havens of sleep
Facing moments created in torment and pain
Destiny weighs upon those chosen to keep
As the sparrow flies now to sever the twain.

Faded pathways lead away, hazy and long
Burned out verges, so long unknown
Images of yesterday, clear and strong
Bleed into today, though t’is but my own……

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Since I found the above, shamelessly using it for today’s poetry section, I’ll continue with full disclosure, & tell you I also found this during the same search…. In fact, this was the object of the search…. Due to recent events of note in life, the following discussion struck a chord in me; after re-reading it, I see it remains mostly valid…. Thus, will make a nice fill-in piece for this last section, where I so often struggle for something worthwhile, or at least compelling, to write…. This is not, perhaps, all that compelling, but, it is fairly uplifting in its overall tenor, and, as a bonus, contains a nice complement of classic poetry, well matched to the discussion….

From 6/9/2012:

My life, described in six words….

“Looked for love, found it everywhere.” — gigoid, to KDFC radio DJ, Hoyt Smith, 2009….

While listening to the radio one day, the DJ was talking about a meme activity he had been told about via an email earlier that day from a listener. The challenge was to describe your life in exactly six words; he gave several examples of those who had already responded, and asked the listening audience to call in with their own. After a couple of moments the above six words floated to the surface of my mind, almost unbidden, so I called in, and, to my surprise, my call was taken, and my quote was put out over the air.

For life, with all it yields of joy and woe,
And hope and fear (believe the aged friend),
Is just our chance o’ the prize of learning love,–
How love might be, hath been indeed, and is.

~~ Robert Browning ~~

(1812-1890) — A Death in the Desert

Considering that what I said to Hoyt in the above six words, upon reflection, is something I can, and still do, say is as true as the day, it felt kind of good to have it shared over the air…. Fortunately, it didn’t lead to any more than 15 seconds of fame, the time it took to say my name, and my contribution…. It isn’t as if I was hoping it would lead to an appearance on Letterman or anything, but it did feel pretty good, as I am proud of the quote…. (Still am, in fact, and it still rings true…. gigoid, from the future, which is now the present, but used to be the… Oh, never mind….)

Of course, though finding love has never been difficult, I’ve never found the rest of the secret, the other part, about getting love to stay, other than that love between friends that is so important. Our culture, so tenuous in its support of monogamy, provides people with so many ways to leave a relationship without penalty, no one seems interested in making them last an entire lifetime any more. It’s like, “Oh well, that didn’t work… there’s lots of fish in the sea….”, and off they go into the dating world again…. Frankly, it makes me dizzy….

I can’t say I know what the problem is in society that dooms relationships these days; if I did, then it wouldn’t be a problem, as I’d know what to avoid…. What I do know is that on (at least) five occasions in my life, I’ve given my heart to a woman, and spent all my energy giving my all to that relationship, faithfully and fully. On all of those occasions, the woman eventually decided, for their own personal reasons, that they didn’t want to continue, and left. I guess they like Will Shakespeare more than I do… as they seemed to take on his attitude…..

“I dote on his very absence.” — William Shakespeare ( Though I hold most of his work to be crap and nonsense, even he came up with something coherent occasionally….)

I’ve been fortunate, I guess, in that, of those five times, only three were painful in their intensity, leaving my heart shattered, my life in tatters; two of them were relatively amicable breakups. (Sure they were; that’s what I keep telling myself….) But, I’ve just gotta say, it hurts when a woman I’ve loved for 23 years, and intended to die with, decides she’d rather pursue other options; it hurts, and it hurts a lot…. I can testify, from the evidence of a more recent nature, it also hurts when a woman has said she loved me for ten years, and has been lying the whole time…. That kind of betrayal brings a very lasting pain, and is slow to pass…

I hear you reproach, “But delay was best,
For their end was a crime.” Oh, a crime will do
As well, I reply, to serve for a test
As a virtue golden through and through,
Sufficient to vindicate itself
And prove its worth at a moment’s view!
. . . . . .
Let a man contend to the uttermost
For his life’s set prize, be it what it will!
The counter our lovers staked was lost
As surely as if it were lawful coin;
And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost
Is–the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin,
Though the end in sight was a vice, I say.

~~ Robert Browning ~~

(1812-1890) — The Statue and the Bust

Pain is an old friend of mine, though, in all its various guises, and I know it always passes in time. Now I am looking for love again, in my own time, still trying to find that one woman who can be both loving and honest. The ones I’ve known so far have all had a problem with that last part…. it’s not something our society teaches well. But, until I find her, I’ll have to make do with the pain…. But, I know she is out there, somewhere….. There’s got to be some woman who would enjoy being worshiped by an old, fading, but faithful, romantic curmudgeon with a soft spot for dogs, cats, kids, & a good laugh, along with a severe case of wanderlust to complicate the issue….

