Thirteen metric tons of bio-hazardous waste? How droll….

Posted on September 11, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“If the life of natural things, millions of years old, does not seem sacred to us, then what can be sacred?” — Edward Abbey

I’m sorry, but, the woman just looks too clueless for this to be a real picture…. not to mention the rather frozen look in the dino’s eyes… though it DOES look to be frozen in delight, at what appears to be LUNCH!…. But, as I said, even taking the perspective into account, if the dino were real, she wouldn’t have been able to avoid SMELLING him, or, more accurately, its breath, as the carrion- and fresh-carcase- eating predator it was…. Whew, can you imagine the pungent stink attached to a huge creature’s mouth like that? Awesomely toxic, I would imagine, not to mention the mere presence of Eau de corpse, an odor that would make it hard to miss, for any creature with a half-way efficient nose…..

Oh, and, by the way, the quote from Ed Abbey? Brilliant, and, in many ways, if it is the only thing you take away with you from today’s post, you will not have been wasting your time…. Just sayin’, y’know? ….

So, where was I, before my silly parenthetical mind hopped over a couple of dimensions, to take up a totally different subject, than that with which we began? Oh, hell, it doesn’t matter, anyway; this will get all twisted around if I try to justify any of it. That happens every time I forget….. with the new Tardis, I may never actually know, precisely, or, with any degree of confidence at all, just when I am…. Not where, when…. I could be writing this last week, or next week, or, in a previous life; I most likely, will, or did, or plan to, or well, you see the problem, right?…. Since the advent of the powers of a Time Lord. I’m having to learn a completely new and different way to both talk, and write, not to even mention think….

So, since it no longer matter at all where we started, I’ll just go on…..

“What’s the metric unit of pain? The Angstrom.” — Smart Bee

It took me about 10 seconds, but, once I got it, I just about FOMCL, because IWLSHICLCOMMO, y’know? Get it? Pain? Angst(rom)? (*** See below for acronym definitions…) Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Classic, and priceless, this almost killed me…. it’s just so ME!….. On this scale, I live at approximately 12 Å, ( “Å”, naturally, is the symbol for angstroms, an actual scientific scale, though normally applied to measure the brightness of light on the electromagnetic scale that describes the rainbow of colors that make up the light we see….), on a scale of 27 Å as maximum (think massive tooth impaction/infection, or, childbirth…. either wodl hit around 27 Å…), with daily forays into the twenties….

Probably, I’m running an average daily rate of about, oh, right now, factoring in the arthritis flare-up the last few days… about 18-20 Å….. As I type, that’s about where we are, which is just at the upper limit of what I can control, and still be able to type without whimpering piteously, as is the case when it goes past twenty….

All that said, people may wonder why I still have to write this blog every day, or, why I have to say so much, if it hurts so badly…. Well, that, to me, is simple…. and, can be expressed by three pieces of graphic art, that just happen to be in my archived files…. I suppose you could say that the following three entries comprise a statement of purpose that is as close as I’ll ever come to making up a mission, or vision statement….. with one caveat, which merely says this:

I’ve lived with, and played with, pain, all of my life one way or another; it is not something I will ever allow to completely dominate my decisions about how to live, or what I am capable of doing. Pain may be my enemy, but, it is an enemy whom I have long held at bay, consistently battling it to a draw, throughout all the years of my life; I don’t intend to allow that to change at this late date…. Giving in & letting it control my life is unacceptable….

Onward….

When I am unsure of how to proceed in any given situation, I imagine my father standing behind me, observing me. If I hesitate, he will whisper a number in my ear, from this list of Rules he taught me, that tells me how to approach whatever it is that confronts me….

A Warrior of Light never gives in, and never gives up…. to do so not only would destroy all honor, but would nullify all our previous efforts…. This last graphic, below, from Albert, gives you the last piece of me, that keeps me writing this blog, taking pot-shots at the BRC and the Asinnnies, the true perpetrators of evil, just so I don’t have to place myself in the latter group, thus ensuring I can look myself in the eye each morning in the mirror…..

*** Acronyms from above:

“almost

FOMCL = Fell out of my chair laughing….

because,

IWLSHICLCOMMO = I was laughing so hard I completely lost control of my medulla oblongata….”

So be it…..

gigoid has spoken.

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

From January 29, 2013, as the intro to the intro:

At the age I’ve reached, one of the best lessons I learned, long ago, is/was the value of routine. Developing a routine of efficient activities to organize the start of the day is one of the most important tools one can find and use in the work-a-day world. It allows one to get to work on time, with everything in hand that is necessary to the day, and with mind and body prepared for the tasks ahead, without undue stress or worry.

When this routine is disrupted, it can affect the tenor of the entire remainder of the day, like ripples in a pond spreading out from the point of impact, or a mathematical error in computing an orbit, an infinitesimal flaw that grows bigger with each new computation, at an alarming rate, faster with each passing nanosecond…..

I’m starting to believe that even Murphy is not immune to the power of schedules and routines. When I was younger, and still going to work daily, if I observed the details of my routine with enough concentrated attention, he seemed to stand back and not bother with me, waiting for other times to step in with his decidedly infantile sense of humor. If he was very, very clever, he sometimes could affect a small part of the routine, and cause a bit of uproar, but generally, I’d get so focused on carrying it out, he couldn’t get me to pay any attention to him, so, off he’d go, to find someone more vulnerable…..

All of which means that there is a hidden power, involved in the acting out of routine behaviors, carried out time after time until they are ingrained, a power of organization and will, that, somehow, is able to resist the oppositional power of chaos that Murphy so adeptly subjects us to whenever he can….

**Note from 2014: the above is here to supplement yesterday’s recounting of Murphy’s latest escapade here at gigoid’s house, at gigoid’s expense… Sorry, do I still sound pissed off? I guess I do…. Ah, well, I’ll get it out right now… & be done with it all….

When Murphy got me yesterday, and, to give him his due, he got me good, I had fallen into the mental trap, whose reasons for existing at all are connected to my own thought patterns, and the exercise of my will used to control those patterns, of taking the power of routine for granted; I placed too much credence on its ability to keep Murphy occupied elsewhere, if my own state of mind was not focused enough for it to work…. THIS is why I got caught yesterday with my pants not down, but, in danger of bursting into flame, so to speak, and to mix metaphors horrendously…. In short, I was a complacently oblivious Bozo, this time to my dismay, not my pride, or even bemused acceptance…

That said, since I now know how to avoid any repetition of such events, we can move on for the day, content this section served at least one or two socially acceptable purposes to good effect…. I’m going to continue my campaign to keep things lighter, and shorter, by going directly into an old school pearl, filled with good thought, advice on living, and general, all-around good stuff, as we call it here, when we can’t think of any good words, and the thesaurus is buried somewhere…. Enjoy!

“The test of all happiness is gratitude.” — G.K. Chesterton

“Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“Curiosity may have killed the cat, but where human beings are concerned, the only thing a healthy curiosity can kill is ignorance.” — Smart Bee

“You are not thinking. You are merely being logical.” — Neils Bohr to Albert Einstein, during a debate on Quantum Mechanics

“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue i, Line 136

“No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.” — Taoist Proverb

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Short History of England, Ch.10

Wow. That’s it. Just…. wow. Now, THAT is a great pearl….. a group of some of the finest gems in our language, presented and arranged for your sublime delectation, in a wonderful display of serendipity, as Smart Bee just laid them out, one after another, in less than three minutes…. Bonus!

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

I’m in a mood…. what kind of mood is, at this point, undetermined; being human, however, I’m sure I’m in one. The sign are all there, and clear…. This means, if I do as I intended, and try to write a fresh poem, it would probably reflect that mood…. Quite simply, at this juncture, I don’t trust my mood enough to allow that to happen; the results could conceivably cause me to cease writing altogether, and then where would my sanity be?

Nowhere, that’s where…. So, I’ll go for someone else’s work, and be done with it, knowing my mood will direct whatever choice I end up making…. I just hope it doesn’t explode, which has happened in the past, to our chagrin, not to mention surprised shock and awe…. Well, whatever it may end up as, try to enjoy it, okay? I DO generally go with classic, so, that may help…. We’ll see, I suppose…. Wish me luck…. Ah, thanks, that worked; here’s one of my favorite all time poems, by my all time favorite poetess, which will do just fine….

