Tag Archives: Sherlock Holmes

Sleeveless jumpers won’t be warm enough….

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Ffolkes,

“If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.”

~~ Seneca, Epistles ~~

potd-bear-fish_3132092k

    It’s raining again here in NorCal; this makes typing somewhat impractical, as it probably bothers the neighbors to hear me screaming in pain as I type…. It’s a bit bothersome for me, as well; I don’t particularly enjoy the noise, either, even though it is MY noise…. Ah well, it’ll all be cut & paste today, ffolkes, you can take that to the bank…. Of course, the bank would tell you to take it home again, but, hey, you get the picture…. (The picture above, of the lucky grizzly bear, by the way, came from the Animal Pictures of the Week in the London Daily Telegraph…)

In spite of the now-expected relative agony of the arthritic pain in my joints, I don’t feel too badly today…. Of course, that will pass, as do all things. If only there were some way to stop the clock, just at that point when I’m feeling relatively normal, (or, as close as I get to that these days….), so I could actually spend some little period of time without the sensation of having my own skeleton screaming at me to MAKE IT STOP!  If only I could…. but, I can’t, so, it must be endured…

I like the opening line today, from Seneca. It is my best answer to all the crap that gets thrown at us by our beloved leaders, when they want us to stop thinking, and just be afraid…. Myself, I refuse to be terrified, of anything…. Terror is merely another name for fear, and fear can always be overcome, if faced, and dealt with in a rational fashion…. If we let it rule our lives, as Seneca points out, it takes over, and life becomes a burden, rather than a joy…. Terrible indeed, especially when one considers it is all a manufactured issue in the first place….

Since, however, we are IN the first place (i.e., the intro section), we shan’t rant about that now… In fact, I won’t be ranting at all today, as this little bit of typing here at the front is already causing problems…. My hands keep falling asleep at the wheel, so to speak, and I have to stop, shake them out, and regain the feeling before carrying on…. Not the easiest technique I’ve come up with, to be sure… In fact, it isn’t working for me at all today, and I’m done with it…. Hold on, ffolkes, this will be a sharp turn….

Shall we Pearl?

“Ignorance can be cured.  Stupid is forever.” — Smart Bee

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Whenever I have an hour to spare, nothing provides me with more entertainment than one of these episodes from the old BBC series…. Jeremy Brett was born to play Sherlock, and, to my mind, appears to be having the time of his life whenever he is portraying the great detective…. He plays the part with such enthusiasm, it MUST have been great fun…. In turn, he makes it fun to watch…. Enjoy….

The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes – S07E02 – The Dying Detective

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Yesterday, I ranted against the Dogma Dogs…. Today, it’s raining; this precludes a fresh rant, as my hands are currently revolting, in more than merely one sense…. Here then, is an older rant, with the other major category of Asininnies as the primary target…. It’s as true today as it was almost two years ago, when it was fresh and new….

From 2/18/2013:

PRESIDENCY, n.  The greased pig in the field game of American politics. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

You can’t see me, but I have this big smile on my face…. It has been there since I first read this, this morning, and has flashed on each time I see it…. I had forgotten just how funny, and how eerily accurate, as well as wonderfully sarcastic, the Devil’s Dictionary could be….. In either case, this is some funny stuff, and is a perfect example of how Ambrose somehow obtained a direct line to the future of this country, in order to be able to so exactly describe how our modern system has evolved, and demonstrate how it has become, rather than high comedy, an example of low farce….

Of late, you’ve seen me put out a lot of words on the Beloved Ruling Class (BRC), and the priestly hierarchies, those two entities I hold responsible for the miserable conditions that most of our society is forced to endure, and whom I also hold responsible for the danger of species extinction that we face… It is their narcissistic insistence on having it all for themselves that has put our entire species at risk, along with a large number of other species, who will also be affected by the mess we’ve created in the environment. I keep on shouting, even though it mostly feels as if I’m shouting into the wind, because, in all honesty, I don’t want to die…. I’d like my kids to have a chance to live their entire lives, too, and perhaps even have some hope of a future for their own children…. Currently, there isn’t much hope of that…..

Yes, ffolkes, there isn’t much time left to get this done…. Every second, more and more tons of particulate matter are being poured into the air, and the cumulative effects have actually, finally, reached the critical flash point that ecologists have predicted for years…. Soon, plants that provide oxygen to the air will begin to die, (actually, they are dying as I write this…. as I said, it is late in the game….) and the balance of oxygen and carbon monoxide in the air will start to rapidly change, until it is unbreathable for us, and for all the other mammals, sea creatures, and plant life-forms that are dependent on the levels of those substances as they are now…. This process isn’t unknown….. we have been warned about it, now, for going on 50 years, or more, since the effects were first noted….

But, nobody who cared to do anything about it was listening, and still today, there aren’t anywhere near enough of our BRC who are convinced of the risk, so virtually NOTHING has, or is being done to resolve the issue…. Instead, it is subjected to massive denial on the part of almost every government in the world. They, and most people, have no idea that the bill for our idiocy is about to be presented, and we left our wallet in our other pants….. I think it’s obvious the Universe doesn’t take checks, or give credit…..

I wish I knew the proper sequence of words to use, the words that would inflame the masses, that would inspire the world to rise up, and throw off the yoke of oppression that the 1% has fitted us with, to finally give them their just desserts, and save our own asses in the process…. Alas, I don’t seem to have them in me…. not yet, anyway…. There are probably a few ffolkes out there who agree with me, and would help, if they also knew what to do, or say, to get things started…. But, mostly, I think I’m either shouting into the wind, or preaching to the choir….

In either case, it doesn’t seem to be helping much, other than keeping me from losing my sense of perspective, and actively going out hunting, to try to at least thin the ranks of the ones who are causing the problems…. That would make me feel better, for sure, but, I’m not ready to live the rest of my life on the run, so, I’ll save that option for when things are even worse than they are now….

I’ll also keep shouting, even if it’s into the wind, because I’m also not ready to give in to despair, and loss of hope. Call me stubborn, call me irresponsible (you’d be wrong in that, but, hey, it’s a free country…. mostly….), but don’t call me late for dinner. Also, don’t call me to help you further any of the agenda items that I see on the part of those in power, because I can guarantee that would put me over the edge, and you would be right there, in the explosive field of destruction when I went off…. If you want help to work against anything they’ve started, I’m there….  In the meantime, keep your powder dry, and your field of fire clear…. This final pearl explains why….

“If we don’t survive, we don’t do anything else.” — John Sinclair

And one more, just because there must always be hope, or life isn’t worth living…

“In a just cause the weak o’ercome the strong.” — Sophocles (496-406 BC) — Oedipus Coloneus, 880

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The poem in my head isn’t being cooperative about coming out, so, here is one from a few months ago, that seems to fit in well with the theme from today’s rant…. I know that when I wrote this, I felt MUCH better afterward…..

A Few Words of Note

In place of ranting and raving about assholes every day
maybe I’ll try something more fun.
Rather than throwing words at all the assholes on public pay
I’ll switch to shooting at them, with a gun….

Should I actually hit one, purely by mistake,
maybe it would wake them up.
Maybe, if they had to think, or actually cut us a break,
we’d see a chance to win at life, to take a step up.

Our nation, such as it is today, was founded by men who told the truth;
that morality disappeared long ago.
Simple ethical strength so bright, so prevalent in our country’s youth
was soon corrupted, corporate interests now run the show.

Nothing would please me more than to fire off some rounds,
if only to gain their attention.
But, I can no longer run, I’ve gained too many pounds;
so, my keyboard and intellect must serve to fulfill my intention.

I won’t stop, of that you may be sure
I love my freedoms, and the philosophy from which it springs.
Tom, and Ben, and John, and Pat, those patriots pure
gave me their example, and the inner peace it brings.

If bullets won’t persuade our elected liars to toe the ethical line,
I’ll throw my most powerful words…..
If nothing else, it will make them wriggle to escape, or voice their pitiful whine,
thus exposing themselves for what they are…. plain and simple turds.

~~ gigoid ~~


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Today’s final pearl is one that created itself, in a manner of speaking…. It is a truly old-fashioned pearl, comprised of five brilliant pearls of virtual wisdom which, together, lead one’s thoughts to a particular idea or concept worthy of contemplation…. Well, that’s the theory, anyway…. This one, brilliant as it is, is somewhat obscure, but, with the proper flexibility of mind, is well worth the effort to decode…. Enjoy, and, be aware… This one WILL be on the Quiz, which we all will be given, at the end of Time….

“As Caesar was at supper the discourse was of death,–which sort was the best. “That,” said he, “which is unexpected.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Caesar

“The world has taken on a thickness of vulgarity that raises a spiritual man’s contempt to the violence of a passion.” — Charles Baudelaire

“It is important that man dreams, but it is perhaps equally important that he can laugh at his own dreams.” — Lin Yutang

“For himself doth a man work evil in working evils for another.” — Hesiod (c. 700 BC) — Works and Days, Line 265

“Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, “The descent to Hades is the same from every place.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Anaxagoras, vi

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Well, there you have it…. “A drunkard’s dream, if I ever did see one!” Since we seem to be somewhere up near Cripple Creek, without the proverbial paddle in hand, we’d no doubt be wise to take our leave, while we may…. This rain has to stop some time, doesn’t it? We ARE supposedly in the midst of a drought here in California… but, you couldn’t tell by the last week or so of weather. Ah well, Life goes on, until it doesn’t. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if’n we can find our way back here….

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.

Kowabunga!


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Numerous system monitors attended in mufti….

			
						

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Ffolkes,




“A wise player ought to accept his throws and score them, not bewail his luck.”


~~ Sophocles (496-406 BC) ~~ Phaedra, Frag. 862 ~~


aurora-unity-pond-maine-taylor


     For the last 10 days or so, we’ve had some weather here in NorCal, mostly of the rainy variety. While the resultant water levels in our reservoirs, miniscule though they may be, are welcome, it’s been something of an ordeal for me, as I have reached a stage in my life where all those old wives tales, and cultural truisms about aging are coming home to roost, right here in my own skeleton. We hear all our lives how old ffolkes can predict the weather, due to feeling pain in the joints prior to any changes…. I’ve always assumed it was a myth, but, since my own joints have started to complain whenever the weather gets wet, I can see how it may eventually become precognitive….


While it may be convenient to know when rain is coming, I can’t see why we have to use pain as our gauge….. but, then, nobody asked me, did they? Nope…. In fact, I’d wager NONE of us got asked; it’s just the way it is, and we can like it, or lump it…. Me, I’m trying to figure out how to either ignore it (the pain), or bury it in an avalanche of heavy drugs; the former is better for my liver, but the latter is more efficient in dealing with the pain…. so, I’ll take the risk… At this end of my life, it seems like a better deal, as my days are numbered, anyway…. I’d rather be comfortable, which, I’ll admit, is awfully human of me….


But, though that is a perfect lead-in for a rant on human nature, I’m not in the mood to rant…. It does happen, even though it still may force its way into the forefront of my consciousness, should any stimulus catch my attention, such as a random headline about the BRC, or another of our current crop of Asininnies…. There are a lot of opportunities just now for obtaining rantable material; the issues now in the public eye are perfect examples, to wit: the recent spate of injustices by police and grand juries, or the immigration mess going on in Congress…. But, none of it inspires me today; I’m still recovering from the last ten days of misery and drug-induced mental fog, I suppose; even my emotional responses are blunted right now, due to energy levels at rock bottom….


Due to the pain I’ve had, I’ve been filling in parts of these Pearls whenever I can, at times when my hands are more flexible, without the constant ache…. So, they seem a bit choppy to me, even though the finished product may not reflect that. S’okay, though, as I don’t believe it has caused much of an actual loss of quality; that has already been determined to be little affected by whatever method I choose…. probably something to do with the overall averages, which don’t seem to reflect all the methodology differences. Whatever it is. it works for me, especially since the process of describing the issues has brought us to the jumping off point, once again without our cooperation, or our notice….


I’m going to take advantage of that, right here, right now…. As you may have guessed, for y’all, that means just one thing, to wit: it’s time for y’all to tighten up those belts, put down your adult beverages, and hang on, because we’re goin’ in hot and hard…. Well, perhaps not so hot, but, hard, for sure…. We’ll be okay; we just upgraded the bumpers…. See how shiny they are now?…..


Shall we Pearl?


“If you are patient in a moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.” — Chinese Proverb


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


Here is a classic Sherlock tale, A Scandal in Bohemia… In this episode, Holmes comes up against the only woman, in his eyes, who ever bested him in a case, the beautiful Irene Adler…. These You Tube versions of the old BBC shows are, in my mind, excellent interludes of pure entertainment, made even more enjoyable for the lack of commercials…. Enjoy….




The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes – S01E01 – A Scandal In Bohemia
































 




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“It’s even worse than you think…..” — Smart Bee


Here is a virgin rant…. This is one of my earliest rants against the system, as it exists in today’s world. It shows some of my more egregious writing style errors, some of which I’ve cleaned up to reflect what I’ve learned in the interim…. All the points listed herein are still valid, even though my own situation, as described at the end, has improved vastly, since I fully retired on SS disability…. Today’s rants, much more specific in terms of targeted categories, were built on the same angst as this one; now, they are simply more effective at indicting the responsible parties…. Constant practice makes for constant improvement, eh?…. Well, one may hope….