In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of thee.

~~ Lord Byron ~~

(1788-1824) — Stanzas to Augusta

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

This was found along with the above discussion; it’s too good to NOT include, so, you get it today, as a bonus pearl…. It’s pretty much a stand-alone anyway, requiring nothing to make it whole and complete….

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character.
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings.

~~ The Buddha ~~

I can’t think of a single thing that needs to be added here, so I won’t….. As Nike says, “Just do it….”

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

For a post created willy-nilly over the last 18 hours, this isn’t bad…. It’s also an epic Pearl, well over a couple three or so thousand words, I’d estimate…. Not bad for one I intended to get done quickly, so as to be ready for the business I have in a couple of hours…. In fact, I’m so happy with it, I’m outta here…. See ya, 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

We’ll need more coffee for this…..

Posted on June 18, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I don’t know about y’all, but, I’m tired of staring at this blank screen…. Since that’s all I’ve done for the last 20 minutes or more, I’m guessing my creative juices have yet to become unblocked this morning…. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb, and guess that not only am I blocked, I’m impacted, in its truest sense…. In fact, the only blockage consistent with my mind’s right now is one I should be hesitant to discuss in public…

(Hmm…. I just noticed that word, ‘discuss’…. it’s very close, one letter off, of being the word ‘discus’, which is also something that gets tossed around…. sorry, got distracted…. t’was the only shiny object to be seen, in the vast featureless plain that is my mind in its current bloated state….)

Okay, I’d best take a vote here…. Do you think that paragraph is too much? I mean, is it too, too fractured, too flipped? I need to know, before I go much further in this direction…. Any voters out there? Well, it seems nobody wishes to give me any help yet (It IS early yet, not yet 5 AM….), so I’m on my own, as per usual…. I’m at a handicap here today, I think, between my foggy brain, my lack of preparation, and the usual degree of incipient terror I’m experiencing in the back of my mind, as my subconscious does it’s terrified child routine ahead of my dental visit later this morning….

I am an adult, and have learned to endure my visits to the dentist, as, intellectually, I know it is best for me; I have experienced the worst pain possible, an impacted molar, infected and throbbing just inches away from the brain….and know that visits to the dentist only help prevent that….

But, that knowledge has never been enough to completely overcome my experience as a six year old, when some gigantic Army dentist about scared me out of my skin, on a visit to have a tooth pulled…. The dentist, back in 1956 or so, was a huge, surly man, not pleased to be looking into the mouths of Army brats and soldiers, instead of his private rich folks, and his callousness and indifference to my fear managed to frighten me out of my wits…

To make a long story short, here it is, 58 years later, and I still get the serious yips before a visit…. even though my dentist now is a very talented, beautiful young woman, who has the gentlest hands I’ve ever known…. She has this trick she learned in dental school, where she does this little manipulation of the cheek while giving a shot, that, somehow, completely negates the pain of getting the needle inserted, which brings down the anxiety level like a charm…. But, no matter how often I tell myself it will be fine, I still get this rush of adrenaline, starting about six hours prior to whatever time I must be there for my torture session….

I had hoped the process of Pearling would alleviate some of my anxiety, but, it doesn’t seem to be working very well…. It’s a hard thing, to be this age, and still be suffering unreasonable fears rooted in childhood… but, it’s like those damn bees….

“YES! Living in today’s complex world of the future IS much like having a hive of bees live in your head! But…. there they are!” — Firesign Theater, “I think we’re all Bozos on this bus!”….

Since there isn’t anything I can do to remove the bees just now, I guess I’ll just ignore them, or put out some flowers as a distraction, and get on with the rest of this mess….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Remember what Simonides said,–that he never repented that he had held his tongue, but often that he had spoken.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Rules for the Preservation of Health, 7

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

“… so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.” — Voltarine de Cleyre

The Wise Old Pine Cone is off somewhere today with his Paduan, doing whatever they do at these times…. This, of course, means I’m supposed to rant here, if I’m going to stick with what we usually do…. I can do that; there is plenty of stuff to get worked up over in the news, although most would say its rather a slow news time, in some respects…. At least, nothing is going on domestically at the moment; we seem to be in a limbo between random shootings….

Oh, there is plenty of other stuff going on I could talk about, if I was so inclined…. For example, because of the latest round of violence in Iraq, the potUS, Barry the Obama, is sending some of our military personnel back there, although I’m not sure exactly what 275 soldiers, even Special Forces, and a contingent of the ever-so-powerful ‘consultants’, can do in the face of the extent of the insurgency going on there…. But, then, we aren’t expected to be able to count, I guess, or be allowed to know exactly what is going on…… We’re supposed to accept whatever they tell us, no matter how suspiciously dumb, or egregiously immoral/unethical….