A bird came down the walk

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 ~~

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

I promised I’d keep from ranting so often, and have decided that graphic art, from other sources, may be at least part of a solution… Here is one attempt to see if it works….. On the UK Guardian web site, they have a link to a complete series of stories around the original leaks by Edward Snowden, re: the illegal spying by the NSA, that is STILL FUCKING HAPPENING. Oops, was that too loud? Sorry, it continues to annoy me, as you can see, just a LITTLE FUCKING BIT… Any who, on that page at the Guardian.com, are links to this artist’s take on the issues, using her/his comic persona, Brenda the Civil Disobedience Penguin, to do so…. Enjoy, ffolkes…. this is bloody brilliant….

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

Well, all thing considered, that went well…. which it very possibly may not have done, given the usual state of affairs here in the morning…. Today the new Time Lord powers helped quite a bit, so, I guess I’m getting a little further along the learning curve on that…. It will do, since this one, even shortened as it may be, exceeds the average by a good portion…. Whatever, right? I’ll be going now…. See y’all tomorrow, most likely…. The odds on that are looking good….

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

Okay, but, who takes the hindmost?….

Posted on September 10, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.” — Wilson Mizner

Since there can be no doubt as to exactly WHEN this was taken, (as long as we can trust digital appliances not to lie to us….) allow me to just say, it is one of mine, shot a few days ago, in a relatively futile attempt to get one good shot of the Super Moon,which took place at the date and time on the picture, as calculated by scientists at the Naval Observatory, & reported on Space.com. I intended to go out earlier, to find a spot to get a really good one, but, Murphy had other plans for my evening, as it turned out….

Approximately a half-hour before the moonrise was calculated to take place, I grabbed my phone, my stick, and the bagged garbage & recycling, to take it outside, downstairs, to the bins, which, I would then take out to the curb, for pick-up the next morning. Since I was still in quite a bit of pain, with some stiffness, too, it took me a few minutes, as I was moving, and, apparently, thinking slowly….

When done, I walked back up the stairs, with some difficulty, only to find the back door had blown itself shut in the breeze, while still locked…. Naturally, I didn’t have my keys on me, so, there I was, outside, no key, tired, in pain, and about two minutes away from A) biting myself, or, preferably, and, much more likely, the nearest human being I could find, and/or B) requiring the immediate use of articles only to be found indoors…. No, not what you’re thinking, but, well, ’nuff said… I had reasons to need to get in long before anyone would be able to bring m the means to do so….

Needless to say, I was NOT happy, first, with my bozoid failure to unlock the door, the first time I opened it that morning, as I almost ALWAYS do; nor was I happy with my bozoid failure to realize it would blow shut while outside, even though I am the one who opened the other door, the windows, & turned on the fan, so the very breeze that shut the door would be blowing, to cool off the house…. In short, my own bozoid nature gave Murphy the perfect opportunity to BURY ME in stress, in the course of a few short moments, a window of time into which I strode boldly, with full confidence that everything was fine…. the frame of mind that bloody Irish asshole LOOKS for…. I imagine he had a hard time containing his glee when he saw me go outside….

Since I had only moments to figure out how to get back inside, (remember, I had very GOOD reasons to HAVE to get in….), I tried to call one of the handymen my landlord employs, whereupon, of course, I found one out to dinner, and the other not answering… So, I made the only decision my executive nature was capable of under that sort of stress, proceeding to use my multi-purpose stick to break in the damn window on the back door, thus creating a HUGE FUCKING MESS inside my house, ten feet out into the middle of the kitchen floor, now COVERED with tiny pieces of breakaway glass, thus, necessitating a complete cleaning of the kitchen, and laundry room, which is where the back door is situated….

So, yesterday morning, (or, today, as I write this…. remember, I have a Tardis….), as well as overnight, I was completely unable to use about a quarter of my house, as it was covered in glass I had no way to pick up…. I have to wait until I can ask someone to come over, bring a real broom, (which has somehow disappeared….), and help me clean up, as doing it right is well beyond my current capabilities….

Now, is there anyone out there with any more questions about WHY I hate Murphy, even more so than your average Bozo? I am completely depressed now, because, in one swell foop, he has put me in a hole it will take days to climb out of…. the only thing that is currently serendipitous, as far as I can see, is the fortunate arrival in the bank of my monthly SS allotment. At least I’ll have enough to pay for repairing all the damages incurred in this episode, and, be able to obtain enough cannabinoids to knock down some of the severe pain that has been haunting me the last couple of weeks….

Plus, as you see, it provided enough material to complete another introductory section, with the ease of long habit in reporting the machinations of our planet’s least appreciated, most reviled icon, Jester to the Courts of Chaos, The Murphy, Most Puissant Asshole Supreme, He Who Has No Peer, Nor Ever Shall (because no other force of nature will have anyfuckingthing to do with him….)….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!”
“But that trick NEVER works!”
“This time fer sure!”

— Rocky & Bullwinkle, playing verbal ping-pong, with Metaphoric Balls, using Euphemystic Brand paddles, Hand-Crafted with ONLY the finest of Time Tested Cliches….

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

“Aim at the sun, any you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself.” — Joel Hawes

“Beginnings are such delicate times.” — Princess Irulan, from Dune, by Frank Herbert

Of late, the posts here at ECR have been, shall we say, epic in proportion. I know I talk a lot; a certain percentage of responsibility for that can be laid at the feet of my writing style. Spare, it is not…. (Though that sentence isn’t bad, in that respect…. but, you’ll note this parenthetical comment has added approximately 15-20 extra words. See how that works?….) SIGH….

‘Tis a conundrum, for much of my sense of humor requires the long build-up to the punch line so easily displayed by using the more formal approach I’ve chosen; I guess I’ve always loved a long, involved story that ends with a pun, or something so unexpected, the usual reaction is multiplied by the surprise factor….. (Now that I’ve pointed it out, the convoluted grammatical structure of my style seems to be part of the issue; a sentence such as the one previous to this could have been written in half the words…. See? It’s almost as if I can’t help it; it’s a sickness, I guess… Verbalitis maximus, or some such Latin perversion….)

Once, on a bus trip in high school, one of the other students told a story to the entire bus… He took about 30 or more minutes to tell the entire story, giving background, and describing the characters, dragging it out with repetitive actions by the characters that lent themselves to long, drawn out dialogue, and slow speech…. At the end of the 30 minutes, when the story wound around toward a resolution, the question being asked by the protagonist, which is the quest in the story, to find out WHY this person did something, is about to be answered… The entire bus was hanging on this student’s every word; even the driver was engrossed. At the crucial point, the father asks his son, who is dying, the question, “WHY, my son? Why did you…..?” The dying young man, struggling to speak, chokes out, “Dad, I did it because….”

Then he died…. The student telling the story, at the word, “because”, dropped his head, shut his eyes, and fell over, as if dead….

For about15 seconds, there wasn’t a word, not a sound, as everyone on the bus sat in complete shock…. Then, the entire bus erupted, with shouts of anger, groans of dismay (the loudest and largest number of responses were the groans….), and some actual animated growls directed at him, right before half the objects on the bus started flying in his general direction, as each victim grabbed the first item at hand & let fly, intending serious harm….

I’ve never, in my entire life, seen a joke better told, unless by a pro, such as George Carlin, or Bob Newhart, who loved that sort of joke… nor have I ever seen such a loud, universal reaction to a pun, up to this day…. It was, quite simply, the best joke I’ve ever heard, even though it isn’t even a joke, except on the audience listening to it…. Nor, for that matter, is it a particularly GOOD joke; stupidly thick is the best one can say about all the parties in the story…. The value is in the telling, with it a critical factor to have the audience on the edge of their seats at the crucial point in the story….

Y’all are probably wondering where I’m going with this, since I’ve wandered so far afield in my mind…. Easy…. I’m giving y’all a break from the usual sober, involved, ranting that is generally my choice for this section…. I figured out, reading my blog isn’t easy…. it takes time, involves no little amount of cogitation, (a habit many Americans don’t possess), all of which probably asks more of the reader than I am entitled to ask in a blog…. Most blogs out there are much shorter, in terms of content, unless they post less often…. But, not ME, no sirree, Bob, I must write and post about 2000- 4000 words EVERY DAMN DAY….. I suppose I’ve come to realize it may be a bit much to ask of ffolkes, even those who enjoy my writing…

So, this little personal reminiscence is to let y’all know, I will be attempting, to some degree at least, to shorten the Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, to make them a little more palatable, and easy to swallow…. Perhaps, this will bring a bit more traffic to the site, because, even though I don’t write for the purpose of increasing my readership, as much as I do to stay sane, to try to hold off the mental calcification that may tend to settle in with us as we get older, decreasing our awareness, our cognitive abilities, and, ultimately, shortening our lives, by removing the pleasure of using our minds the way they were designed to be used…. which is hard, and often….