From 6/7/2012:


“Our days are happier when we give people a bit of our heart rather than a piece of our mind.” — Smart Bee


I think this is obvious to the point of becoming natural law. It’s a very close insight into human nature, and I don’t know about y’all, but it sure is true for me. Today is a perfect example of this….


I feel trapped a lot of the time. Hemmed in by the very society who is supposedly there to support me in my efforts to pursue my life’s goals and aspirations. Of course, anybody over the age of 10 realizes any support from society most often resembles a slap to the head, but, the point is, society’s purpose for existing is to aid it’s citizens in maximizing their experiences, for their own benefit, which, in the process, benefits society. I mean, that is what its purpose is MEANT to be; I don’t think it would be very beneficial to continue, if this isn’t the case. Society is supposed to work in such a way that all of its members have an equal chance to succeed in whatever they undertake in life… ostensibly, it’s sole reason for existing at all….


In reality, it doesn’t work that way, for the simple reason that some of the folks in the game have changed the rules; simply, they play by rules which suit themselves, and what they want. What they want is total control of everyone else…. They’re pretty good at it, too. For close to 8,000 years now, the beloved ruling class has set things up in our culture to favor themselves. They have lied, cheated, stolen, killed, repressed, oppressed, and generally acted in a manner that the rest of humanity considers immoral, unethical, and inhuman, at the core. They have done this right in front of our eyes. The rules and laws that are agreed to by all were written to favor those in power, not those who serve.


Though every church shouts out how moral and ethical it is, and spouts off about the virtue of faith and obedience, they do so not from spiritual surety, but from avarice and ambition. Though every government claims to have the welfare of the people as its purported goal, the only people who gain are those who are already wealthy. The rest go on welfare alright, but not the kind they should be able to expect….


And that is why it pisses me off so badly…. as humans, all we really want to do is be happy. It isn’t so much to ask. Most folks are happy when they have enough to eat, a place to sleep, and someone they love to be around. It soothes our nature to be able to share such feelings, hence the accuracy of the quote from Smart Bee above. We just feel better when we can share good feelings with others…. But, we are constantly blocked from doing so, by the society we live in.


In today’s culture, we are put in a situation where it takes all of our time and effort just to obtain the things we need; food, shelter, clothing. Gathering enough resources to ensure an ample supply of all three takes more than one person can make, thanks to the economic picture in a world where 1% of the population controls 99% of the money and resources. Unless one throws aside all of one’s humanity, becoming one of the ruthless ones, indifferent to the suffering of others, who inhabit the 1%, making enough to get by in today’s society just isn’t possible… I know, I’ve spent the last 55 years trying, and I’m a pretty talented guy….


Now, I don’t care about being rich. “If you want a life of trouble, fill your house with treasures…”, a Chinese proverb so old I don’t know who said it. But, I’ve believed it all my life; as a result, I’ve always worked only to get enough to live comfortably, and to provide stability and opportunities to succeed for my family. I’ve never given in to the urge to take advantage of others, or to cheat, or steal, or lie in order to get ahead; if I didn’t get ahead on merit, I stayed where I was.


It didn’t seem to matter much, anyway. The system is set up so that, at each step up the ladder of financial gain, the rules become more complicated, and are still set up to deny advancement. (I.E., as you make more money, they take more taxes…. In order to borrow money, you must already have money…. etc…) Lately, the government has been less creative in their lies as to why they are taking money from the average Joe….


In all three of the last raises I earned when I was still working, the extra money in my check was taken away by furloughs, a method of reducing my hours. Each time I expected to make a bit more, they would take away another day’s work, thus eliminating the advancement in pay…. The justification given was rationalization implying state employees made too much anyway, so, taking away their money was going to balance the budget… Funny how that didn’t work out that way….


Being retired from working has had two effects for me…. It gives me way too much time to be able to look at reality, to find the flaws and kinks causing all the friction and conflict in the world. Unfortunately, it has also made the task of obtaining the three necessary items for survival more difficult, by reducing my income drastically, to the poverty line, and at the same time, making it more physically difficult to accomplish what I need to do. SIGH…. Murphy is such an ASSHOLE!


Okay, I’m done. I could go on most of the day, but it’s starting to sound whiny to me. I’m not a victim. I will be alright, eventually. I will be more than alright. But, it pisses me off royally that I can’t spend more time sharing my heart with others, rather than sharing my thoughts…. My heart is much more fun to be around, mostly…. at least I’d like to think so. Now, if I can only get it to climb out of the hole of depression it has crawled into so much lately, perhaps I can find a way to cheer it up…. as long as Murphy will give me a breather now and again….


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


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As many of y’all know by now, every once in a while, you’re going to see a poem, or two, by this lady…. I’ve decided more than enough time has passed since we saw her; therefore, to be as pompous as possible in two short lines, today’s choice is one of my favorites of hers…. It never fails to soothe my fevered brow….. and the pomposity soothes my sense of propriety, for whatever THAT’S worth….




A bird came down the walk:

He did not know I saw;

He bit an angle-worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw.


And then he drank a dew

From a convenient grass,

And then hopped sidewise to the wall

To let a beetle pass.


He glanced with rapid eyes

That hurried all abroad,–

They looked like frightened beads, I thought;

He stirred his velvet head


Like one in danger; cautious,

I offered him a crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers

And rowed him softer home


Than oars divide the ocean,

Too silver for a seam,

Or butterflies, off banks of noon,

Leap, splashless, as they swim.


~~ Emily Dickinson ~~




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Today’s final pearl is what Mary Poppins would term “PPIEW” (Practically perfect, etc….) Each one is a strong stand-alone pearl, while, together, they form a nearly perfect set of standards for anyone wishing to live an honorable life, based on reason and compassion…. Enjoy, ffolkes; even the format today will help to center your thoughts….




Virtue, dear friend, needs no defence,

The surest guard is innocence:

None knew, till guilt created fear,

What darts or poison’d arrows were.


~~ Horace (B.C. 65-8) ~~


“I don’t think it would have all got me down quite so much if just once in a while- just once in a while- there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn’t, it’s just a disgusting waste of time.” 


~~J.D. Salinger~~ Franny & Zooey ~~


“No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.” 


~~Lily Tomlin~~


And bear unmov’d the wrongs of base mankind,

The last and hardest conquest of the mind.


~~ Alexander Pope (1688-1744) ~~The Odyssey of Homer, Book xiii, Line 353 ~~


“The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.” 


~~ Voltaire ~~


“It is your resistance to ‘what is’ that causes your suffering.” 


~~ Buddha ~~


So live, that when thy summons comes to join

The innumerable caravan which moves

To that mysterious realm where each shall take

His chamber in the silent halls of death,

Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,

Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed

By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave

Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.


~~ William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) ~~ Thanatopsis ~~




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I’m not sure how it happened, but, this one came out fairly well, even without a fresh rant…. go figure…. Ah well, I’ve got enough time in at this job to be able to say, without fear of contradiction, it’s done, and that’s all there is to say about it…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; I don’t think I’m up to pushing my luck any further….




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.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….

 



		
	
					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
He meant plaster of PARIS!….

			
						

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Ffolkes,




“So as this only point among the rest remaineth sure and certain, namely, that nothing is certain. . .” 


~~ Pliny The Elder ~~


Belfast 011


         Today’s picture is one of several I took, of pubs in England, and Ireland, while traveling there in 2013; I showed the first one, of the Old Swan, in London, a few days ago; this one, located in Belfast, is the oldest public house in that city, having been first established by royal license in 1635, on that same spot… This view is of the main room by the bar;  I sat at the table just to the right of the fireplace to have my lunch, (you can just see my stick, leaning against the wall by the mantle), consisting of a traditional plate of bangers and mash, and a stout beer…. Some day, I want to tour both islands of the British Isles, to visit at least one pub in every town I see…. I figure I couldn’t get a much better feel for the people than to visit the places where they hang out to eat, drink, and plot revolution….


Well, the last part is my imagination, but, I’ve read enough history to know that many revolutions were plotted in rooms just like this one, perhaps this one itself, and not so long ago…. This pub, called White’s Tavern, has been a popular spot for almost 400 years, many of which saw what the locals call “the troubles”, as the civil war between the Catholics and Protestants in that country waged over the past couple hundred years. I’d wager good money that a lot of the battles in that war were planned right in the room you see above, a wager I would be confident of winning…


Now, all this doesn’t pick my pocket, nor break my bones, to paraphrase Tom Jefferson, pitifully badly, but, it IS interesting. Well, to me, anyway, as a student of both history, and European culture over the ages; whether y’all are interested, or not, is of little concern to me at this point. You see, I’m in the middle of what may be the most cogent, properly executed intro sections I’ve ever created…. Of course, this little intimate conversation, which we now are holding, sort of puts that to the lie, so to speak…. In short, I’ve even managed to screw up THIS one, haven’t I? I think I have, more’s the pity…. It was going so WELL, too!….


Now, of course, we’ll have to abandon the direction we were headed, to hare off in some other wild way…. Where we will find ourselves when I’m done screwing around would be a bit hard to predict, so, I won’t even bother to try; all I’ll say is, sorry ’bout that…. I tried this to keep myself from falling into a rant right out of the gate, but, I seem to have carried it a bit too far away from our normal process, so far we lost track of the time, as well as the desired outcome…. Such sloppiness is, naturally, to be expected when trying such a new, and delicate procedure, but, I managed to find completely new ways to foul it up…. I’m talented that way, if you hadn’t noticed….


Ah well, so much for that one…. We’ll now be compelled to force our exit again, using that new, but already well-practiced skill, developed and installed at such great expense and effort, of ruthlessness, for which I am ever thankful, for having saved us so many times, over such a short period of time…. One of our best buys, no doubt…. To use it does cause a bit of trouble, in that we are using more first-aid supplies, but, those are a small price to pay for ending up in the right place each day…. Well, the right place according to our calculations; I won’t claim infallibility of results, only of intent….


Look out!…. Okay, that should do it… We’re past the worst point now, so, I suppose I should get on with the rest of today’s mess….


Shall we Pearl?


“Thoughts are free and are subject to no rule.  On them rests the freedom of man, and they tower above the light of nature.” — von Hohenheim (1493-1541)


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As may happen with any long-running show on TV, the BBC series with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes suffered a few miscarries, in terms of falling into clichéd plot lines that catered to disparate elements of the viewing audience, such as spiritualism, or any of the other suppositions about the habits of the world’s most renowned fictional character…. Certain plot lines reached a point where the contents of the story achieved rather a far-out look and feel, as the writers tried to convince the audience of Sherlock’s great powers, as explainable only by extraordinary means….


This episode is one such, featuring the actor who played Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s brother, in a case he pursued with the help of Watson…. It’s a very enjoyable piece of TV entertainment, and a pretty good small-screen adaptation, definitely one of the BBC’s best efforts…. Enjoy!…..







The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes – S07E05 – The Mazarin Stone































 




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I’ve related in previous posts how the rain we are experiencing here in NorCal has aggravated the arthritis in my hands, to the point of making typing a challenge…. Plus, dealing with the damn things, when added to the other spots on my body that seem to jump to be included in the litany, in dreaded sympathy, is exhausting over time…. all of which occupies my mind far too much for my taste…. It also keeps me from gathering news to use as subject matter…. Hence, another trip to the archives for a rant…. This is rather a mild one, but, fairly cogent, and all too true for comfort….


From 2/22/2013:


“Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.” — Bhagavad Gita (c. B.C. 400)


I first read the Bhagavad Gita when I was about 17; along with the Tao Teh Ching, it has had a profound effect on my life, and the attitudes I bring to living it. The above verses are what led me to my belief in the mind’s immortality, as a form of energy like any other in this Universe, thus subject to the Law of Conservation of Energy. This deduction served to remove the fear from Death for me, as I can now view it as a mere change of form, to one whose characteristics I do not know, (or remember), from previous changes. Once fear is removed, Death becomes just another part of Life, and is welcome as such, for the inherent beauty it possesses as the complement to Life…..


“All anger arises out of obstructed desire.” — Bhagavad Gita


This is the second verse from the book I found to be extremely valuable, in learning to live with dignity, with honor, and without fear. This statement, by its very nature, implies that our anger is under our control, thereby placing it into our bag of assets to be used when needed, rather than in our bag of liabilities, or, emotions that keep us from reaching our potential as humans, like fear, anger, greed, etc….. Fear can be seen as the desire to be safe from harm, obstructed, which thus sheltered under our aegis of emotions that can be changed, by merely changing our desire…. By learning to deal with fear, anger becomes our ally, rather than our enemy…..


In turn, these two principles, used congruently, give us the emotional freedom to make clear decisions about reality’s demands and issues, without our emotional responses coloring the decisions with their negative outlook, and tendency toward denial and obstruction. We become immune to the storms that plague most people, for we know how to adjust our attitudes to suit the conditions under which we find ourselves, instead of falling prey to letting the circumstances dictate our response. True freedom, indeed…


Today, when I found this, I was immediately reminded of all of the things I had lost track of in the distractions of living…. All the pain and anger I’ve been feeling since hearing the news of my brother’s illness fell away, no longer able to sustain their hold over my emotions; I am once more able to see how this is not an issue to be angry about, but rather one to use as an opportunity to grow, and to perhaps be able to give my brother the love and support he needs, despite what he may want, in his own grief…. He is afraid, and trying to keep from either showing, or sharing that fear with his family; I won’t allow him to die that way, or to be without his family, when it is so unnecessary…..