I think what frightens and annoys me the most is what is NOT being written or talked about much… The NSA, and all the other agencies that get data from them, continue to carry out their illegal, unethical, obscenely paranoid surveillance of the world’s population, ( I don’t think they are limiting themselves to just us….), without any sort of oversight, and without any restraint by any outside regulatory agencies…. much less Congressional, judicial or (gasp!) public oversight…. They haven’t stopped, or slowed their vacuuming up of every bit of data they can access; if you think they have, or have any evidence thereof, please, tell me…. I’d LOVE to hear of ANYTHING anyone might be doing to try to curb their insanity…. but, I don’t think you can, because they haven’t stopped at all….

They just keep coming up with new, outrageous justifications for doing what they plan to do anyway, in court, and in the public eye…. For example, the link below, from the UK Guardian (the same news outlet that first published the Eric Snowden revelations….), tells us about the latest bit of justifying bullshit being put out by the British spy agencies, to try to convince the public that a) they aren’t doing anything wrong, and b) they’re legally allowed to do wrong anyway…. For me, the most telling point is the sheer bold effrontery that gives them the chutzpah to even SAY this stuff… It’s all so outrageously DUMB, not to mention self-serving, reeking of false entitlement, and, essentially, giving the finger to the public….

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/17/mass-surveillance-social-media-permitted-uk-law-charles-farr

Another part of this that bothers me is the lack of any coverage at all in the US news media; to find this kind of stuff, I have to go to overseas web sites, like the Guardian, to find out what my own government is up to, even if it’s only what they’re up to in England, by handing over all kinds of British metadata to their spy compatriots, and egging them on in their war against their own citizens….

A week or two ago, here in the USA, there were one or two articles, about some piece of legislation that passed the Senate, that was SUPPOSED to be the law designed to put the reins on the NSA…. Of course, the actual wording of the bill they passed does nothing of the sort; it didn’t even address about HALF the issues involved, and did NOTHING to halt any of the data collection… Mostly, it just dealt with what is to be done with the data once collected, none of which was actually restrictive to their activities….

Bah! Humbug! It all pisses me off, and what with the adrenaline already coursing through my system, I’ll be jacked up for hours now…. I’m going to halt this rant here… Y’all know it pisses me off, so I won’t dwell on it any more today…. I will, however, find a pearl or two to finish off what I’m trying to say, which essentially boils down to this….

Ffolkes, the government is lying to us, you know it, I know it, and so do they…. The only question remaining is, what are we going to do about it? I’ll leave that question hanging for the moment, to see if it garners any responses… and, in the meantime, go find a pearl or three to close the issue for the day….

“A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.” — Georges Pompidou

“Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Twelfth Night — Act iii, Sc.

“A Lie is still a Lie, even if you believe it.” — Smart Bee

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

When I’m in this mood, only one poem will do, and it’s mine…

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 ~~

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

Y’all know what comes now….. I’m in a hurry now; my adrenaline level is rising, and I need to get up and going, to work some of it off…. If I don’t, I’m going to have to take the option at the dentist to have them put me completely under, if I hope to get anything done in my mouth…. At the moment, sitting still is NOT an option…. So, here’s the quickest, random pearl I can put together…. Wish me luck….

“Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Prologue to the Satires, Line 333

“One who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.” — Lao-tzu, _Tao Te Ching_

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” — Marcus Aurelius

“If you are a host to your guest, be a host to his dog also.” — Russian Proverb

“Everything may happen. [Omnia fieri possunt.]” — Seneca, Epistulae ad Lucilium, Epis. LXX, 9

“Never be boastful; someone may come along who knew you as a child.” — Chinese Proverb

“For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret. He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn and the infinite in which he is engulfed.” — Blaise Pascal

Well!…. That went extremely well; quick, with an elegant, sturdy result…. I like it…..

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

“Heisenberg was wrong, I know exactly where I am and where I’m going.” — Einstein

Sadly, me, too…. and, it’s somewhere I DON’T want to go…. But, I’m a big boy, and I can’t afford another cancellation fee, like the last three times I bailed at the last minute…. Star, unreasoning feelings of panic, when rooted in events over 50 years old, make for a fearsome challenge, which I tend to fail to meet as often as not…. SIGH…. But, I’ll make it today, and, hopefully, be back tomorrow, in less of an internal mess….. 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

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: Shakespeare

Sans beau, there is no coup….

Polly frigging HATES crackers!…..

All those attending the apocalypse, board here….

Dorothy, this is DEFINITELY not Kansas!….

It was planted only yesterday…..

In my left ear, sir….

Fear is both tool, and weapon; use them, or be used by them….

Practical methods simply won’t do…..

Morning becomes eclectic….

We’ll need more coffee for this…..

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