So, here is a single pearl, hopefully as cogent as I can make it, to seal the deal…. I can’t promise to succeed at this, but, I’ll promise to try, so, hopefully, you’ll see some less bulky Pearls, and a bit more dialogue in the comments, from increased traffic…. If nothing else, I’ll know I’ve lived up to the following aphorism, from one of history’s most prolific, and most accurately insightful moralists… Even if I don’t succeed, this tells me it’s the right thing to do….

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” — Aesop (620-560 B.C.)

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

Today I will, once more, assume the ethical stance, to include a poem of mine in this section; you already know why…. This way, nobody else can catch any of the grief or blame for any of today’s missive…. Which, in at least one respect, makes it safer for me, as well; no fear of litigation is necessary…. Here is one written this year, in February, that fits in perfectly with the discussion in section one…..

Blithely Untitled

A poem came to me today, willy, nilly,
along with a sharp blow to the head.
Since it left me feeling just a bit silly,
anything that rhymes should lessen the dread.

Manifesting destiny into a small, insidious group
we push on toward sanity, concentrating hard.
Full engaging moments spent navigating the loop
shall ever make a difference to victims found in the yard.

Still corpses of creatures, straight out of nightmare
fill up the corners of our tortured minds.
While ever saddened, the iconic male, most debonair,
gazes softly, ironically, at all the mutual interest he finds.

Moronic public statutes compel outbreaks of sanity,
responding to momentary impulses toward inducing peace.
Still, the motions get completed, in fertile stages of inanity
while the bulk of our inmates can find no surcease.

Reluctant motivation to continue is unbound,
striving to ascertain how far there yet remains to go.
No precognitive guesswork will make any less of a sound
to soften the final strains, or teach us to truly know.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

In order to assuage my own needs and desires, as well as to subdue, or at minimum, sublimate my urge to rant, today’s section three will assume its typical format, of an old-school pearl, but, with specific parameters, set to find ideas, quotes, and/or poems to show our disdain for the Asininnies, and our anger at the shadowy corporate slavers who have held society in thrall for our entire written history….

“Search men’s governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 38

“Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.” — Lucan

“It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses. And we need to throw the old ones away.” — Kenich Ohmae, The Borderless World

“Food is an important part of a balanced diet.” — Fran Lebowitz

(The above, on food, should be tattooed on the forehead of every one of the 455 men & women in Congress, the White House, and sitting on the SCOTUS; it’s something they tend to ignore, or forget, especially when forced to think about the ‘little people’….)

“People come o Washington believing it is the center of power. I know I did. It was only much later that I learned that Washington is a steering wheel that’s not connected to an engine.” — Richard Goodwin

“Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.” — Francis, Duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) — Maxims, Head

“And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.” — H.L. Mencken

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

Well, there you go…. a reasonably fresh Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, (Required disclaimer: These are ‘virtual’ wisdom; any attempt to use them as real wisdom is the responsibility of the Gentle Reader; the author takes no part in that, for damn good reason….) with only the intro section written prior to this morning’s effort, and it needed to be edited, so, it’s all pretty up-to-date…. Not that freshness will make it taste better, but, hey, with Pearls, you never know…. time improves some of them, others are gems from the start, and, sadly, some cannot be saved by any power known to Mankind…. so be it. gigoid has spoken….

For today, it’s done, which will allow me to go on into the day with no lingering dross or drivel left in my head, just the way I like it…. I’ll need it today, as I go forth to contend with the bureaucratic forces of government…. with a buffering shield of drug-induced emotional space, in lieu of a force-field, (still can’t find one on the open market….), but, still, my hands and ears will require serious cleansing later on…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Eleventeen of one, twelve dozen of the other….

Posted on September 9, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Brigadier, a straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.”

~~ Doctor, The Time Warrior ~~

A frog at lift off of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer

No, the picture has not been Photoshopped, nor is it touched up in any way…. according to the report I got it from…. It’s an official NASA photo, taken as a matter of course for the records they keep; in looking them over, as is their habit, to look for potential problems in the lift-off sequences filmed, they noticed the frog, which, according to its trajectory through the photos, fell into the picture from the sky…. So, this means the rocket took off while it was raining frogs…. According to the report, this was NOT part of the day’s weather forecast….. which goes to show, I guess, that the Doctor is speaking with the confidence of experience in dealing with Reality…. and, I might add, doing so with an admirable, and considerable aplomb….

Of course, using a picture such as this, while opening a number of potential directions for exploration, in truth, leaves me in a tight spot, in terms of, how in the world can I follow THAT? It’s interestingly weird, offers the opportunity for developing a discussion in several potential areas, hits the ECR approved standard for strange, while still providing the Gentle Reader with an amusing and comfortable entrée into today’s post…. which makes it, for this blog, completely unique in its degree of efficiency AND effectiveness…

In short, I’ve already done all that needs to be done for the blog to go on….. But, if you look more closely, it becomes clear that we haven’t actually said anything particularly significant, or gone anywhere that approaches the places we need to be… wherever that may be; as you may know, that’s always pretty much a crapshoot here, and the odds aren’t with the house. Hence, my confusion, although, to be perfectly honest, that’s nothing new, or out of the ordinary, any more than it is unusual for me to be lost in space and time…. Especially when dealing with this introductory section….

All that being said, to little purpose, I’m sure, now what the hell am I going to do? I’ll have to think about that…. (Between these marks, witness the passage of a vast, seemingly unending stretch of TIME…. hour upon hour pile up, one upon another, bludgeoning the sensibilities until all thought ceases, to fall into the black hole of the universe’s apathy, never to be found again…..until, at last, off in the distance, growing larger, and larger, we see salvation…. Finally, TIME once again speeds up, to deposit us softly, back in our original space, once more, ready to Pearl…..)

I believe I’m starting to feel a bit of Fall in the air…. The sun is setting earlier, and it’s getting cool more quickly once it has sunk below the horizon, after the nightly colorful show the sky puts on for us, with colors never before seen by anyone…. That’s because the chemical composition of the air has changed over time, as we humans have pumped a dizzying variety of them up into the atmosphere over the years, in quantities never before seen on this planet… thus, when we see the sunset, it is with a filter of chemicals that is all new, changing every day, showing us shades of the colors we are accustomed to, that not only have WE never seen, but, have never been seen before by the eyes of man, in all our history….

Amazing, isn’t it, how I can turn a simple discussion of the weather into a rant? I think so; it’s a bit inconvenient at times, such as here, in the intro, but, sometimes, I am so concerned, and so angry, it slips out at times when I’m not ready for it….. I figure it could be worse; I could be one of those folks who actually thinks anyone cares what I think…. Most people, me, you, and everyone else I can think of, don’t really care much about others; we are all naturally self-centered, to some degree. That is normal, and necessary, as otherwise, how would you be able to tell yourself from anyone else? Not so easy, is it?

Stop…. That is an instruction to myself, not you…. I’m typing away, here and now, making up nonsense, and my hands are falling asleep, the precursor to becoming extremely painful due to the arthritis flaring up…. I’m having to stop ever few words to shake them back awake…. This will NOT do…. How am I going to get all this stuff out of my head, if I can’t type? The voice recognition software available isn’t quite good enough to consider switching over to completely, not yet, so, this is a conundrum of a different color, to be sure…. Time out….

I’m going to have to shift, shuffle, and dance my way to the end, now….. I declare this intro done, and we’ll get on with the rest of today’s Pearl. The poem is already in place: I found a good one yesterday. The rest, well, I’ll have to figure that out, but, you may end up seeing something from the archives today, so, be prepared for that… For now, I’d best be on my way to the next section…. I even have the closing lines of this done, also from yesterday, when I found an appropriate set of closing pearls…. So, before my hands fall of the end of my arms…..

Shall we Pearl….

Today, to close the intro section, y’all get a two-fer, just because they go together so perfectly, as examples of both hacker/geek humor, and, pretty good all-around advice, on how to approach Life at Large….