So, I am feeling better in that respect, and though I am still filled with sadness, I know now that is just my own self-pity, feeling sorry for myself for having to face his death…. Grief is, in truth, misplaced in looking at death, and in reality is more of a solace for the living, than it is a tribute to the dead; our grief is more a feeling of loss in ourselves than it is sorrow for their passing. It is not, ultimately, a time for sadness, but, rather, a chance to acknowledge the beauty of a Universe that gives us this opportunity to experience the change in our consciousness….


I’m betting when we change over, we are in a place where our minds are much more in tune with the very base of reality, with the ability to direct the formation of the next form it takes…. Hey, it makes as much sense as any of the other suggestions of what happens that I’ve heard, and has the advantage of fitting the facts of observable, recordable reality, pretty precisely….. and if I’m wrong, well, I’ll deal with that when I get there….       🙂


I’ll tell you this quite frankly…. if the Christians are right, or the Muslims, or any of the other organized institutional churches, then I will definitely have a few words for whatever is passing itself off as God, to answer for the actions of His/Her/Its followers…. and I won’t be taking any BS for a response….


“And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying all we did not know.” — William Rose Benet


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


I’m again unwilling to share the blame for any of this, so, once more, you must put up with my own pallid, if pungent, poetry….






Stray Cats


The veils that billow and fold 

between dreams and reality

 may sometimes part, 

showing the visions of one to the other, 

blending, bleeding as one, 

only to bring us up short, 

closely jammed against immovable fate. 


Still, we keep our watch, 

seeking to find the vision

 that brings with it the mark of reality’s regard, 

a humble mind, and a compassionate heart. 


Events of broad impact draw us away again, 

distracting with shiny glitter and tinny music, 

leaving our feelings raw and bruised, 

the victim of universal disregard. 


Now, in the twilight of years, the music is fading, 

and the glitter has all gone…. 

yet the memory of visions remains sharp and clear, 

melancholy reminders of reality’s promises, 

unkept…..


~~gigoid~~




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


When I went to put together an old school pearl for this section, Smart Bee seemed in a weird mood, presenting a choppy group of quotes, many of which seemed to fit together, but, with as many that did not fit presented right alongside…. I finally figured out SB had something to say about a category of Asininny, specifically the Dogma Dogs… So, I pulled out those that didn’t say much about that, to find this perfect seven-star pearl had come together, all directed at those silly, delusional thieves dwelling among us, who like to wear clothes trimmed in gold filigree, just because they think it’s swell…. when, in truth, it’s an example of how little they do know about Life, or Reality….


“A half truth is a whole lie.” — Yiddish proverb


CLERGYMAN, n.  A man who undertakes the management of our spiritual affairs as a method of bettering his temporal ones. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”


“The easy confidence with which I know another man’s religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” — “I would not interfere with any one’s religion, either to strengthen it or to weaken it.  I am not able to believe one’s religion can affect his hereafter one way or the other, no matter what that religion may be. But it may easily be a great comfort to him in this life — hence it is a valuable possession to him.” — I do not see how eternal punishment hereafter could accomplish any good end, therefore I am not able to believe in it. To chasten a man in order to perfect him might be reasonable enough; to annihilate him when he shall have proved himself incapable of reaching perfection might be reasonable enough; but to roast him forever for the mere satisfaction of seeing him roast would not be reasonable — even the atrocious God imagined by the Jews would tire of the spectacle eventually.” — Mark Twain


FAITH, n: That quality which enables us to believe what we know to be untrue. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary


“The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow human beings.” — William Hazlitt (1778-1830), Works, Vol.X


“An honest god is the noblest work of man.   … God has always resembled his creators.  He hated and loved what they hated and loved and he was invariably  found on the side of those in power. … Most of the gods were pleased with  sacrifice, and the smell of innocent blood has ever been considered a divine perfume.” — Robert G. Ingersoll


“I have no problem with God.. it’s his pushy followers I can’t stand!!” — Smart Bee


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


Okay, well, it took a while, but, I managed to get this done in spite of my hands; I can’t say it has been the most fun I’ve ever had, to be sure. But, it’s done, so, I’ll take it, and run…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, even if the rain keeps up….




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.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….





					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
The prospect of failure is unacceptable….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				3			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“Freedom begins between the ears.”


~~ Edward Abbey ~~


Second shots 013


     Today’s quote, when taken in conjunction with the evocative, albeit ordinary, picture of a London public house, assumes a more rarefied meaning than it would, were it standing alone…. Having been to the pub in the picture, I can take myself out of the present, slipping quietly into my imagination, any time I wish, just by looking at it…. This, to me, is freedom, and it all starts between my ears…. See? I may be half-asleep, but, I can see that…. Not that my ability to verify makes it a better pearl; it does, to some small degree, add some weight to the proof, so, my paragraph can’t be considered a total failure, if a failure at all….


Given the paragraph you see was written, technically, under duress, defining it as a failure would not have been particularly surprising; we give ourselves a LOT of leeway when considering events that occur pre-coffee. Since my first, wonderful, life-giving sip of the magic brew just passed my lips a moment ago (and, as you see, is already visible in the words I write…), it also isn’t surprising to feel compelled to share such an intimate detail with y’all. That first sip has an effect on the drinker which is much magnified; some might say it has an effect that defies all reason…. yet, there ’tis, in its simple glory, saving my ass again….


Without its beneficent presence in my life, these morning Pearls would be quite different, and, I, for one, would NOT wish to know how…. I’m quite happy with how coffee brings me back into focus each morning, and the near-miraculous effect it has on me is MORE than merely welcome; it is treasured, as one of my finest moments each day…. There’s nothing like those first few sips of coffee to bring the world into a more acceptable framework, one we can look upon with favor, and anticipation, instead of trepidation, and a reluctance to face the day…. I’m not sure that I’d be the same person, without coffee….


I know, that’s a bit over the top, but, hey, it’s my top, so, back off…. Coffee, as is patently obvious to anyone with two or more neurons, is not something I take lightly, or would ever consider removing from my life…. and, I don’t care a whit whether a doctor tells me to stop, or not…. I’d cut back, or drink it less strong, maybe…. but, give it up? Never…. there are certain things in life for which there can be no compromise, and, trivial as this one may be, it is one of my issues of stubbornness, one I’ll never consider changing, or ever consider leaving out of my life…. So be it….


Well, that may be the oddest little intro I’ve ever done, but, the key word here is “done”…. so, I’m going to take advantage of that, and get us down the pike…. right here, right now….


Shall we Pearl?


“Arguments derived from probabilities are idle.” — Plato


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


Here is another episode of Sherlock Holmes’ adventures…. This is one of my favorites, simply for the expression on Holmes’ face, at the end of the story, when he is hugged by a woman he has helped…. priceless! And, an example of most excellent acting…..







Sherlock Holmes Season 3 episode 2 The Abbey Grange





































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


It is apparently going to rain for a while around here; my hands and shoulder seem to be a fairly reliable barometer of such weather these days, since they begin to ache a good day before the rain actually arrives…. Whatever the cause, it would be nearly impossible to type fast enough, or long enough to be able to put together anything like a rant…. and, I’m not really in the mood today, being still in a good space from yesterday’s fine foods, brought to me by my friend after her Thanksgiving at Mom’s…. Hence, this little discussion from the past…. It’s a good one, so, please, enjoy, and TRY to pay attention, okay?…. It’s all worth thinking about….


“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” — Abraham Lincoln


From 3/7/2013:


“It is useless for sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while wolves remain of a different opinion.” — William Ralph Inge, D. D.  1860 – 1954


I’ve seen this little statement before, and like it a lot, for its honesty in describing our Beloved Ruling Class in relation to the flock of sheep that comprises most of mankind. And, yes, this is the beginning of another politirant….. This one is prompted by the most recent activities that our leaders, if such word applies, have been shown to be engaged in by the news outlets I watch…. to wit: the legislation under review and up for vote in the House of Reps that is concerned with the economy, to wit: the “sequester”, and the recent comments by the POTUS re: global warming and climate change…. Let’s see what we can note about these issues, shall we?….


I have noticed that the Congress, and the POTUS, are currently at odds, as usual, over the economy, and arguing over how to address an issue over which they have absolutely no control…. I just don’t get it, actually…. There is no evidence whatsoever that anything the government does, or has ever done, about the economy has any effect at all on it…. none. Zero. Zilch. Nada damn thing…. The economy of the world, or even just this nation, is not subject to any manipulation by us; it’s too big, too amorphous…. It’s like trying to herd cats…. a lot of effort for small results, and you end up with a bunch of pissed off felines… If you know anything about cats, you will realize that this is never a good thing….


Yet, because the public demands that something be done, the politicians start their idiotic posturing, pontificating, and, otherwise polluting the airwaves with nonsensical suggestions as to what should be done to fix the problems. NONE of those ever work, nor will they ever work; the economy does not move according to any rules that we can control, or even know, and any action we take is just as liable to have a bad effect as a good one….. But, the public wants the government to fix it, so they try to make noises as if they actually could do something helpful, when in fact, anything they do is as liable to hurt as to help….. Sad, but, true as the day is long….


It’s actually kind of fun watching the contortions they go through for issues such as this; since I know for a fact that none of it will have any real effect on the issue, I can enjoy the parade without worrying about whether it will actually do anything useful…. It is a bit depressing to watch, since I am aware of just how little can be done, but, the show can be entertaining, and it does pass the time… The depressing part is knowing that the public is actually buying all of what they are saying, and really do expect something to change for the better… But, then, I am always amazed at the depth of human stupidity. I don’t know why, as I KNOW how dumb people can be… I am one, you know…. but, it always is a surprise to see just how deeply that stupidity is ingrained in the human condition…


Of course, this stupidity is part and parcel of why we are experiencing the second issue I mentioned above… global warming and overpopulation. I will be very interested to see exactly how the POTUS intends to address the issue, as he has promised to do, several times now since his inauguration. Since the issue is well advanced beyond the point that most people think it is, it will be a telling factor in deciding how seriously the issue is being taken, and whether or not it will have any chance at all of being either enough, or soon enough… Both of these are critical factors, as the point of no-return for the ecological balance of this planet is so near, it may have already been passed some months ago…..


I’m not sure how scientifically minded many of y’all are, but, I am… scientifically minded, that is, and I can tell you without fear of contradiction (from anyone with any reliable scientific knowledge, anyway….) that the atmosphere of this planet is, without doubt, and without evidence to the contrary, on the very edge of becoming unbreathable for humans…. The millions of tons of carbon monoxide and other toxic substances that are being pumped into the air EVERY SECOND, and that has been pumped in now for over a hundred years, has reached the point where it will begin a process of leaching oxygen from the air, and the balance of gases we need to survive will change, hell, IS changing, and fairly rapidly, until it is no longer of a balance that we can safely breathe… This is scientific FACT, not speculation, not a guess.. the process has already begun, the only question remaining is, how quickly will it happen?


“In the game of life you get to choose where you keep your brain – heads you win, tails you lose.” — Smart Bee


So, we’ll see where the POTUS keeps his brain, as he speaks in the next few days about this issue… Whatever he decides to do, you can bet that it won’t be enough, and it won’t make a damn bit of difference, other than in a few Presidential approval polls, perhaps. After all, even though he is a fairly reform oriented politician, he is still a politician, and you can lay good money, without fear of losing, on the fact that whatever he does is designed to benefit him and his Presidency, and any benefit for the public is a secondary concern….


He IS a politician, after all, and his primary concern is for his own success; it’s NOT the welfare of the people… He has merely discovered that being the “People’s Champion” is currently a good political stance to take…. if it ever becomes too itchy a coat to wear, he will take it off in a heartbeat…. Count on it…. You don’t get to that level of the game without being a complete asshole in some respects, and I don’t think anyone who WANTS to be President can be accused of not being ambitious, and, in the process, sociopathic….


“No people in the world ever did achieve their freedom by goody-goody talk and moral suasion: it being immutable law that all revolutions that will succeed, must begin in blood, whatever the answer afterward. If history teaches anything, it teaches that.” — Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)


In this case, we aren’t talking about freedom, unless by that one means, freedom to stay alive…. and the BRC isn’t going to do anything about it, I don’t believe…. Or, rather, I’ll believe it when I see it, and, so far, no dice in that respect. I’m enough of a cynic to believe, sadly, that it isn’t GOING to happen, either… because I don’t believe that the POTUS, or the rest of the BRC, gives a damn about the rest of us, as long as they have their own….. This much is obvious from history, but, when did mankind at large ever pay any attention to history?….


If you have some evidence that contradicts that belief, I would dearly love to see it…. Truly, I would, because, quite frankly, my own intelligence, and the evidence I have now, forces me to conclude that we humans are shortly about to come to a bad end…. not with a bang, not with a whimper, but, choking to death in our own planet’s toxic air, victims to our own stupidity, and cupidity….


Daniel: “We’re damned if we do, we’re damned if we don’t; we need other options…” — from Stargate


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


In the past, I’ve written some rather cogent poems about pain…. Since it seems to be “too much with me” these days, here is one of them….




Gauges of Pain 


Consciousness devolves in pools of gripping fears

holding hostage any hope of serenity,

sharp stabbing motions and greedy tears

nary a moment passes without common calamity.