“Beware the lightening that lurketh in the undischarged capacitor, lest it cause thee to bounce upon thy buttocks in a most untechnician-like manner.” — The First Commandment for Technicians

“Speed kills. Slow just infuriates…” — Smart Bee, in hack mode

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

“Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not private enterprise.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945)

I collected this yesterday, before I knew my ability to type was going to be compromised, intending to use it as the segue into a formal rant on the privileged elite, the group of Asininnies who comprise the shadowy corporate snakehead category of that group. (A ‘snakehead’, in slang, is a slaver, one who captures/abducts women and/or children to sell on the slavery market, which, in spite of what you may have been told, exists quite comfortably, right here in the USA, and all over the world…. believe it.)

However, due to circumstances which, this time, are out of my control, I’ll not be ranting; not freshly, anyway, until this crap with my hands eases off, and that is completely unpredictable, at least, at this point… So, you get lucky, because that means this will be an old-school pearl, with parameters set to find quotes/aphorisms that resemble the first one, above, or, are wearing similar clothes, thus looking the same…. Enjoy!….

“Washington, DC: 26 square miles surrounded by reality.” — Smart Bee

“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Madison, 1787

“INFLUENCE, n. In politics, a visionary _quo_ given in exchange for a substantial _quid_.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

LAWYER: Someone who can get a sodomy charge changed to “following too closely.” — Smart Bee

“A fool and his money are soon elected.” — Walton’s Law of Politics

“As long as the United States Government exists, there is no real accomplishment being a humorist.” — Smart Bee

“Reagan: He’s not the president, but he once played one on TV.” — Smart Bee

I knew it! Look at that pearl! It’s perfect! It takes shot after shot, each one hitting the net harder and faster than the last…. and, it has Smart Bee anchoring it at all three critical points; it isn’t often THAT happens…. So, I thought, since it looked so good, I’d try centering it, and sure enough, it is also balanced that way; note the pattern it forms visually, looking at all seven at once…. beautiful symmetry…. I’m glad I went looking for this one; it was well worth the effort….

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

This doesn’t need much introduction; it is one known to many people, at least, to those who have made any study of poetry at all, beyond the little bit they dole out in public schools… It is only a small part of the epic poem by Pope, An Essay on Man (in several Epistles). That poem, in itself, is very possibly the best ever of its type, due in part to the very deep insight Pope seems to have had, augmented and enhanced by his skill at putting that insight into beautiful verse…. Enjoy this little piece of the epic, and, if you ever have the chance, go read the whole poem; it is well worth the time it takes….

From an Essay on Man

Heav’n from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page prescrib’d, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could suffer being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed today,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas’d to the last, he crops the flow’ry food,
And licks the hand just rais’d to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv’n,
That each may fill the circle mark’d by Heav’n:
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What future bliss, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor’d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul, proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv’n,
Behind the cloud topp’d hill, an humbler heav’n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac’d,
Some happier island in the wat’ry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
To be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel’s wing, no seraph’s fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

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

As we all know, Life is tough, and it plays no favorites; no coupons, no discounts, and no mercy is given, at all. We deal, or we don’t, it is that simple…. In the face of such indifference, and not lack, but, absence of any compassion, as shown by the Universe at Large toward all Life, not just us homo bozoidus’s…. (Hmm…. on THAT coined word, ‘bozoidus’, it seems I may have to turn the Spell Checker completely off…. it really, really doesn’t like the word, and refuses to add it to the dictionary…. Does your software ever do that to you? Just wondering….)

Any who, here is a pearl, made up of some damn fine pearls, to give the proper tone and flavor to the rest of today’s Pearls…. (a sentence which accurately gives y’all the definitions of all three types of pearls, as I use the terms here on ECR; it might make future references a bit clearer, now that you understand the hierarchy, and their relation to each other as part of the same lexicon of coined words used on this blog….) Whatever the hell they are, or whatever the hell I THINK they are, they’re pretty useful, if given half a chance….. Now, do I have to tell you to enjoy it, or them? Or, can you get there on your own? Ball’s in your court….

“Happy is the house that shelters a friend.” — Emerson

“To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously quite easy.
It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought,
and a certain low passion for middle-class respectability.”

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

“Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don’t let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.” — R. I. Fitzhenry

“If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“In comparison with heaven and earth, man is like a mayfly.”
But compared to the great Way, heaven and earth, too, are like a bubble and a shadow.
Only the primal spirit and the true nature overcome time and space.”

~~ Lu Yen ~~
(fl. 800 A.D.)

“Beware of the man whose god is in the skies.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

“To survive, one must be able to adapt to changing situations.” — Tyrannosaurus Rex

As noted above, pearls are often different; thank goodness…. This one, as far as I can see, defies explanation…. Thus, I shan’t try to explain it, but, rather, I’ll just play it as it lies, so to speak, and be done for the day….. How ’bout THEM apples?….

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

Apples or no, I’m done, and, just in time, before taking the computer, and Smart Bee, and all the rest of it, with me as I throw myself out the window, in an attempt to get away from the pain in my hands, shoulders, and hip(s). However, rather than whine about it, and make you witness my grand finale, we’ll call it a draw, and just go home…. or, in this case, off to the medicine cabinet, to find SOMETHING that will put me back to sleep, where my hands won’t bother me for a while…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided I don’t opt for excision of the faulty parts…..

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.

Paltry remnants of boldly patterned briefs….

Posted on September 8, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I was not born for one corner. The whole world is my native land.”

~~ Seneca ~~

I obtained today’s picture on Space.com, from an article reporting the latest information regarding our universe, as compiled by astrophysicists working on mapping what we are able to see with the current technology, including the Hubble Deep Space telescope in orbit around the Earth. The red dot you see in the picture represents the Milky Way Galaxy, a part of a group of galaxies known as the Local Group, consisting of many thousands of CLUSTERS of galaxies, that are the closest to ours…. The rest of the picture is an artist’s view of how the rest of the universe is arranged, and each of the tiny little dots you see are galaxies, or galactic clusters, each one with millions of stars of their own….

Whew! Makes one get a feeling for the perspective of the BIG picture, and, the relative microscopic size of just our galaxy, in which our star, Sol, is but one of hundreds of millions of other stars, a great many larger, and brighter than our own…. We, as humans on the face of this planet, around that star, are, in comparison, many times smaller than viruses seem to be here on Earth… so small, we would rival molecules for tininess…. I mean, in relation to the whole universe, our mere existence, our oh-so-powerful civilization, and all its works, is but a nanosecond’s worth of a blink in history, and, just an insignificant afterthought to the apparently infinite nature of time, and space….

Kinda gets ya, right here, doesn’t it? I know it makes me get a grip, whenever I start to feel like I’m some sort of hot shit… I can only wish that more people, all of whom happen to….. wear blue suits, white shirts, red ties, a flag pin, spend too much time indoors, worry incessantly about their “image”, and make entirely too much money for doing not very much…. well, I wish they would have the same sort of reaction as I do, when confronted with such undeniable evidence of our insignificance in the Real World, and how “entitled” we should feel to call ourselves the “Lords of Creation”, when we are far less important in the scheme of things than we would like to be, and so far less than we THINK we are, it is silly to contemplate at all….

Maybe, just maybe, if they could cram their egos in a smaller container, and get rid of some of that smarmy sense of their own infallibility, they’d start to have a bit more care about how they act, and think…. Of course, history, even our very short one, has already given me ample evidence that no such thing will happen, nor will anyone to whom I refer ever respond to such information with anything other than instant, intractable denial…. Count on it….

Oops…. did it again, didn’t I? Turned a nice, simple picture, and a short lesson on astronomy, into a mini-rant, once again flipping the intro section ass over tea kettle, and causing the Gentle Reader to, no doubt, reach for the aspirin bottle…. Honest, when I started, I had no intention of firing off those shots; they just sort of went off on their own, before I even noticed what my fingers were doing…. That can happen this early in the morning, especially when it is the afternoon before….

If you caught that, you’re a better man than I, Gunga Din…. Not really, but, you do have a sharp eye, and a ready mind, which is somewhat gratifying. It means that someone is reading who has been here before, and knows enough to keep their wits about them…. I would, however, appreciate it if you didn’t pull my covers, as it is one of my best new devices, a direct result of the Time Lord training I received when I got my Tardis, and, I still haven’t even finished opening the rest of the new stuff they sent…. So, just chuckle softly to yourself, and let us get on down the road to the next item, which could, conceivably change the course of that history we are so familiar with, into a new, and better time-line…. if we get lucky, I’d say….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“HEY! There IS something more important than money…..it’s called breathing.” — Smart Bee

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

I had some time on my hands, but, wasn’t feeling strong enough to kill it quickly well enough to go surf, so, I did my dance with Smart Bee, getting lucky enough to come up with the following seven-star pearl, which hands out some damn fine advice, as well as some solidly useful thoughts on how to live, so well, so powerfully free, even Death weeps when you are done with Life….