Always a surprise, nothing soothing ever found,

leaving only breathless clinging pain,

salvation seemingly absent, it muffles all sound,

bringing ever more sadness and rain.


Solitude is ever present to claim my time,

lonely hours and relentlessly long days,

no radio plays such music in secular rhyme

happy, vibrant voices belong to elder ways.


Life can be justified it seems to say,

by hopeful favored moments of pleasure,

seemingly friendly, pointing out the only way,

to bring back happiness in minimal measure.


Days of horror and embarrassing tears

serve ever to drive wretched hours to withhold

promising naught but sorrow in coming years,

black, bitter memories that never grow old.


Cold, cold the days fly by,

can it really be our only token?

Never to say, or know just why

the pain never stops, even when spoken…


~~ gigoid ~~




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


Today’s final section will be the freshest of the day…. That is, if SB decides to help out…. If not, it could make things somewhat sticky…. Let’s see what we have today, shall we?…..


“Become what you are.” — Buddha


“Some of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution. A few more wore red coats, a few wore blue coats, and the rest wore no coats at all. We never did figure out who won that war.” — Edward Abbey


“To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy.” — Plautus (254-184 BC) — Mostellaria, Act iii, Sc. 2, 104, (791.)


“Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the question of why there should be a universe for the model to describe.” — Stephen Hawking


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


“It’s hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” — Calvin, Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes


“In writing, fidelity to fact leads eventually to the poetry of truth.” — Abbey


Having thus created what is, perhaps, the most inscrutable pearl ever, I shall quit the field, knowing I’ve done my best, if not my best…. if you know what I mean… I don’t, and probably should, but, hey, I always get a little giddy after a pearl such as this one, from the effort to understand, or, at minimum, stay in the same ballpark….


I think it would be best if I just stop now, and tempt fate no further….


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


It’s disheartening to realize the most cogent thought expressed today is the last line in the previous section…. SIGH…. Oh well, it’s done now, so I may as well get on with it…. I’ll see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I have any neurons to spare….




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.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….





					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Moss-covered sculptures of bacon are on now display in the hotel lobby….

			
						

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				Reply			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“Nearly all men can stand adversity,


but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”


~~ Abraham Lincoln ~~


Tony in repose...
Your will is my will…..




     Ah, yes…. I remember this…. Moderate to heavy feeling of being off-balance, with accompanying, insidious nausea, brought on by a new attack of vertigo, felt first thing upon arising…. I must confess, this is not my favorite way to start the day, to be sure. It seems I have, in my declining years, (such a weak euphemism for the aging process; it almost implies we can do something about it, which is, patently, a hideous lie…), developed a tendency to bring the condition on during my sleep, by turning over too quickly at night…. Apparently, on a random basis, such a movement somehow dislodges the small crystals of my inner ear from their accustomed places, a process which apparently annoys them no end, as they start sending clamorous cries to the brain that the body is falling, fast…. when, in fact, one is lying abed, or sitting in a chair, fighting the dizziness and nausea…. SIGH…. one of Life’s less pleasurable moments, I’d say….


Still, the physical therapist I saw last time this came to pass showed me an exercise which will correct the issue without too much trouble, so, at least it’s not a permanent state, thank goodness. To have to fight this all the time is a pain; I spent almost two weeks in relative misery a while back, so, knowing how to apply a fix is what I call serendipitous indeed…. But, it doesn’t help get today’s Pearl done, while trying not to spew all over the keyboard…. so, I’ll warn y’all now you’ll be seeing some archived material today, as creating fresh stuff is probably beyond my current powers…. That isn’t to say I can lay any claim to any real control over the process, but, it does at least acknowledge my efforts to keep producing different, if not totally new material… such as it may turn out….


I’m no Alex Pope, for sure, nor am I Sam Clemens in disguise; this I know for sure, though I do try to emulate both at times…. They’re worthy role models, to my way of thinking, at least in a literary sense…. Since Sam died before he got very old, and Pope, as far as I remember, also didn’t live to a ripe, old age, I think I’d rather emulate some other literary figures, like maybe Wordsworth, or Shaw, both of whom lived into their 80’s, if I recall my historical reading correctly…. At least with more time, I’ll have a better chance of approaching some level of competence at this, though it isn’t guaranteed…. But, then, in this world, guarantees are, for the most part, non-existent in a real sense….


Now that I’ve blathered and rambled sufficiently to satisfy any legal requirements anyone may come up with, I think I’ll go find some of those archived materials I spoke of previously, so I can get on to the exercises I need to do to get rid of this nonsensical physical issue that promises to complicate my day…. If I can get the fix in soon, I may be able to skip a lot of the misery so easy to come by when one is continuously feeling nauseous, even if it is a mild nausea…. It’s a bit like being just a little bit pregnant, I guess…. there’s really no getting away with any shortcuts…. Ah well, the Anglo-Saxons said it best, I suppose, when they gave us that oh-so-expressive epithet to fit almost any occasion, to wit:


FUCK!…. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!


There, I feel better now…. a little bit, anyway, which will have to do….


Shall we Pearl?


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


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


For many years, I have avoided watching TV, which, though a good idea, has nonetheless caused me to miss what GOOD material HAS been put on the air, somehow slipping past the idiots who generally choose what the public will see…. The series of Sherlock Holmes adventures dramatized on the BBC during the 1990’s is a perfect example of this…. I’ve been enjoying immensely catching up to all those fine pieces of work, starring an actor whose physical appearance is the closest to how A.C. Doyle describes Holmes, to wit: Jeremy Brett, who also happens to be a fine actor, gleefully playing Sherlock’s demented persona perfectly…. Here is one of these little hidden gems, with a link that will give you more links, to almost all of them, with some time and patience…. Enjoy, ffolkes, these are some delightful episodes, well-written and superbly acted….







Sherlock Holmes Season 3 episode 6 The Priory School 





































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


“Necessity has no law.” — Saint Augustine (354-430) — Soliloquium Animae ad Deum


Here is a perfect example of how the delusions and lies told by the dogma dogs has infiltrated the common mind of humanity, spreading false ideas that cause no end of societal misery…. This paraphrase of the old standard, “The end justifies the means,” has caused more misery in human history than almost any other idea…. It goes hand in hand with another lie, which is generally fed to the innocent minds of children, who have no real defenses against the ones telling them, thus perpetuating the false beliefs in each person, before they have any chance to realize any other, possibly opposite, concept…. to wit: we are merely the creations of a supernatural tyrant, and unworthy of existence unless we surrender our minds to that entity’s pathetic desire to be worshiped for its largesse….


Now, even in my less than ideal frame of mind, these lies are infuriating, almost enough to make me keep ranting along those lines…. but, not quite…. This is some serious nausea today, if I move injudiciously…. So, here is a rant from the archives, to sublimate my need to pull the covers off those who are holding the entire human species hostage, preventing us from ever having a chance to achieve our real potential, all because of their own cowardice, and fear of what the real world is like…. SIGH…. Sometimes, when I say it like that, it’s hard to feel like we deserve any chances…. We certainly seem to prefer to wallow in our stupidity, more than we seem to enjoy thinking, and learning, and living in “delicious ambiguity”….


A quite old rant, last posted on 7/22/2013:


I’m all at sixes and sevens this morning, and don’t have anything to say, other than this…. bleah….


Since that won’t do, even for what passes around here for acceptable, here is an old rant, from mid-2012, on a favorite subject….


“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)


There are many folks out there who, when reading my material for the first time, might gather the impression that I am an atheist, and an anarchist. The stuff I write would tend to give that impression, I have no doubt. But, it really isn’t the case, and just goes to show that not everything is always as it seems…..


I’m not an atheist, at least not in a classical sense. I would more accurately be described as agnostic, as I believe strongly in a spiritual component in the universe. But, the very concept of omnipotence, and omniscience, implies that one cannot define God, or whatever entity one considers to be the ultimate authority. A finite mind cannot comprehend an infinite mind; anything we can imagine cannot, by definition, be accurate or complete, as our minds are not infinite in scope.


It could be said that our imagination IS infinite. We can, at the very least, comprehend the concept of infinity, even if we cannot touch it, or point to it, or see it at all; nor can we, in a finite sense, count that high. But, to actually think that what we imagine about God is the same as reality is not only arrogant, it is foolish. Yet, a large percentage of the human race not only believes they know what God looks like (ironically, God always looks like the folks who are claiming Him as their deity….), but that they know what He wants. To my way of thinking, this is sheer self-aggrandizement, and unjustifiably arrogant….


I suppose it helps them in dealing with the everyday stresses of life to think that they are special. To think they are beloved of God, and what they do is important to Him. This sense of belonging is important to a lot of folks, due I think, to their own fears about their ability to deal with reality as it exists. It gives them a sense of entitlement, and justifies their actions, no matter how immoral or unethical they may be. It allows them to act upon their impulses without restraint, to lie, to cheat, to steal, all in the name of the Lord. And, if they should happen to feel a tiny shred of guilt about what they are doing to other folks, why they just confess their sins to Jesus, and all is forgiven!….


Sorry, folks, but I could never buy into the whole scenario, from my earliest days. All of my experience, and all of my reasoning have led me to a different view of reality than what is described by any religion. I have observed the behavior of most people of a religious bent to be, as a rule, hypocritical, cruel, bigoted, racist, and, for the most part, unrelated to any moral or ethical system of any depth. The most religious in society go so far as to threaten violence toward anyone who disagrees with their beliefs, justified by their own self-proclaimed right to spew their hatred on anyone who differs.


I believe in compassion and kindness. I believe in love. I believe in protecting the vulnerable, and helping the less fortunate. I believe in beauty. And, I believe in reality, whatever that may be; it’s purely subjective for the most part. I DON’T believe in the divinity of Jesus, or Buddha, or Lao Tzu, or Mohammad, or any other religious prophet. I don’t believe there is some white haired, bearded old guy sitting on a throne of gold up in the sky somewhere, looking down and getting his panties in a bunch because I didn’t kiss, or even salute his graven image, first thing after I got up.


That whole graven image thing, and the idea that God wants, or needs, our worship has always been a thorn in my side. I mean, can’t these zealots understand the irony of worshiping an image of Christ on the cross? Apparently, to them, it isn’t a graven image, in spite of fitting every definition of the word. It also occurs to me to wonder why an omnipotent being would need, or even want, MY worship? It makes no sense. None. I cannot imagine of ANY reason for a God to care at all about such petty bullshit; I don’t even care to be worshiped, why should He? Having someone act that way toward me makes me uncomfortable, so I can’t see why a God would even want to go there. What purpose does it serve?


Well, one of my computer alarms just went off, and made me realize I was ranting, which I had not started out to do. I think y’all can get the gist of my arguments by this time, and those who are in disagreement with what I’ve written aren’t going to be persuaded away from their long-held delusions by my words, so further soliloquy would be futile.


I’ll just finish by saying this….. until Mankind grows up enough to be able to put aside the crutch of religion, and learns to stand up to reality as it exists, without the delusional imaginary friend to intercede on their behalf with the universe, then our path to extinction will remain clear…. It’s too bad really, because our species shows a lot of promise…. it’s too bad we will never be allowed to explore our limits as an adult species, because we will have killed ourselves off before we ever got out of childhood….


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


Given my previously admitted state of mind, or lack thereof, here is one of my own poems, written sometime in 2013, I think…. I’ll check later, but, it isn’t really important, as it speaks quite nicely to the subject above, in at least one sense….




Future Shocked:



Weeping, I wake; 

waking, I weep, I weep. 

I weep for the ages to be lost, 

for the children never to be born. 


Time comes calling, strident and spare, 

nudging us toward the future with bony hands. 

No pausing, no waiting, always away,

Frantic hearts unseen, unheard.


Spirits are dark, afraid. 

And the Beast hunts, hungry and cruel, 

seeking out the weak, and the foolish. 


We all weep now…..


~~ gigoid ~~




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


I have already laid the groundwork for this section to see an older pearl, but, first we’ll see if SB is feeling nice enough to help out a bit during this time of mild crisis…. If not, I’ll fill it in from past works, but, first, let’s see what we can find, with today’s theme loosely held in mind…. the ONLY way I can hold them today…. loosely, that is…. Okay, well, that went fairly well…. This should do the trick nicely….




“The villa’s and the chapel’s where

I learned with little labor

The way to love my fellow man

And hate my next-door neighbor.”


~~ Gilbert K. Chesterton (1874-1936) ~~




“Be tolerant of those who disagree with you, after all, they have a right to their ridiculous opinions.” — Smart Bee


“I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress.” — Daniel Boorstin


“Change your mind, it’s starting to smell.” — Smart Bee


“A good example is the best sermon.” — H. Jackson Brown


“Now, that the sovereign power and deity, whatsoever it is, should have regard of mankind, is a toy and vanity worthy to be laughed at.” — Pliny The Elder




“He that will not reason is a bigot.

He that cannot reason is a fool.

He that dares not reason is a slave.”


~~ William Drummond, “Academical Questions” ~~




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


Given the difficult circumstances in which I find myself today, this turned out fairly well. Well enough, I’d say, to classify as “done”…. which, as we all know, is the only requirement to be fulfilled…. Makes it easy on days like today…. So easy, I’m outta here, and in good time…. Time enough to go find some mischief to get into, right after I apply the fix to my brain’s ability to tell where it is in relation to the ground…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, hopefully with a bit more going for me than today…..




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….