” … you see, God — whatever anyone chooses to call God — is one’s highest conception of the highest possible. And whoever places his highest conception above his own possibility thinks very little of himself and his life. It’s a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own. To imagine a heaven and then not to dream of it, but to demand it.” — Kira Argounova

“All people smile in the same language.” — Smart Bee

“One who is to enjoy the purity of both body and mind walks the path to enlightenment, breaking the net of selfish, impure thoughts and evil desires. He who is calm in mind acquires peacefulness and thus is able to cultivate his mind day and night with more diligence.” — Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

“Life is best done awake.” — Smart Bee

“Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height.” — Buddha

“Have the courage to live. Anyone can die.” — Robert Cody

“It is better to deserve honours and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.” — Mark Twain

Though the concept it expresses is true as the day, I am compelled to comment after the last quote; can’t help myself sometimes…. Mark Twain, aka Sammie the C, definitely had a talent for the turn of a phrase, and, I’ve see him given credit for this one many times…. while every time, smiling and chuckling to myself, because I’ve also noted that this quote is a shameless paraphrasing of a quote by Plutarch…. and, Aristotle…. and, I believe, if I’m not mistaken, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, also had a word on this, that was very similar to the others…. but, then, Mark T was pretty shameless about all of his plagiarisms, usually recounting them in the preface, or in the introductions to his works….

Since all of them are men, it was probably Sappho, a woman poet, who pre-dated ALL of these men, who originally made the observation on the nature of honor, and humility…. That would be typical, and consistent with how men have treated women since the dawn of time…. even going so far, when making up the myths of creation so many of them seem to hold so dear, regarding that old saw about the Garden, and God, Adam, and, Eve, the poor fall guy, who had to take the rap, even though she was set up by God, and snitched out by Adam….

I find it telling, and typical, that the woman, representing ALL women, is made into the villain of the story, the one with the weak will, and the lack of honor…. when, to my way of thinking, (which I’ve thought since the age of four, after first hearing the story….) God was the one at fault, for setting up the system so both Eve, and Adam, had no other options, but to fail…. and, in the process, serving Eve up, as the one to bear the guilt of “original sin”…. Plus, you will note, please…. The very term, “original sin” is agreed to refer to taking a bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge…. in other words, for thinking independently…. This is the concept, and the reality, religion tries to eliminate from the people who follow their line of reasoning…

And, that, too, is pretty telling, isn’t it? Things haven’t changed much since then, as far as I can see…. The churches don’t want us to think, so that the government can lie to us more easily, to convince us they are telling us the truth, when they actually are merely carrying on the traditions present in our culture from the inception of the whole idea of a supernatural power as being responsible for all that is real, a scam, to control the general public, with threats of hell, and promises of heaven, in the next life, if only they will submit to giving up their free will… Quite a bargain, you would think….. unless, of course, one actually knows how to think….

Just sayin’…..

gigoid has spoken…. so be it…..

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

It is well known that I’m a wimp; since my PTSD reached a point where, mostly, it is under my control, the only real symptom I experience is that of bursting into tears at the slightest provocation…. Hallmark commercials, little kids hugging, or hugs of any kind, or any sort of emotionally touching issue will bring me to tears, without any say in whether or not I WISH to cry right then…. Whenever my old dog, Noah, comes to mind is one of those occasions, so I try to avoid stepping into such situations….

I had forgotten this poem, which, upon stumbling across it while looking for a specific piece of Pope’s Essay on Man, brought me instantly to the point of weeping…. and, has kept me weeping for this entire paragraph, in spite of not having anything wrong, with me, or with the universe at large…. SIGH…. I don’t mind being a romantic, but, sometimes, I wish I wasn’t such a wimp about it…. It IS a great poem, though, so, please, don’t mind all the salty water on the screen, (try not to weep yourself, at the last line, I DARE you!….) and, enjoy!….

Argus

When wise Ulysses, from his native coast
Long kept by wars, and long by tempests toss’d,
Arrived at last, poor, old, disguised, alone,
To all his friends, and ev’n his Queen unknown,
Changed as he was, with age, and toils, and cares,
Furrow’d his rev’rend face, and white his hairs,
In his own palace forc’d to ask his bread,
Scorn’d by those slaves his former bounty fed,
Forgot of all his own domestic crew,
The faithful Dog alone his rightful master knew!

Unfed, unhous’d, neglected, on the clay
Like an old servant now cashier’d, he lay;
Touch’d with resentment of ungrateful man,
And longing to behold his ancient lord again.
Him when he saw he rose, and crawl’d to meet,
(‘Twas all he could) and fawn’d and kiss’d his feet,
Seiz’d with dumb joy; then falling by his side,
Own’d his returning lord, look’d up, and died!

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

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

I came across the following pearl, from 2011, not long after beginning to post on WordPress…. In those days, what you see below was an entire Pearl, but, today, with our new, improved format, it is an acceptable pearl for one section…. You should thank me for this…. it’s pretty funny, in spots, and, bonus, it ISN’T a rant….

😉

From 8/30/2011:

Ffolkes,

It may be harsh, but it must be said….Ben Franklin was a sanctimonious ass, and I mean that in its’ basest, most derogatory sense. Who else but an ass would say things like “Early to bed and early to rise, make a man, etc….” or “The early bird gets the worm”? As one of my favorite sci-fi authors, Bob Heinlein, said, approximately, “…. all the aphorism about the worm proves is that the worm should have stayed in bed.” And, early to bed, etc., is fine for those who fall asleep instantly, from having the benefit of no worldly problems, (or, like our friend Ben, no conscience…. Have you ever read about his love life?…. By what I could tell, from what I read, he was, quite simply, a lout, and a cur…. and, that’s being nice….); those who, once asleep, are able to remain asleep throughout the night, probably due to having no imagination, to speak of….

I’m 60 years old, and I can’t remember the last time I could count on falling asleep easily, without first consuming a significant amount of my adult beverage of choice, or, staying asleep for more than a couple of hours, before some one of several available physical prompts has me up and heading off to the bathroom, or just laying in bed, aching, wondering how long it will be until morning. As far as I’m concerned, Poor Richard can take his little Almanac, and his advice, and place them forcibly in one of his orifices, preferably, one where the sun don’t shine….. just as it is NOT shining, here in my little hole, at 0530, as I sit to compose this, having once more awakened at 0515 for no apparent reason.

Wise man, my dying ass…..

I dove for these Pearls yesterday as I was in the throes of extra-pyramidal side effects, due entirely to the asinine ordering requirements dictated by Kaiser Permanente for dealing with a controlled drug, an opiate. Thanks to those obscene regulations, I have spent much of the last three days with dyskinesia, malaise, and an intermittent, splitting headache, just for good measure.

In case you are not a former PT, dyskinesia is that condition of muscular and nervous agitation that makes one’s muscles twitch and dance, constantly, combined with a feeling of restless dread, and diffuse anxiety, that makes the nerves hum like a redneck with a kazoo. Add in the headache, (of the ilk that blurs the vision, causing strong men to whimper, piteously), and, well, you can imagine how difficult it is, to not only refrain from biting myself, but to refrain from biting anyone who crosses my path.

All this, of course, is then complicated by trying to deal with people who have become bureaucrats, who have no conception of anything outside their own little sphere of inattention, and whose sole purpose is to keep anything from getting done. It’s enough to give one visions of mayhem and violent death for all bureaucrats, preferably by my own hand.

(Note from 2014; This is still true for me…. Does anyone else get mental images of the Russian revolution, as a film noir battle scene, in full color, though, filmed in Red Square showing huge mobs of starving peasants with scythes, Molotov cocktails, and rocks, attacking Imperial police, or in front of one of the Russian Imperial palaces, lit up by flames, with aristocrats screaming, smoke everywhere, explosions…. all playing in your(my) head, whenever they use the word “bureaucrat”? Is it just me who visualizes themselves as if in that movie, with a machine gun, firing away at a huddling, terrified group of clerks at a local federal office, or do others NOT get this kind of response, just thinking about those stultified cretins? Just wondered….)