					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Sweating the small stuff is a big mistake….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				1			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“Beware lest clamor be taken for counsel.”


~~ Desiderius Erasmus ~~


10-1-2014 029


         Floundering, half-asleep, he gazes with incomprehension at the blank screen in front of him, sipping vacantly at the coffee in his hand. As he magic of the caffeine begins to smooth out his system, deep in early morning shock, it occurs to him he is retired…. so, why is he flogging himself each day to get up at 4-5 AM, to begin the process of opening a vein, preferably in a spot that won’t drip on the keyboard, and allowing some of the dross and drivel that has built up in his system to slowly leak out, hopefully with some degree of literary expertise, if not brilliance?…. In sooth, though, he often shoots for acceptable, or even tolerable, with varyiable degree of success….


There that’s enough of THAT nonsense…. Y’all might get the impression we were going to stay in the third, (or maybe the fourth…) person view, with its concomitant difficulty to maintain proper perspective, since the view isn’t personal…. Removing one’s view to another place than right there behind your eyes is a habit we are encouraged to use when writing, though I’m not exactly sure why it’s considered any more valuable than the first, second, or fifteenth person view…. There IS something to be said for the community view, though how one is to write it, I haven’t a clue, nor do I want one, thank you very much….


First, and second person view is quite complex enough for me, ffolkes…. Hell, it’s all I can do sometimes to BE the second person; I have a tendency to feel the first person view is the most valuable, as it is the ONLY one controlled fully by OUR ego, and our will…. Those don’t have a handy an effect on other ffolkes, or folks, whichever the case may be…. Plus, I find it’s easier to ran when in first-person mode, and, since the ranting section is the one most important for the purposes of this blog, and blogger, that has to take precedence of any misguided (i.e., someone else’s idea….) concept of what is considered stylish, or even good….


I mean, this isn’t Ibsen, or Bach, or even Hemingway…. it’s just gigoid, the dubious, spewing his doubts all over the place, and laughing at the threat of insanity…. for around here, we don’t suffer from insanity, we revel in it…. We do this because, a) we want to, b) it’s legally binding, c) it’s cheaper than professional therapy, and d) we can…. What other reasons do we need? None, nor are any forthcoming, though we are getting close to bailing out…. In fact, I’m assuming command, now, and making a command decision to remove us from this section, at once…. There’s the opening…. Pilot, do your duty…. and, y’all, well…. y’all had best hold on to something….


Shall we Pearl?


“Everything has got a moral if you can only find it.” — Lewis Carroll


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


I’ve been mostly in love with this artist since I first saw her perform live, in 1969, on my first trip to Winterland in San Francisco, during its heyday. She was the second act, behind Alice Cooper, who was a megastar then, while Tina was still struggling to make the grade, and still being held back, by Ike, her abusive asshole of a husband, and agent, until she finally got the strength to kick him to the curb, where he proceeded to complete his cycle of self-destruction, while she went on to become one of the biggest stars ever to grace the musical stage…. with good reason….. Nobody gives a show like Tina Turner; she gives every ounce of her soul to the audience…. Enjoy, ffolkes….




Tina Turner – Live in Barcelona 1990




































 




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


“You have to realize that the government, any government, is insane.  You have  to treat it the way pagans treated their gods:  As an irrational, capricious, and powerful entity which will mete out total destruction if not sacrificed to or otherwise placated.” — Mike Long (future Libertarian revolutionary)


About all I can think of to say to that is, yep…. Since that is ALL I can think of to say, here is a rant from early last year, but, on a subject currently on our list of rantable subjects…. It will, naturally, take the place of today’s scheduled rant, which is not happening…. Your guess is as good as mine, but, I’m going with “I’m lazy”, just so there is no argument from the critics, should this ever reach the public eye to any significant degree….


From April 21, 2013:


“A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson


Ah, yes, it does indeed….. This is the principle of human nature I exploit when I rant…. Well, I try, anyway…. It seems as if Ralph Waldo had the inclination to rant strike him on occasion, and, competent observer that he was, he examined how it made him feel, and act when he was in ranting mode. When in full flight, ranting makes one feel ten feet tall, able to leap arguments with a single quote, impervious to sarcasm or belittling remarks, and capable of chewing up the toughest pundit and spitting him out, before breakfast….. Whether or not one could actually do so doesn’t matter in the slightest, for it is what we THINK we can do that determines what we CAN do…. Like the dragons of Pern, who could lift any weight when flying, as long as they thought they could….


“Whenever you eliminate the inedible, whatever remains, however unpalatable, must be food.” — Smart Bee


Now, this is a truism; much as it seems like levity, it is quite serious, being a disguised version of a truth uttered by Sherlock Holmes, about Truth, to wit: “As I have previously stated, Watson, when one has eliminated the impossible, what remains, however unlikely, must be the truth.” (God, I hope I quoted it right… I’m lazy, and used the version in my head, rather than googling it to make sure…. but, I’m 100% positive that my paraphrase, if it be such, is completely accurate, in terms of meaning…..) Ranting is an area where this principle is key; it really doesn’t make sense to rant about something that isn’t true, unless the falsity is the actual subject of the rant…. as the following aphorism implies….


“It is a substantial advantage for any philosophy to be based on the truth.” — George Santayana


Of course, this doesn’t mean that being right will make reality conform to how we wish it to be. Much of the world, if not all, is controlled by a group of people who lie, constantly, without shame, completely indifferent to how it affects others, as long as their own needs are met first. But, they only do so because most of the public believes their lies, for the simple reason that it is too hard to believe otherwise. If they begin to see the truth of how they are controlled, they become frightened, often to the point of violence, because they don’t want to know the truth…. unless it comes from a suit on TV…..


“Given a sufficient number of people and an adequate amount of time, you can create insurmountable opposition to the most inconsequential idea.” — Devyver’s law


This is truth, too, sad as it may seem…. The general public will believe just about anything they are told, usually without any sort of critical thought applied to testing its veracity, if it is presented in a manner to which they are accustomed to being told what to do…. If the guy on the six o’clock news says it will rain money, most folks in this country would start looking for a barrel to catch it in, and wonder if it would rain in bills, or in coins… I kid you not…..


This may seem as if I have a poor opinion of the average intelligence of the average American, and in that estimation you would be absolutely correct…. I can say this with complete confidence, as it is a proven fact that the average American’s IQ is below the average for the human race at large….. fact, ffolkes, not supposition…. Of course, I could be lying, but, if so, you can just chalk it up to their bad influence…. If they can use untrue ‘facts’ to prove their assertions, I can, too….


Besides, I can show you almost 50 MILLION pieces of proof of my assertion, without having to look further than the Presidential election last year…. In that election, almost fifty million people voted for Mitt Romney, proof positive that they would believe ANYTHING…. How else could they decide to vote for a man who was PROVEN to have lied during the campaign (independent fact checking organizations showed that he lied just about 50% of the time, or, put more simply, every other time he spoke, he lied…), and indicated, on tape, his complete disdain for over half the people in the country?


It is such an incredibly huge number, it just isn’t possible to understand how gullible people can be, when one sees this statistic, (50 million votes for an asshole….). It is equally hard to believe that so many of our peers are this incredibly dumb, but, truth will out, as it always does….. It also speaks to the number of truly bigoted, racist people that are still in this country, hiding behind their cowardice, and their misguided, ignorant patriotism…. but, that’s a subject for another rant….. (All stupid people aren’t bigots and racists, but ALL bigots and racists are stupid people…..)


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


You won’t get a better, more clear warning than that; on that note, I proclaim this rant, such as it was, to be complete…..


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


As it always seems with Charles’ poetry, it is almost TOO real to be comfortable…. He had a very strong knack for describing life in no uncertain terms, none of which were comfortable, in spite of their close fit to reality….. Enjoy, if you can….




True Story


they found him walking along the freeway

all red in

front

he had taken a rusty tin can

and cut off his sexual

machinery

as if to say —

see what you’ve done to

me? you might as well have the

rest.


and he put part of him

in one pocket and

part of him in

another

and that’s how they found him,

walking

along.


they gave him over to the

doctors

who tried to sew the parts

back

on

but the parts were

quite contented

the way they

were.


I think sometimes of all of the good

ass

turned over to the

monsters of the

world.


maybe it was his protest against

this or

his protest

against

everything.


a one man

Freedom March

that never squeezed in

between

the concert reviews and the

baseball

scores.


God, or somebody,

bless

him. 


~~ Charles Bukowski ~~




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


Today’s final section will be as fresh as it’s going to get today; all but three of these pearls were picked fresh from Smart Bee’s database, just for y’all…. Well, getting done had a little to do with it, but, really, mostly, it’s for y’all….. Honest… Come on, now, I’m no bloody politician…. I tell the truth well over half the time…. Besides, if this works out the way I’m intending, it’s all good advice, from one viewpoint, or another….


“Be cheerful while you are alive.” — Phathotep (24th Century B.C.)


“Beware lest clamor be taken for counsel.” — Desiderius Erasmus


“You are all depending for your spirituality on someone else, for your happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone else…. You have been accustomed to being told how far you have advanced, what is your spiritual status. How childish! Who but yourself can tell you if you are incorruptible?… I desire those, who seek to understand me, to be free … from the fear of religion, from the fear of salvation, from the fear of spirituality, from the fear of love, from the fear of death, from the fear of life itself…. You can form other organizations and expect someone else. With that I am not concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those cages. My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free.” — Krishnamurti (1895-1986) From his last speech to the Theosophical Society


“Don’t take the bull by the horns, take him by the tail; then you can let go when you want to.” — Josh Billings


“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.” — Sigmund Freud


“Fool! said my muse to me, look in thy heart, and write.” — Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) — Astrophel and Stella, i


“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.” — Francis Bacon


With the final words of Francis Bacon ringing in my ears, justifying all I do here, I shall take my leave….


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


I am still half-asleep, it seems, yet, I have completed this Pearl, in good time, no less. Go figure….. I am, as can be seen, clueless as to how that came to be, so, I think it’d be best for me to just fade quietly into the background, and let y’all get on with your day…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, probably with a bit more oomph available for use…. I still have Emily’s feathers….




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.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….





					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Twice as many diphthongs as needed, or desired….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a dial, 


“It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper.” 


~~ Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Menedemus, iii ~~


day2 London 001


     Time moves on, day by day, whether we pay much attention to its passage, or not; though we seem to be the only creatures we know who bother to formalize its presence, by counting each tick of a second on the Cosmic Clock that rules this Universe…. In fact, I believe we are the only creatures who have bothered to name it, or count each time the clock moves its hands…. For us, it offers us the opportunity to supply meaning to our perceptions, to separate them from all the others our over-active sensory receptors react to at the same time…. In short, we use Time as a convenient way to organize the way we look at the world, thus fulfilling the old saw, common to most cultures, that says Time was invented so everything didn’t happen all at once….


Okay, I know, that was a long, windy method of telling a really old joke, but, hey, what do you expect at 5 AM? Especially on a day when I awake at 4 AM & spend an hour trying to convince myself it’s worthwhile to get up, be cold, grumpy, & half-asleep for the first ten minutes, until some coffee and the heater have some little effect, giving me a chance to slather on some magic cream to the points that hurt the most when I get up…. I suppose it’s getting to the point where the time in bed is more attractive than getting up, which has NOT been the case for a long time….


Yet, I keep arising, and though I seem to get slower each day getting to the point where words I can trust to be coherent flow out of my head, and can begin the process of making a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom…. I suppose this task, though only a self-chosen duty, as opposed to one chosen for a reason other than selfish needs, has assumed an importance greater than my need for sleep, which grows smaller each day, it seems…. Whether I get 8 hours, or 4, I still wake up between 4 and 5, and must arise to consume caffeine, which leads inevitably to typing….


Ah well, though I always enjoy my moments of introspection, it isn’t getting this done, beyond helping to move down the page a bit further than we began…. I can vouch, however, for the quality or ability to draw readers in for the full monty, or in many cases, the lack, or absence of same…. I mean, y’all know as well as I do how often we end up spouting sheer nonsense in this section; it can be a trying time, I’m sure, for those looking for a bit of quiet morning thinking…. but, it saves my ass (figuratively, of course…) quite often, so, deal with it, won’t you?


Me, I’m going to go into Sandbag mode, and drop you right over there, at that convenient, if a bit malodorous space on the verge of the town dump…. Sorry about the odor, it’s the only spot we could find this morning….. they got a new load of some OLD crap dumped there yesterday, and it is beginning to get really ripe…. We won’t be there long though, and, naturally, you’ll find a mouth and nose covering in the seat back in front of you, should you choose to use it…. We aim to serve…. we don’t often hit that target, but, we do aim to….


On that note, I see our opening coming up, so hold on tight to those stanchions, ffolkes, it could get bumpy….


Shall we Pearl?


” …and remember you’re a Man, not just god, and for you there aren’t  and never will be any easy answers, only questions, and no reasons, only causes, and no meaning, only intelligence, and no destination and no kindly magic smiling down from above, and no fires to goad you from below, only Yourself and the Universe and what you make out of the interface between the two equals.” — Keith Laumer, Night of Delusions


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


Well, okay, so I’m lazy; this is NOT breaking news…. But, because I am, y’all benefit in this case…. Here is a most excellent, if a bit overacted, classic Sherlock tale, a well-adapted classic tale from the files of Dr. Watson…..




The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Three Gables































 


 




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


“Our Constitution … gives to bigotry no sanction.” — George Washington



http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/11/us-observe-armistice-day-more-comfortable-war-than-peace


The quote from our Founding Father above the link was, I am afraid, not just optimistic, but, probably, overly so, given that the attempts to suborn that very principle began within moments of the signing of the Declaration, and the passage of the Constitution…. All of the good intentions of the men who wrote those documents were condemned to memory very soon after the ink was dry on the signed copy, as the corrupt bankers, and the equally corrupt preachers began their campaign to nullify the reforms those documents represented….


Thomas Jefferson knew the dangers, and voiced his fear of the loss of liberty many times over the years, while he witnessed the abrogation of civil rights that each new court decision brought, due to the money to corrupt the federal judges began to flow as soon as the court system was in place…. By the mid-nineteenth century, the federal court system was primed to make any decision desired by those bankers and priests, thus securing the control over the government they had sought since before the actual signing of the Declaration…. 


That period in the middle of the century was when the now infamous decision was made, to classify corporations as “people”, forever surrendering any hope of liberty or justice that might otherwise have been our legacy….. Proof of Jefferson’s fears? He wrote many letters to friends and colleagues, all of which stated the opinion described by the following….


“…when all government… in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1821


Jefferson, like Thomas Paine, like Ben Franklin, George Mason, and many others of the Founding Fathers of this country, was mistrustful of the powers that be, not trusting them to keep from attempting to remove all the reforms they espoused with their revolution. They feared the professional politician, the bankers, and the priest/preachers, who care nothing for the people, beyond what they can steal from them, or use to control them; letters we have today illustrate those fears, which, I may add, have certainly been proven to be justified….


Our government is now run by oligarchs, old, rich, white Christian bigots, who attempt, all too successfully, to railroad their misogynistic, racist, divisive agenda into law…. and, if their latest efforts are as successful, they may be able to alter the laws until ONLY they, and those they are able to manipulate, are allowed to vote, their dream come true….


“In our society, the Republicans set out to prove that the Democrats can not be trusted to run the government. And the Democrats set out to prove that the Republicans can not be trusted to run our government. The real problem here is that both the Democrats and the Republicans have come up with something which is absolutely true and perfectly correct. This means that the people get to pull some sort of horrible trick on themselves and live with their choice for four years.”


The link above. and the quotes I’ve added here between the short diatribes against the Asininnies, will have to serve today as my rant…. I’ve already typed too much, and the pain now enveloping my hands is astounding in its intensity…. Damn this hurts!  Ah well, I’ll have to finish up with a few more pearls, and be done with it…. Besides, by now, y’all MUST know how I feel about the corruption and loss of liberty we must suffer to observe, in this country we so love…. If I had my druthers, I’d start picking them off, one by one…. but, sadly, I’m afraid there are too many of them to be of much use acting alone….


Maybe, just maybe, my dearest dream will come true…. One bright morning, very soon, the rest of humanity will wake the fuck up, and begin the process necessary to take back our country, kicking the assholes who have tried to take it all away into the deepest, darkest hole we can dig for them, until we can finally be done with all the bullshit they’ve caused…. Ah well, we all can dream, can’t we?….. Here’s a few well-aimed shots at the assholes now, all perfectly phrased to highlight those we call pundits and preachers…. or, as the FF’s named them, the bankers, priests, and professional politicians….


“There ought to be one day — just one — where there is open season on senators.” — Will Rogers


“People are idiots.” — The Dilbert Principle — Scott Adams, Dilbert creator, author, re-engineering sage, 1996


“Any country with “democratic” in the title isn’t.” — Murray’s Rule


“Liberty is so much latitude as the powerful choose to accord the weak.” — Judge Learned Hand


“Abuse of power isn’t limited to bad guys in other nations.”It happens in our own country if we’re not vigilant.” — Clint Eastwood


(Clint, I hate to be the one to tell you…. we weren’t….)


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


“When I’m in office I always keep Members of Parliament talking. If they stopped they might start thinking.” — Winston Churchill (1874-1965)


Well…. there you go…. I might add, these pearls were chosen from an almost unlimited field of appropriate quotes, all in the same vein as these….. which leaves me no choice but to add a final comment from our old friend, Zippy….


“Uh-oh —  WHY am I suddenly thinking of a VENERABLE religious leader frolicking on a FORT LAUDERDALE weekend?” — Zippy the Pinhead


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


I was up a bit late, and my hands have slowed down the process a bit, so, I’ll once again need to subject you to one of my own poems…. I’ll try to pick a good one, if such exists in my collection….






Unheralded Sagacity…


To many, who will not see beyond their nose

the world becomes a dangerous place,

a bullet in every gun, a thorn with every rose,

no magic comes to save us, reality leaves no trace.


Minds closed, wrapped tight in manufactured fears,

men become clay, easily molded into complacent form.

No chains needed, held in thrall for years,

lies become gospel, when dishonesty is the norm.


Shed the chains you wear in durance, in kind;

Oh, ye of little faith, and much doubt

Strength is found in an unfettered mind, 

Cry “freedom” with a great shout.


No help from any gods can hinder so much

as our own lack of confidence;

finding the light within, knowing it as such

confirms us, becoming consequence.


Illumination…..


~~ gigoid ~~




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


I am now so late, I will have to resort to posting an older pearl, from the archives…. Ah well, it’ll be a good one, I promise….


From 7/23/2013, a pearl with message that complements today’s rant/old school pearl in section two…. Enjoy!:


Baffled by my own mind’s attempts at coherency this morning, I digress, as usual. But, I do it so well, you wouldn’t even have noticed, if I didn’t point it out for you…. It’s all just part of the service here at ECR. where we try to make every dish as attractive as the one before, which was, if I must say so myself, damned attractive, for a dish.


Until we can actually achieve anything close to that, however, we’ll have to continue to go with old-school pearls, because, well, because…. Besides, it’s much better than listening to me rant, right?….. Whoa, wait a second, let’s not all shout at once…. Okay, I get the picture…. Sniffle….. Here, then…. Smart Bee is being a butt, so here is a pearl from last year….


“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human  mind to correlate all its contents.   We live on a placid island of ignorance  in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should  voyage far.  The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little;  but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” — H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu


Sometimes, I think we have already arrived at this point in time….. but, if not, then we are not far away…… with this firmly in mind, please find the following, all of which lead one gently to an idea that may, or may not, make you feel better. Which, of course, is NOT the purpose…. nonetheless, the conclusion framed by these quotes is one you NEED to know……


“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have  been searching for evidence which could support this.” — Bertrand Russell


“Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.” — Dalai Lama


As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian (politician’s too!) can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose. — Bhagavad Gita


“Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you’ve got an audience.” — Diogenes


“Anyone who isn’t confused doesn’t really know what’s going on.” — Edward R. Murrow


“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.” — Smart Bee


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


I have fulfilled my duty, and, shall proceed now to take my leave of you, sans any further to-do…. a turn of phrase, no doubt, several hundred years old, with a meaning that has probably gone through a number of changes, according to current usage on the street…. But, it still works to describe this situation, quite well, actually, so, you’ll just have to accept it the way it is, and not worry about what it may or may not mean…. I see that my tendency to grow pompous at the drop of a cliche has reached new heights of idiocy, so, I shall take my leave before I pull my covers off any further…. I’ll see y’all tomorrow…. well, I will, as long as I continue to be unable to talk myself out of it….. 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.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….



					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
We’ll bathe it in linseed oil and mint….

			
						

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Ffolkes,




“When the fox gnaws — smile.” 


~~ Lazarus Long ~~ 


~~ Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love ~~


11-8-2014 001 (2)


     The picture, one I took a few days ago at the bus stop down the street, is a perfect metaphor for the lies told to us by our beloved ruling class, and by the perpetrators of public slavery, perpetually the BRC’s most ardent supporters, the preachers, imams, and dogma dogs who spout off about religion, to whomever will listen…. 


In a quite beautiful setting, we are reminded of how ‘they’ offer us ONE choice to salvation, but, god forbid you should be able to park while making your choice…. Perfect alignment, don’t you think? One Way/No Parking…. What better metaphor/euphemism for how the mass of humanity is treated by those who would control their very lives….


Oh, good grief, stop shouting!…. Control yourselves…. Put down that stick, you’ll hurt yourself with it…. For goodness’ sake, did you think I was going to rant at you in the first paragraph? Shoot, not even I am that cruel, though, if anyone has any comments to the contrary, with evidence, of course, I’d welcome them, as it’s been a long time since I found anyone willing to challenge my conclusions…. It must come from basing them on evidence, instead of faith…. Oops, sorry, didn’t mean to take another shot, this one aimed at those who buy into the delusions they’re offered at every turn….


Okay, you’re right, I’m busted…. Yes, I did mean it…. The people to whom I refer, those who embrace the dark side of human nature, quite simply, are assholes…. As I see them, they deserve every vile curse, every vituperative description, every fucking expletive we can think of to apply to them, in recognition of the thousands of years of deliberate theft, deliberate lies, and deliberate cruelty, to those whom they claim to love, or whom they claim mandate to lead, for their own good…. What a crock of shit THAT is!….


Sorry, I guess I did start ranting, didn’t I? It’s just so damn easy, when every frigging word out of the mouths, of preachers, or politicians, or business moguls, or police chiefs, or any of the other societal “leaders” who purport to work FOR the people, is a bald-faced lie…. In truth, they are busily at work doing every fucking thing they possibly can think of to screw the people over, in a myriad of ways…. Or, even scarier, they are as stupid as those they purport to lead, being brainwashed themselves into believing their own lies….


Every where I turn, every time I turn, I’m presented with new evidence of how often, and how deeply they screw those who trust them, and it just pisses me off anew, each and every time, making me wish I wasn’t so damn ethical/moral myself, and could feel less conflict over treating them the same way they treat us….


If I did that, I’m afraid they’d start dying at a much more rapid pace, which would be just about the length of time it takes me to re-load, then, focus in on another target…. With a well-concealed stand, and a crowd where I can acquire targets quickly, I could make some significant headway in a relatively short amount of time before having to become smoke…


However, those who engage in preying on others, for religious reasons, for political reasons, or whatever their personal justification may be, all believe the same tired old lie, which claims the end justifies the means…. I reject that notion categorically; to abrogate honor and responsibility for the sake of expediency, no matter how compelling the reason, removes any positive moral value such acts may otherwise be due. To do right, for the wrong reason, is to do wrong, in my world. To do wrong, for ANY reason, no matter how well rationalized, deserves nothing from me but disdain, and active resistance….


Well…. where did THAT come from? As I’m not sure just now, I think we’ll just take this opportunity to go on, and see what else may pop up today…..


Shall we Pearl?


“We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success; We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.” — Samuel Smiles


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


Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, like all fields of human endeavor, are subject to Sturgeon’s Law, which states: “90% of everything is crap.” This physical law has been tested repeatedly by scientists, sociologists, and psychologists, with the same results every time…. It is the absolute truth…. Hence, my reluctance to committing perjury, or displaying undue arrogance, by calling the Pearls I create anything but what they are, to wit: occasionally brilliant, but, mostly just acceptable, as entertainment for the strong of stomach…. If they were in the newspaper, they’d be suitable to line birdcages, for sure….


But, as I said, some can be pretty good, because I, too, with due diligence, and a bit of work, can jump into that 10% of human output that actually helps improve life by its presence…. The same is true of all fields in which humans put forth effort, so, naturally, it’s true of TV shows, and literary works…. I guess I’m just saying, some stuff is better than other stuff…..  This Sherlock Holmes story, to me, falls into the latter category of stuff….




Sherlock Holmes – Season 5 – The Problem Of Thor Bridge



































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


You may have noted my initial outburst, up in the intro section…. It was a rant, a sharp stick to the eye of religion, mostly, though there was quite a bit of angst left over to take some pokes at the rest of the Asininnies, too, such as politicians, police myrmidons, corporate snakeheads, human traffickers, and any of those ilk, who prey upon their own species, with the full support and tacit approval of those dogma dogs who keep the general populace under control, softening their minds with bilge water, so they are easier to corrupt and manipulate….


It has been a while since I took aim at those delusional buttheads, a group for whom I hold absolutely no respect whatsoever….. They take the words of one of the world’s greatest social reformers, and twist them until they are practically unrecognizable, but, mold the minds of the people who buy into those twists into shapes more amenable to control by others…. 


‘Tis a natural result of putting one’s faith in ideas that have no visible proof in reality, but are based on blind faith; it leaves the one holding the belief in a vulnerable state of mind, ready to believe all kinds of nonsense, as long as it’s told to them by one of those they have learned to believe, without the benefit of examination for truth….


But, that is what they all count on… all those preachers, and priests, and the others mentioned above…. They all count on the gullibility of the average person to believe what they’re told by authority figures…. And, they are justified in that, as my compatriots around the world seem to fall for their bloody bullshit every time….. SIGH…. I sometimes wonder how mankind even developed the idea of their own mental superiority, when they continuously act as if they haven’t two spare neurons to rub together at all….


However…. Today, I am feeling generous, or, at least, sympathetic to your pain…. So, I shall cease ranting about those assholes, and compose a seven-, or nine-star pearl, which will serve the same purpose, but, with a bit less sobriety, and a lot more tongue-in-cheek fun…. Let’s see what SB can come up with for us, to jab some sharp sticks in the eyes of a few dogma dogs….


“Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.” — Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)


“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.” — Lazarus Long, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, by Robert A. Heinlein


“The territory behind rhetoric is too often mined with equivocation.”– Dunne’s Law


“It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly.” — Margaret Mead


“A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.” — H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)


“The mind of the bigot is like the pupil of the eye.  The more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract.” — Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)


“Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist.” — Epicurus


“Religions change; beer and wine remain.” — Harvey Allen


“O imitators, you slavish herd!” — Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) (65-8 B.C.)


“There is no sin but ignorance.” — Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)


Okay, so, it kept growing; Smart Bee is on a roll today…. To use Winnie Churchill’s method of making a point, I’ll give it a good whack with my sledge hammer, with one final piece of proof, of how the dogma dogs attempt to establish their mind-control, with entries such as the following, in that book they use as their most effective manipulative tool….


“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” — Proverbs 3:5,6


Sure, do that…. put your faith in what you cannot see, or touch, or hear, or otherwise prove exists…. That’s a good idea…. NOT!


So be it.


gigoid has spoken…. a lot…..


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


There is so much of my stuff today, with some deep help from SB, I’d best go with my own poetry, to avoid getting any of this on anyone else…. I know, we’ll go with an old favorite….






Rejection


“Jesus loves me, this I know,

For the Bible tells me so…”

I’d be crying a river, I thought

if ever such crap I bought.


Sorry if it hurts your sense of style,

but, hypocrisy always gives me bile.

Being lied to accidentally is okay,

but, deliberate lies make me angry, and fey.


Oh, God, hear what I pray!

Keep me from your followers today.

Having to listen to so much that is wrong

makes me puke, before it makes me strong.


I don’t know why it isn’t clear to other folks,

which is alright, you know, different strokes.

But, why should that mean that they must

force me to believe, or fail in trust?


Spare me the lies, and the make-believe,

fairy tales are easier to hear, and to weave.

They give us a lesson which we can feel

but don’t pretend at all to be real.


Reality can scare us, that’s a given fact,

still, met with care it will leave us mostly intact.

Met without fear, standing tall and alone

Life will allow us to make it our own.


Folly beckons, and so many follow

mass delusions seem to me most hollow.

I’ll have to stick to my own chosen way

while so many go so sadly astray.


It’s lonely at times, it may seem sad,

but really isn’t, and I’m quite glad,

that knowledge is always stronger than fear,

year after year, tear after tear…..


~~ gigoid ~~




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


Today’s final pearl is a perfect adjunct to the ranting section…. This group gives us some pretty good observations about being human, at the other end of the scale from those who are unable to find the means to USE the intelligence with which they are endowed…. Reflect upon these, and you’ll find them a map to a rich, fulfilling life….


“Over my mask is your mask of me.” — Mitsuye Yamada


“Once when Bion was at sea in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands of pirates; and when the rest said, “We are undone if we are known,”–“But I,” said he, “am undone if we are not known.”  — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Bion, iii


“A child is a person who can’t understand why someone would give away a perfectly good kitten.” — Doug Larson


“If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind!  The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.” — Chuang Tzu


“I believe that part of what propels science is the thirst for wonder.  It’s a very powerful emotion.  All children feel it.  In a first grade classroom everybody feels it; in a twelfth grade classroom almost nobody feels it, or at least acknowledges it.  Something happens between first and twelfth grade, and it’s not just puberty.  Not only do the schools and the media not teach much skepticism, there is also little encouragement of this stirring sense of wonder.  Science and pseudoscience both arouse that feeling.  Poor popularizations of science establish an ecological niche for pseudoscience.” — Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, The Skeptical Inquirer, — Vol. 12, Fall 87


“When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive–to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love….” — Marcus Aurelius


“An intelligent mind is a mind which is not satisfied with explanations, with conclusions; nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again another form of conclusion. An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind, a mind that is watching, learning, studying.” — J. Krishnamuti


“There are many things worth living for, few things worth dying for, nothing worth killing for.” — from Tom Robbins’ “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues”


“Now my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we *can* suppose. I have read and heard many attempts at a systematic account of it, from materialism and theosophy to the Christian systems or that of Kant, and I have always felt that they were too simple. I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy. That is the reason why I have no philosophy myself, and must be my excuse for dreaming.” — J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist (1856-1928) — from “Possible Worlds”, in “Possible Worlds and other essays”, — Chatto & Windus, London, 1927. p286


Smart Bee was in a very generous mood today, eh, what?…..


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


‘Tis a good thing much of this was begun yesterday…. I’m up a bit late, but, it’s all good, as it’s done, and in good time…. If the proofing isn’t too horrendously complicated, I may even get another hour’s sleep before the day can begin out in the BBR, where I’ve several tasks to complete…. Since I do, we’ll leave it at that, and be on our way, royal ‘we’ syndrome notwithstanding…. 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


PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….





					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Twelve reasons to spit, rather than swallow….

			
						

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Ffolkes,




“Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.” 


~~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, vi, 3 ~~


11-8-2014 002 (2)


     To look at this piece of furniture, you wouldn’t believe it to have any particularly extraordinary qualities, beyond a simple functionality and inoffensive appearance…. By using Marcus Aurelius’ advice, however, we find a peculiar aspect of its existence which may not be explainable by any normal means…. I got the chair at a thrift store, as part of my thus-far-never-ending quest to find a chair that is suitable to sit in for the time I need to be in front of this computer, to compose, to read, and to otherwise multi-task, in short bursts when I can sit for a while without having to squirm, or get stiff… In trying it out in the store, it seemed to be a bit low, but, otherwise might work well for a time….


Well, as it turns out, it IS too low to type comfortably, but, is quite comfortable for watching a video, such as one of my Sherlock Holmes stories, or for reading the news, if no great amount of mouse work is needed…. Unfortunately, the chair also seems to be so comfortable, whenever I’ve sat in it for more than 5 minutes, I start falling asleep, sitting up, which will always give me a stiff neck, from dropping my head forward when I drowse…. This has happened five times now, without fail…. It’s getting to the point I’m beginning to believe the chair has been infused with some kind of magic cannabis cream, or just plain magic, to cause it to turn into a sleep chair, rather than an office chair…


It’s okay, though, I don’t mind having one spot where I know I can get drowsy; the way my sleep pattern goes, I can use all the spots like that I can find…. It’s also given me another intro section, without the need to go off on anyone’s religion, or take a side trip to the land of Odd, (which isn’t far away, in my head…), or even find some actual introductory remarks of a literary nature…. All I had to do is engage in some minor hyperbole, with a dash of stretching the truth of its effect on me, and there we were, two paragraphs down, and running strong….


Of course, right about HERE, we will start to see it fall apart, as my imagination begins to tire, having not yet consumed sufficient coffee, or sugar, to fuel such a complicated, stressful task as this has turned out to be…. I also suspect, if I want to be able to finish this out, without resorting to marginally legal acrobatics, I’m going to have to end it now, before it grows any hair…. The fuzz is already too thick for scissors, and my lopping shears are all dull from using them on my cacti….


It is, no doubt, a good thing the opening to the real world is right over there; we seem to have made good time…. This is what happens when we are lucky enough to start with a decent run at the wall; it doesn’t draw any blood, and we get where we need to go with less fuss, and less chance of litigation, which always pleases my lawyers….. Oops, sorry, got to talking and almost missed the turn…. Hold on ffolkes…. today’s missive could be a bit of a tough roe to hoe…. not to mention the possibility of cloning that is always a risk on Sundays…. (bet you didn’t expect me to remember, did ya?….)


For now, though, it is enough to know, we’re on our way, and nothing the government can do will stop us now….


Shall we Pearl?


“I was contemplating the immortal words of Socrates, who said… I drank what?” —  Shared by Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), Real Genius


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


Today’s video is a political cartoon from Mark Fiore, who makes brilliant short animated videos commenting on current world and national events…. I could not figure out how to embed the video, without joining a web streaming site, which I didn’t wish to join…. But, just follow the link below, and you can see this one, which is another outstanding observation regarding the recent midterm elections…. I won’t ask you to enjoy it, but, I will ask you to watch, and reflect on the information it has to impart….







Oh, heck…. Here, here’s a video for your morning laugh….




Adults Taste Baby Food



































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


“For some reason the little Senators make us laugh.” — Smart Bee


“But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing t heir oppressors in Church and State.” — Thomas Jefferson, [letter?] To S. Kercheval, 1810









Oops…. It seems there is a bit of snark going on between the delusional leaders of one of the more delusional religious organizations, and the political representative their particular group managed to land in the Senate…. It all makes a pretty good example, for me, of how the separation of church and state has been quietly eroded to the point the religious group feels comfortable in making public their influence over their flock members who inhabit the halls of government, using the blackmail of guilt and threat of excommunication to try to force their desires to the forefront of the political agenda.


Now, the bishop of the church, in this case, is in trouble, for bringing it all into the light of day, more than any other reason…. I doubt very much the other church elders had intended for their influence to be outed in that manner, so, they will publicly chastise him, but, in the end, won’t really do much to him, other than muzzling his mouth by moving him to some position not accessible to the media for comment…. Having the Senate majority leader as a church member is a position those leaders will NOT jeopardize for any minor bishop’s cluelessness…. They’ll sacrifice him faster than Pontius Pilate gave up Jesus…


“I have short-term memory loss, though I like to think of it as Presidential eligibility.” — Paula Poundstone







I think I’ve become more angry at this president than any other since, well, I guess the Junior shrub made me maddest, but, then, Bill Clinton was a Bozoid of major proportion, too…. In fact, I think, in my entire life, there is only one man who was elected to the presidency who managed to garner my respect, without making me angry for having to listen to constant, unrelieved lying, or plain stupidity…. and that President (the ONLY one for whom I will capitalize the title….) was probably the LEAST effective of all the twentieth century office-holders, because he spent his entire time in office being neutralized by a Congress held by the opposing party….


His name was Jimmy Carter, and though I don’t usually admire preachers, he is the only HONEST politician I’ve ever seen at that level… the ONLY one…. and, he is the only president in the last century who didn’t made a career out of dishonesty, cheating, and public theft… and I mean the ONLY one…. Every other president, from the beginning of the last century, to the latest rogues elected in this century, has lied to the American public, almost without pause, from the first time they opened their mouths on national TV….


I had hope when Barry was elected; I didn’t know much about him, and some of what he said promised some hope of reform, in at least some areas…. But, he has been one of the greatest of my disappointments, as he has lied the MOST, of any president in recent memory, which is quite a feat, given the past few presidents…. It was unexpected that Obama would be a worse liar than either of the two Shrubs, but, he has proven time and again he is NOT going to tell the entire truth to the American people, especially about his clandestine activities, spying on his own citizens without compunction, and with impunity, thus far…..


“A politician is a man who stands for what he thinks the voters will fall for.” — Smart Bee


If I were the type to use religious expressions, I’d thank God for Edward Snowden, a man I believe future generations will regard on the same level as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and Nathan Hale, as one of our greatest patriots…. It pisses me off no end that Barry the O continues to bad-mouth him, as well as refusing to acknowledge his own culpability, as do the rest of the 455 kidnappers of the American Dream, who inhabit the halls of Congress, the White House, and the Federal courthouses…. I accuse them all of treason, not lightly, and not in fun…. Assholes, every damn one of them, only concerned with increasing their personal power, and lining their pockets with our money…..


I know this is the ranting section, so such vituperation isn’t out of place here…. However, this morning I’m a bit on edge, and typing is getting harder every day, so, I’ll leave my rant at that point, which, some would say is quite enough…. It isn’t every day that I accuse the entire government of the US of treason…. but, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not one to keep from calling a spade a spade, nor am I one to suffer fools gladly….




But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we,

Half dust, half deity, alike unfit

To sink or soar.


~~ Lord Byron (1788-1824) ~~


~~ Manfred, Act i, Sc. 2 ~~




Our government, long ago stolen by corporate and religious influence, to work the will of those who prey on the weak and ignorant, depending on their gullible trust in authority to allow them to lie, cheat, and steal without consequence, has now gotten to a point where they don’t even bother to hide what they’re doing very hard…. They don’t care any more, as they know that nobody has the means, or the wit, to turn against them…. They have fooled 98% of the population into believing them, in whatever they say, and know they won’t be disturbed during their cleaning out of the public’s pockets…..


Bah, humbug! I’m pissed….. and there isn’t much I can do, except this…. So, having done this for today, I’ll leave it here for now…. Stay alert, ffolkes, and call them a liar when they lie… Maybe there is still a chance, if a couple more Ed Snowdens come forth, and tell the people how much they are being fooled, and screwed….. Until then, I’ll keep yelling at them, and about them, as often as I can….




Who could imagine

That they could freak out in Kansas

Who could imagine

That they could freak out in Washington D.C.

Everybody’s clean, it can’t happen here, no, no

And they thought it couldn’t happen here

They were so sure it couldn’t happen here

It can’t happen here


 ~~ Frank Zappa ~~


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


On a day such as this, it’s gotta be Bukowski…. He’s the only one real enough to suit my crusty mood….






hello, how are you?


this fear of being what they are:

dead. 


at least they are not out on the street, they

are careful to stay indoors, those

pasty mad who sit alone before their tv sets,

their lives full of canned, mutilated laughter. 


their ideal neighborhood

of parked cars

of little green lawns

of little homes

the little doors that open and close

as their relatives visit

throughout the holidays

the doors closing

behind the dying who die so slowly

behind the dead who are still alive

in your quiet average neighborhood

of winding streets

of agony

of confusion

of horror

of fear

of ignorance. 


a dog standing behind a fence. 


a man silent at the window.