Sorry about the above rant……well, actually, I’m not. I could actually care less right now what anyone thinks, about anything. Nonetheless, I do think that the following Pearls will strike some good chords in many folks, and even more in those ffolkes who are familiar with this process, and how it provides some fine rules for life, or at least for looking at life in a different way. Regardless, they are what they are, and I hope you enjoy them…..much as I can hope anything at all……

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

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a, star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea’s face and a gray dawn breaking.

— John Masefield, Sea Fever, first stanza.

Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But Today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore to this Day. — Sanskrit proverb (I like this one a lot; it covers a lot of bases….)

“It’s not denial. I’m just very selective about what I accept as reality.” — Calvin (“Calvin and Hobbes”) (Calvin is actually a sociopathic idiot, but Hobbes, I firmly believe, will someday be considered one of the 20th and 21st centuries’ most cogent philosophers….)

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death….Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967), “Selected Papers”

“So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” — Smart Bee

Well, there you have it. That’s the best I can do, under the circumstances that currently prevail. My greatest desire just now is that tomorrow will be different, if only I can survive until then without committing any acts that would land me in jail. Wish me luck…..and, y’all take care out there……

Again from the future…. Not too bad, eh? It showed some promise, which I’ve since seen evolve into something I can be happy with…. I’m still around to create them, so, I guess that makes it all worthwhile…. For me, anyway, and, hopefully, for y’all, too….

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

It’s probably a good thing I got up late today; indeed, it’s just as well today’s Pearl was mostly done by last night, with only a poem to find today to finish up…. I say that because it’s true…. but, if I got into the reasons for it, it would be both TMI, and ill-conceived egotism, so, we’ll just leave it at that, and y’all can consider yourselves fortunate….

Besides, I’m done for the day now, so I can go on to my next task, to wit: surviving one day, until my portion of the dole, which I set aside for my golden years, arrives at my bank, from wherever our Beloved Ruling Class keeps the money they are “protecting” for us…. It’s also too late to start ranting, so, I’ll just say, “see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes”, & make my way to the door, with a big smile on my face…. Okay, so, it’s a grimace…. grimace fits better, anyway, right now….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Sans beau, there is no coup….

Posted on September 7, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) —

Don Juan, Canto i, Stanza 216

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

😉

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excerpted quotes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Polly frigging HATES crackers!…..

Posted on September 6, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“As great scientists have said

and as all children know,

it is above all by the imagination

that we achieve

perception, and compassion, and hope.”

— Ursula K. LeGuin

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

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

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

Okay….

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

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

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

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

😉

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excerpt from:

The Hollow Men

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

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

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

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

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

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

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

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

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

A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

I died for beauty

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Death to all fanatics!” — Bumper Sticker

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

EXISTENCE, n.

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

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

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

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

— William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid”

“A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly,

science into superstition, and art into pedantry.

Hence University education.”

— George Bernard Shaw —

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

All those attending the apocalypse, board here….

Posted on September 5, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

~~ Bertrand Russell ~~

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Witch Burning

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

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

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

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

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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

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

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

Do be, do be, doo….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Pending legislation will prohibit affordable pants….

Posted on September 4, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Great truths can only be forgotten and can never be falsified.”

~~ G. K. Chesterton ~~

— Illustrated London News, 9-30-33 —

Upon opening my eyes, my first thought, appropriately enough, was, “Wow. It isn’t every day you wake up to a large, scaly, bright green gecko sitting in a chair by your window!” Then, I thought “Uh oh…. he looks pretty pissed.” So, naturally, I said, “Did you bribe the damn concierge again?”, thinking to put him at an immediate disadvantage by accusing him before he could say anything….

I should have known it wouldn’t work; not with THIS gecko…. “Why should I do that, when I can just pick the lock?”, he noted with what passed for an eyebrow raised high enough, it almost disappeared over the dome of his forehead; fortunately, this, I knew, indicated he was pissed, but, still amused by me…. I decided to work that, instead, so, I countered, “Some would consider it a faux pas to pick the lock on the hotel room of a sleeping guest, you know.” “I don’t speak French,” he noted, then, grinned evilly. “But, I know some French geckos…. they’re dead now…..”

Okay, that’s enough of that…. It’s way too early for so many bad jokes at one sitting… I don’t know what prompted ANY of that. When I sat down to type, I noted my right thumb, besides being about twice or three times as stiff as usual, with a concomitant degree of pain as a bonus, was actually a good 10-15% bigger than my left thumb, which is sort of cool, as it balances out the loss of function, and increased arthritic pain in the left hip and shoulder….

So, any who, all that, annoying as it is, coming so early, isn’t really the problem… the problem is trying to find words that are composed of, oh, I’d say about 65%, of letters from the left side of my QWERTY keyboard, so I could balance out the typing, giving the right hand a little less work, thus, able to last longer…. If you think it’s easy, you try it…. I’ve been at this for, what, two and half paragraphs, and I’m exhausted…. Sheesh…

Most of the words we have in English, flexible as it is about spellings and meanings, are composed of a relatively even balance of letters (the actual percentages of use for each one, you will find, closely resemble those percentages used by a set of Scrabble letters; the relative scores for each letter are based on those percentages….). Finding those with an unbalanced distribution isn’t as easy as it may sound, believe me…. It’s a lot like trying to get toothpaste back into the tube after it’s out…. not in what is done, but, in how frigging frustrating it can be…

Okay, so, what do you think? Have I crammed enough odd shit into one intro for one day? Have I offended anybody? Have you laughed, cried, or shaken your head in either disgust, or disbelief? Were you afraid of the gecko? If not, why not? Have you picked your nose? These are the things that I need to know, if I’m to come anywhere near to how today’s post should end up, wherever that may be….. Okay, well, you can keep what you’re doing with your nose to yourself….

It’s not as if we need any actual maps, but, any metadata at all can help us to find the quickest, if not the simplest, path to our goal…. Of course, I realize, it might be of some help if I would make some attempt to come even a little closer to Reality to some degree…. I’ve been a good distance away from it all morning, thus far….. and, actually, I’m quite proud of that….

I mean, here I am, sitting here, almost completely able to ignore a level of pain most folks, even some ffolkes, would be unable to tolerate at all, and, still able to type, albeit with some strain, and a rise in BP that goes with such stress…. I know, it’s bogus, but, whattyagonnado when it’s age-related? Get younger? Not happening, so, I just push through it the best I can…. which, at the present moment, is about to come to a crashing halt, so the feeling in my left hand can come back to normal…. Fun, eh?….

Okay, we’re good to go, for the time being…. thank goodness for magic cream! That being the case, I think this intro couldn’t possibly take any more, so, we’ll let it die a relatively peaceful death, and get on with the rest of this mess, with a small alteration in the plans, made necessary by ARPID. (Nothing to do with the Association of Retired Persons, except peripherally, in that both are annoying, and both age related….) ARPID is, of course, Age Related Physical Issues, Dammit….. If I go any further into that, we’d be entering TMI territory, so, we’ll just leave it at that….

Shall we Pearl?

“He is nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent.” — Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), attributed

Oops…. good thing I’m not religious at all, isn’t it?…..

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

Why are many scientists using lawyers for medical experiments instead of rats?

a) There are more lawyers than rats.

b) The scientist’s don’t become as emotionally attached to them.

c) There are some things that even rats won’t do for money.

— Smart Bee

I am compelled to confess, in my life, I have actually met two people, who were/are both lawyers, for whom I do have a significant degree of respect and affection. Of course, one of them I met while still in law school, and his own sense of honor and self-worth caused him years of discomfort until he gave it up to teach…

The other one is, quite simply, a shark, who found a sublimation for his less than stellar urges, by using his predatory instincts, and ruthlessness, to help people injured while working, to get the services and help they need to continue to live, and support their families, in spite of not being able to work, potentially for the rest of their lives….

As far as I can tell, two, out of the hundreds I’ve met over the years, is a fairly accurate representation of the actual percentage of lawyers who have even a shred of compassion for others, or perform the work they do out of a sense of altruism or common feeling…. The majority of them, by far, are predatory, ambitious, avaricious, convinced of their own superiority, (most often, without any evidence for any such belief….), and, far too often, completely amoral…. which is why so fucking many of them ultimately end up as politicians…. For the greater percentage of those I’ve met, or heard of, their primary motivation is either money, or power (control over others….)….

Those qualities, when paired with politics, are a match made in heaven, as the function of government lends itself perfectly to the type of person who NEEDS to control others. Whether they do so primarily for the power, or for the money, is immaterial to the final result, which gives them the means to fulfill their compulsion to steal, and cheat, and perform ANY act, if it furthers their agenda…. without the need to use a device such as “billable hours” to cover their theft…. Taxes work fine for that….