~~ Charles Bukowski ~~




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


Today’s old-school pearl came together in a rather fractured fashion; nonetheless, it came out well…. Well, it came out, anyway…. I’m not altogether certain the point it is trying to make is one of particular import, other than to each of us on an individual level…. I guess you should just let it flow over you, and if it feels right, let it flow through…. Otherwise, just take it all as good advice for living a life that makes some kind of sense, on a larger scale than the merely personal…. Hmm…. I suppose that may be asking a bit much of an obscure seven-star pearl, but, we’re like that around here….


“Integrity has no need for rules.” — Albert Camus


“When the need arises — and it does — you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don’t farm it out — that doesn’t make it nicer, it makes it worse.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s  “Time Enough For Love”


“In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.” — Aristotle


“As a rule, there is no surer way to the dislike of men than to behave well where they have behaved badly.” — Lew Wallace


“Lampis the shipowner, on being asked how he acquired his great wealth, replied, “My great wealth was acquired with no difficulty, but my small wealth, my first gains, with much labor.” — Epictetus (c. 55-135 A.D.)


“The world has taken on a thickness of vulgarity that raises a spiritual man’s contempt to the violence of a passion.” — Charles Baudelaire




How lov’d, how honour’d once avails thee not,

To whom related, or by whom begot;

A heap of dust alone remains of thee:

‘T is all thou art, and all the proud shall be!


~~ Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — To the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, Line 71 ~~




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Once more, I’ve pushed beyond my zone of comfort to get this done…. Oh, don’t worry, I’m not saying it makes me special, or that any admiration is due; I’m just glad it isn’t toxic, or overtly offensive to anyone but a preacher, a politician, a corporate snakehead, a pimp, or a myrmidon…. They, of course, may choke on it, as far as I am concerned…. For now, I’ll just bid thee adieu, until tomorrow….


See ya, ffolkes, and remember what Tommy Toilet always says… “Always wipe thoroughly, kids! Rectal itch is NO PICNIC!”© (R. Crumb, 1966, or so….)


Sorry, couldn’t help myself….




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.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….





					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
A Hound is on the scent…

			
						

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Ffolkes,


 


“The very flower of youth.”~~ Terence (185-159 BC) ~~~~ Act ii, Sc. 3, 28, (319.) ~~


surviving munchkins




     In the “very flower of youth”,  we find these seven people, who are, quite obviously, the surviving members of the Munchkins, of Munchkin Land, in Oz…. They had come, at great expense and effort, to Earth to be honored at the 75th anniversary of the release of The Wizard of Oz, the iconic movie with a young Judy Garland, and a cast of amazing versatility (the woman who played the Wicked Witch remains to this day the most well-known example of an evil witch in our culture…. no other comes close….). The surviving Munchkins, among them one of the Lollipop Guild, and the Lord Mayor of Munchkin Town, still appear to be enjoying life to the maximum…


Well, I guess the guy on the extreme left end does appear to be a bit constipated, but, hey, at their age, I can testify, and relate…. But, then, he’s also wearing what appears to be the costume of a religious figure, (note the bishop’s mitre on his head…), I suppose he’s a right to be bummed out…. or, maybe he’s just got some bad gas…. I’ll also note the huge grin on the Lollipop kid’s face should bring the old fella around; who can resist a face with such happy camaraderie in it? He certainly is enjoying being in the limelight again, even if only for a moment…. (The picture itself was taken from sfgate, but, I saw it all over the news at the time of the event…..)


Maintaining a happy outlook on life, when one stops to consider, is a very good attitude with which to approach getting old, especially if one is a Munchkin, or a dwarf in a society that places a premium on physical normalcy. I have no doubt that all of those actors spent many years struggling to make a living, at anything, much less acting; our society is not known for the morality, or the gentle hand, with which it treats the weaker members of the common group…. They would, no doubt, have suffered discrimination at the hands of those they probably call the Bigs, all of their lives, from the time it first became apparent they weren’t “normal”….


Having taken a vow to stop ranting in the intro section, I’ll stop that discussion there, before I’m tempted to speak further on the subject of societal morality, which, as we all know by now, is what might be called a shadow, in that it has little substance in the minds of most of society, and as much influence as the images we make when blocking the light, i.e., none to speak of…. That little blurb right there is edging too close to ranting, so, I’ll just use this opportunity to change the subject, before I get caught with my words down…..


That decision, sadly, leaves me no choice but to turn to my new-found, and newly established protocol of ruthlessness, which I’ve learned to embrace, at least for the times we encounter here, attempting to end these intro sections…. I’ve discovered such a hard line is completely necessary, and should have been instituted the first time it came before the board…. But, I’m stubborn, and hate to give up any right, even if the exercise of it is less than productive…. It’s just a bad habit to accept the abrogation of a right, any right at all, something those in our government would do well to remember….


Since I AM now a relatively ruthless person (compared to previously, anyway….), I will assume the stance, and proclaim the hour…. ‘Tis time to get on with this mess, or it will again take over, and we’ll never be able to show any influence over where we end up…. No telling where that might be, either. Since I see an opening, right over there, we’re going for it….. Sit back, and enjoy, ffolkes…. it looks like it will only take a triple-loop to get through the opening, so your seat belts should keep you safe….


Shall we Pearl?….


“If you understand, things are as they are. If you do not understand, things are as they are.” — Gensha, Zen Master


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


I’m in the mood today for a bit of Sherlock and Watson….. Here is a good one, another story with horse racing as a basic element of the story….. Enjoy, ffolkes…. It’s a really relaxing way to spend an hour, and, it has NO commercials…. though there are pauses written in that indicate where they once were shoved upon the gentle viewer….


 


Sherlock Holmes – Season 5 episode 3 – Shoscombe Old Place





















 


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“I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices or caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed I know it. I can stand any society. all that I care to know is that a man is a human being – that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.” — Mark Twain — Harper’s Magazine, September, 1899


After reading the following, it will be a good test of how alert, and informed, the Gentle Reader may be, to ask them if they are at all surprised by the information contained…. It’s a rather long article, as it covers a lot of obfuscation and chicanery by the corporate and governmental assholes involved; clarifying such murky waters can take a bit of care, and the article is quite thorough in presenting its arguments….. Read it, and weep….


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/06/intelligence-agencies-lawyer-client-abdel-hakim-belhaj-mi5-mi6-gchq?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2


In the article, you will find an embedded .pdf document, which, if all goes aright, you will see below, a scanned copy of the legal complaint against the spy agencies in the UK, where the suit against them is being pursued…. It clearly states which privileged legal communications between plaintiffs and their counsel were intercepted, and used (illegally) to build cases against those plaintiffs…. It’s pretty damning evidence, showing clearly the sheer disdain the governments of the US and the UK have for the privacy rights of the individuals who make up the population of their countries…..


 


 



 


Can you believe the sheer effrontery of the spies who cleared this shit? Sorry, vulgarity and expletives are necessary adjuncts to a rant like this one will be…. I’m relating, with evidence, the criminal acts of the very people who are supposed to protect our rights, and they are NOT going to like any of it…. They are creatures of the darkness; any light shone upon them hurts them, making them want to lie even louder, and scuttle off into the nearest crack in the wall or floor, to regain the shadowy confines of darkness, where they may plot, and plan their next round of abuse, and/or, theft….


I’m sick of these assholes…. Let’s go around the ‘Net, & see what else they’ve been up to, or into…. I’ll make a short comment on each, just below the links….


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/06/1342689/-South-Carolina-exit-poll-asks-whether-blacks-are-getting-too-demanding-over-equal-rights?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29


Once my mouth closed from it’s fully dropped-open-in-disbelief-and-shock position, all I could think when I saw this was, “Are you shitting me?”…. That was yesterday, when I first saw it; as I look upon it today, that is STILL my only reaction….


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/06/1342646/-Alabama-passes-law-banning-sharia-law-because-of-course-they-did?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29



As the title says, of course they did….. I think there must be a law on the books in Alabama that prohibits anyone with an IQ over 75 to live in the state…. which, if you think about it, is a good thing, as it keeps a large number of them all in one place, where they’ll be easier to keep an eye on, so they can be monitored for self-harm through ignorance….


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/06/1342626/-Intensive-anti-voter-fraud-effort-finds-no-instance-of-actual-voter-fraud?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29


Yep…. out of more than a hundred MILLION votes cast at this election, the paranoid hate group monitoring the voting areas for fraud were planning to prove their pet theory, that the level of voting fraud was rampant, and a huge problem, which would justify both their paranoia, and their insistent efforts to take away the voting rights of the poor and disenfranchised citizens among us…. Working as hard as they could, they were able to come up, nation-wide, with eight instances they classified as fraud, five of which were a bit specious, as they dealt with broken voting machines, not fraud by any individual…. But, that was ALL they could find….


Let’s just look at that fractionally, which would be 8/120,000,000…. If we figure the percentage of occurrence of this HUGE problem, it comes out to a figure many thousands of times smaller than a single percent…. Boy, what a humongous problem THAT turned out to be….


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/06/1341593/-Cartoon-Christie-Cuomo-s-guide-nbsp-to-nbsp-Ebola?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29


The Cuomo/Christie fiasco surrounding “THE EBOLA CRISIS” explained, and made fun of quite well…


http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29950946


This article makes clear the police and intelligence agencies of the governments are working as hard as they can to penetrate the ‘Dark Net’, upon which the Tor Network is operated. The Tor Network (whose operation is explained in the article) is designed to be able to keep government snoops, hackers, or anyone wishing to look at private communications, from knowing where those communications come from, and where they go…. Naturally, this upsets the police. who want access to EVERYONE’s data, and computers…. They are apparently making progress, as this article relates how their latest attempts have gained them some ground in the quest to find a way to get into the dark net to follow all those who use it, so they can invade their privacy in their quest of complete power….



http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/07/us-binladen-seals-idUSKBN0IQ2RC20141107?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews


I have to be honest. I didn’t read the last listed article, from the Reuters news feed, re: two ex-Marines, both of whom claim to be the one who killed bin Laden, simply because I didn’t wish to subject myself to the sheer ignorance, and complete cluelessness of the people involved in such a ridiculous argument… and, if I need to explain WHY, y’all haven’t been paying attention….


This is, perhaps, the single greatest public display of stupidity, not to mention amorality, EVER. Ever…. No body, in my extensive memory, or in my no less extensive store of  knowledge derived from reading, in history, has ever made such a completely asinine fool of themselves, right out where everyone can see and hear….


SIGH….. I believe I’ve made my point, ffolkes, so, let’s go on to something not so depressing…. Oh, shoot…. by saying that, I won’t be able to use one of MY poems!…. Oh well, I’ll cheat…. it’s easy, and y’all can’t see what I’m doing anyway….. or, can you?…. Hmm, I’ll have to think on that….. Meanwhile, onward….


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


If you’ve been here a time or two, you’ll already know who today’s poet will be…. Since these are small, but chewy, we’ll have two….


 


A Cloud withdrew from the Sky

Superior Glory be

But that Cloud and its Auxiliaries

Are forever lost to meHad I but further scanned

Had I secured the Glow

In an Hermetic Memory

It had availed me now.Never to pass the Angel

With a glance and a Bow

Till I am firm in Heaven

Is my intention now. 


~~ Emily Dickinson ~~


——————————————


A Dying Tiger—moaned for Drink—

I hunted all the Sand—

I caught the Dripping of a Rock

And bore it in my Hand—


His Mighty Balls—in death were thick—

But searching—I could see

A Vision on the Retina

Of Water—and of me—


‘Twas not my blame—who sped too slow—

‘Twas not his blame—who died

While I was reaching him—

But ’twas—the fact that He was dead— 


~~ Emily Dickinson ~~






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Today’s old-school pearl came together yesterday afternoon, and it makes no apologies for any misconceptions regarding human nature it may puncture like the soap bubble they so closely resemble…..


“There was, I think, never any reason to  believe in any innate superiority of the male, except his superior muscle.” — Bertrand Russell, Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind (1950)


“I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book iii, Chap. xiii


“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” — Mark Twain


“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” — J.K. Rowling, Padfoot Returns, — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, spoken by the character Sirius Black


“A skunk is better company than a person who prides himself on being “frank.” — Smart Bee


“The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” — Edmund Burke, letter, April 3, 1777, to the Sheriffs of Bristol


INCOMPOSSIBLE, adj.  Unable to exist if something else exists.  Two things are incompossible when the world of being has scope enough for one of them, but not enough for both — as Walt Whitman’s poetry and God’s mercy to man.  Incompossibility, it will be seen, is only incompatibility let loose.  Instead of such low language as “Go heel yourself — I mean to kill you on sight,” the words, “Sir, we are incompossible,” would convey and equally significant intimation and in stately courtesy are altogether superior. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”


Well, of course it would….


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


Some days, this process goes better than others; this one wasn’t bad at all, considering….. In any case, it seems to be done, except for the final part, where I go through and miss all the errors…. I’ll do that, and get it right out…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided nobody comes after me with a warrant, in which case, it is conceivable I could disappear for a while, until I can find safe haven…. For now, though, enough is enough….


 


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.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….