“How can you tell the difference between a dead lawyer and a dead snake on the road? There are skid marks leading up to the snake.” — a joke I heard in high school, in 1966, or so….

I started this rant yesterday, in reaction to the shock I felt on coming across the opening salvo from Smart Bee…. and, now, this morning, find myself unable to finish it properly, as I can’t type too well just now…. So, we’ll go into SB, to find the makings for a pearl that will provide me with sufficient sublimation of my need to express outrage at a section of society, one that well deserves any abuse we heap upon it….

How else to explain the sheer ubiquitousness of lawyer jokes in our culture, or their historical presence for so long? A new one springs up each day, it seems, in response to all the pain and misery in society, for which the actions of lawyers bear responsibility…. Let’s see if we can find some sharp sticks to poke them with, okay?…..

“Am I accompanied by a PARENT or GUARDIAN?” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.” — Eric Hoffer, THE PASSIONATE STATE OF MIND (1955)

And the Lord said, “Thou shalt not leave hairs unsplit.” — Holy Bible, Clarence Darrow version

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” — Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

“Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve.” — Pope

“When one is pretending, the entire body revolts.” — Anais Nin

(Aha! Now we know why so many lawyers have that sallow, pasty look, like they never get outside to play….)

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

I always know when Smart Bee is having fun with a pearl; it starts and ends with an appropriate note from Zippy…. I don’t know about y’all, but, I enjoyed that….. and, it didn’t generate a single billable hour!…. Bonus!

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

This poem has been one of my favorites, of its type, for all the years since I first read it, long before starting this blog….

First posted on 9/4/2012:

A Smile To Remember

we had goldfish and they circled around and around
in the bowl on the table near the heavy drapes
covering the picture window and
my mother, always smiling, wanting us all
to be happy, told me, ‘be happy Henry!’
and she was right: it’s better to be happy if you
can
but my father continued to beat her and me several times a week while
raging inside his 6-foot-two frame because he couldn’t
understand what was attacking him from within.

my mother, poor fish,
wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a
week, telling me to be happy: ‘Henry, smile!
why don’t you ever smile?’

and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the
saddest smile I ever saw

one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

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

Since today’s poem came from the post of exactly two years ago, why not do it again?… It WAS a very good Pearl…. If you recall, I used another piece of it yesterday, as well…. I didn’t realize how well it would fit in with today’s theme, until just now… It’s perfect, actually, as it also mimics the life cycle of a lawyer, from pupae (law student), to caterpillar (lawyers who have passed the bar), to butterfly (politician)…. Perfect!….

From 9/4/2012:

So there I am, cruising along in the database, and all these little pieces of observational excellence from Smart Bee keep popping up in my face. I figure that he (Smart Bee) must have something he wants to get across to the readership out there; who am I to argue? If I don’t do this, I could spend years trying to find a new quote there…. Smart Bee is very insistent when he gets a wild hair like this…. So, just follow the bouncing thought ball to the conclusion that is most obvious….

Sex! Lies! Drugs! Money! Power! Corruption! Man, I love Congress! — Smart Bee

Gun Control – the belief that government, with its great wisdom and moral superiority, can be trusted with a monopoly on deadly force. — Smart Bee

It has been determined that most teenage girls lose their virginity during the summer months. This stands to reason, since Congress is recessed at that time. — Smart Bee

Vote Democrat. It’s easier than thinking. — Smart Bee

Vote Republican. It’s easier than thinking. — Smart Bee (honest, both are in there….)

Congressional National Bank. Ours bounce higher and farther! — Smart Bee

“Crime does not pay … as well as politics.” — Alfred E. Newman

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

I forgot to mention: today’s picture is from the web site of Carol Welsh (link: http://radiatingblossom.wordpress.com/ ); on her site she posts poetry, quotes, and other forms of literary beauty, as well as pictures she creates of flowers…. Her photos are the cleanest, clearest, most gorgeous studies of single flowers I’ve ever seen… With her kind permission, I have copied literally hundreds of her photos, all of which became part of the slide show I use as my desktop background, and for my screen saver… each one is yet another example of her keen eye for, and appreciation of, great beauty, in nature, and in life…. And, her photos are my quest, to produce even ONE photo that is as beautiful as any one of hers….

Well! That turned out well, for such an effortful missive…. I’m feeling better, now, a little bit, having pushed through all the obstacles to completing this; no less pain, at the moment, but, now that I’ll stop typing for a while, it’ll calm down…. I’ll be able to apply a few ounces of magic cream to strategic spots around my skeleton, and find a little peace for a time… I hope you enjoy today’s post; it cost me a little more than usual, but, still came out alright…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, come hell or high water….

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

No sweet sorrow today for YOU, slick Willie….

Posted on September 3, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Tidal windstorm
Splits trees and rock,
Yet cannot last a day.
So much less, man’s work.

— Deng Ming-Dao

Have you seen this photo? By now, it’s all over the web…. I found it in the Week In Pictures feature, London Daily Telegraph, for the week of 8/29/2014. Taken by one Kristjan Madalvee; he shot this at the port of Vergi, one hour from his home in Talinn, the capital of Estonia….. Where the fuck is Estonia? Brilliant fucking shot, regardless of where it is…. So good, it almost, almost, puts the lie to the quote above it, from the Taoist master, Sifu Deng…. If naught else, the photo shows that we, as humans, with a sense of wonder and beauty, can appreciate that which we cannot fully comprehend, or emulate by the power of our will…

Sounds pretty highfalutin, doesn’t it? Even more amazing, that word, “highfalutin” IS IN MY SPELL CHECKER DICTIONARY! Wow…. I’ll have to use more words from the period and genre it came from…. not bad….. Any who, it’s a bit early, anyway, to start with such a deep, potentially controversial subject, so, we’ll just wander somewhere else in my head, to find a bit more amenable, or, at least, more malleable idea to play with for now….

Hmm…. this looks like an interesting corridor; let’s see what’s down here… Oh, my…. look at that. Over there, against the wall…. Do you see it? Aw, isn’t it cute? It’s a little haiku, missing the last two syllables, just waiting for us to find, so it can fulfill its destiny…. We’ll send it down to section two, where it can go on public display, once I finish it off…. Well, that was nice, eh? I don’t often get so lucky when looking for poems; usually they create such a turmoil inside me, it’s a vicious battle, with lots of attendant blood loss, to get them all the way out of my head…. so, this was a rather more pleasant way to find something I can use for that…. Bonus!

Serendipity seems to be hanging around today, so, I’m going to take advantage of that, and jump into today’s dive for interesting stuff to chew on, or look at, or just feel…. I have a feeling myself, that it could turn out pretty well, according to our usual loose standards, anyway…. I think, in fact, we’ll take the upcoming opportunity I see, right there at the end of this paragraph, to dive right into the day’s search…. Okay, almost there…. wait…. wait for it…. okay, NOW!….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Ignorance can be cured. Stupid is forever.” — Smart Bee, being logical again….

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

“It is up with you; all is over; you are ruined.” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Act i, Sc. 1, 9, (54.)

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/US-military-targets-Islamic-extremists-in-Somalia-5727512.php

Oh… why, look there! It’s us, bombing people again, without a declaration of war from Congress. I don’t know about you, but, I’m getting more than just a little perturbed, not to say infuriated, by the American public’s acceptance of these completely illegal (under our own laws….), immoral, unethical, and fucking useless in any humanitarian, or practical respect, completely unwarranted attacks, on whomever we decide is a threat to our…… our what? What were these, no doubt, evil people doing that threatened us, here in our big houses, across the big ocean, with our big airplanes ready to bomb anyone foolish enough to annoy our corporate masters?….

Oh, right, didn’t I mention? I have no doubt whatsoever that, whomever we’re bombing now, if we examine the expressed reasoning closely, we will find that, somehow, in some way, these people were disrupting the smooth flow of money into the coffers of one, or more, of our corporate masters, er, patriotic businesses… It wouldn’t be supportive of the government to NOT protect the interests of those paying for the bombs, now would it? Of course not…. Naturally, since it costs about $75 million/day to bomb them, at least the arms makers are showing a good profit, yes?….

Did you detect just a little smarmy disdain in the above? If you did, you got it; if not, you’re not paying attention… Not unsurprising, given the brainwashing from which most Americans suffer; the media has helped the Beloved Ruling Class, and their employers, the corporate snakeheads, to spread their manipulations and distractions… oh, hell, let’s just call them what they are…. the lies they use on a regular basis, to distract the public from examining any true facts of what they’re up to, to manipulate the public and the media into believing those lies, as well as believing the other lies they tell, just because they can’t help themselves… just as if it were true, or legal, or had anything to do with helping the common man….

“I wish everybody would have to have an electric thing implanted in our heads that gave us a shock whenever we did something to disobey the president. Then somehow I get myself elected president.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

Hmm… the New American Dream, I’d say…. already half-true….

You may be certain of this… whatever spun-sugar the administration, which (who?) ordered and carried out this bombing, (An act which, again, was initiated without informing either Congress, or the public, anything about it beforehand….), in their Olympian fashion, deigns to tell us in this instance, about why we must bomb the Somalians, whatever THEY are up to, (oh, right… the article explains, they are “extremists”…), will NOT be anything resembling the actual truth, or anything that would help to resolve any real issues…. It will merely be whatever their information spin doctors have told them will fool the public into backing them, and fool the media into reporting all of it as if it were legitimate in any respect…. Count on it….

“The NY Times is read by the people who run the country. The Washington Post is read by the people who think they run the country. The National Enquirer is read by the people who think Elvis is alive and running the country…” — Robert J Woodhead

You may also count on the fact that, most likely, this is all about somebody’s profit line, and protecting a small group of “corporate persons”, aka “the men who would be kings”, who tend to feel that the money flowing into their pockets is theirs by right of entitlement; they firmly believe they are entitled to make a profit, no matter the cost to anyone else… Accept that, believe that, and you’ll have made a start, at finding out the actual truth behind most of what our government does, in any situation that comes to the attention of the public, and the media…. It’s all about covering the corporate ass, you betcha….

Now, you may think I’m being an obsessive conspiracy-monger, but, I doubt that, seriously. I don’t think it is a conspiracy; it’s simply the way it is…. The assholes to whom I refer are the same assholes who have had this country, and, for that matter, the world, in a stranglehold since the dawn of the concept of money…. They are just men, canny, strongly self-centered, and completely amoral, who have made it their habit, and lifestyle, for millennia, to take advantage of the way the system works, which is exactly how they have arranged it to work, with them as the only people in a position to control the whole shebang, from the shadows, where they are safe from those upon whom they prey….

Now, the system has grown to be so ponderous, so huge and unmanageable, that, while still protecting their identities by the very size of the system, it’s getting away from them a bit; a lot of information is now floating around out there on the Web they would rather stuff back into the box…But, sadly, not enough, yet, to make a difference in how things work, or, to change where we are headed, as a direct result of the insane machinations of mankind’s most amoral members… It may be too late altogether, to prevent their deliberate perpetration of the inequities they’ve built into our culture from leading all of us, them included, down that path followed already by so many failed species that have lived, and died, on this ball of mud over the last few epochs, since life began here on Earth….

I have a suspicion that we Humans won’t make much more of a splash, or have any more effect on reality, than did the passing of the Dodo, when Homo horriblus’s (our) voracious appetite for destructive insanity, and our failure to live up to our potential , led us to killing the last of the defenseless birds, just a couple hundred, or so, years ago…. When we have, in our turn, passed into memory, the Earth will, with a resigned sigh, in sorrow for the potential beauty that will never be, shrug its mountainous shoulders, shift around some basic elements, and begin the long slow process of healing the wounds we will have left behind us, in the final cataclysmic throes of our death-song…..

“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

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

We’re in luck; but, then, you already knew that, as long as you read the intro section today…. Here is the haiku we found while wandering the back corridors of my mind…. along with another haiku, which I found, down another corridor I had entered, in trying to find the way back to the bus….

I love haiku, most likely because they are the only poems that don’t cause me any pain to write… In fact, I always enjoy the process with them…. It’s a bit like building myself a sundae, choosing the right ice cream, the right syrup…. and, with haiku, I can still eat the peanuts!… Yay! Here are the two for today…. Another reason to like haiku, in relation to the rest of this blog…. they aren’t long at all…. makes a nice contrast, doesn’t it? Enjoy!….

Luck at dawn

Swiftly, words float up
to the surface of my mind.
Serendipity.

~~ gigoid ~~

Sailing to Babel

Memory pulls hard
on reality’s anchor.
Anchor’s away, mate!

~~ gigoid ~~

Ah, hell, one more, just because I can….

Uncertainty

Save for the last time,
this time would be the first time.
Maybe, maybe not.

~~ gigoid, dubiously ~~

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

The Pearl that was posted on tomorrow’s date two years ago, in 2012, was a very good Pearl…. In that post, there was an excellent photo, found on Facebook, that I thought was hilarious…. I had posted it a week or so previously, then challenged my readers to come up with their own captions… This time, I know how to include their links, to the blog sites they have, all of which are well worth a visit, or many….. Enjoy!…..

From 9/4/2012:

I have collected the captions submitted by readers, and they all are so good, I’ve decided to list them all…. or most of them…. some were submitted by ffolkes with a strange look in their eyes; those were deemed inappropriate for a general audience, and were left out. Actually, I burned them, as the mental equivalent to toxic waste….. But, these are funny…..

“So what if they say we’re a strange couple! Just ’cause we like different food doesn’t mean we can’t eat from the same table….” ~~ Carolyn of ABCSpirittalk

Link: http://abcofspiritalk.net/

“I’m sorry, how was I to know it was a gay bar. ” ~~ Willowdot21

Link: http://willowdot21.wordpress.com/

“Ned’s friend, Murphy, has struck again… in the form of a feathered companion. ” ~~ Carol Welsh

Link: http://radiatingblossom.wordpress.com/

“Cat, are you sure we’re going about this the right way? I distinctly remember the saying being ‘as the crow flies’, not ‘as the cat,walks’.! ~~ odie mama

Link: http://eyesofodysseus.wordpress.com/

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

Some days, when blogging every day like this, it is necessary to accept the gifts we are given, without questioning why…. that’s why they’re called ‘gifts’…. In that spirit, today’s Pearl is hereby declared to be finished, complete with a number of gifts from whatever gods are currently on duty, fulfilling the universal requirements for serendipitous activity in this galactic sector….

gigoid has spoken…. so be it. …. 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.

Pulsating filigree in short pants…..

Posted on September 2, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Cogito, ergo sum presupposes “I”-ness.” — Smart Bee

“Damn straight it does! And that’s my hat, too!” — gigoid

Yep. It’s the same flower as in the photo that opened yesterday’s Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, this time in a shot of how it looked on my hat…. In my less than humble opinion, the flower makes the hat look a lot better than it does without, though it IS a handsome hat, to be sure…. The flower just adds the correct touch, to give the hat, which can be seen to appear, at best, merely functional, a touch of real beauty, so great, it makes whatever it touches more beautiful for its presence….

Gosh, you’d think I’d never taken ANY lessons in how to be a curmudgeon, to listen to me babble and gush over a flower, nice-looking as it is…. I suppose it just goes to show how little of a fuck I give, for any such labels that might be applied to me, under any circumstances…. Labeling people, (to the practice of which I confess full guilt, like everyone in this plane of existence), is a habit, hard to break, that constantly reinforces itself, as it just plain works sometimes…. but, it also tends to highlight, and thus make too important, the differences between people, allowing us to objectify and dismiss people for all the wrong reasons…

So, yes, I study, and practice, how to be a curmudgeon, but, that isn’t ALL I am, and never will be; I also like…. no, I LOVE flowers, and beauty, and the softer side of life that I often set aside, in order to deal with those harsher parts of reality that insist on making themselves such a nuisance in Life…..

How did we get here? I was going to talk about the two quotes, but, once again, went in a different direction than originally planned…. if what I do when I write could be said to be so organized as to lend itself to such as actual, real planning…. I look at this process in action, and realize it resembles my mental image of what some would call Chaos, mostly, more than anything else in reality…. But, then, I don’t try to analyze it at all, either, as I also look at it like sand… If I hold on to it too tight, it slips away, and I might not find that part of it I need ever again…. Silly personal fears, not even based on real stuff, I suppose, but, hey, what do you want?… I’m human, and therefore, a bozoid personality, at best…

At worst…. well, perhaps we should talk about that another time… Oh, look it’s getting close to the end of the intro section…. I wasn’t paying attention, and it crept up on me… We’ll have to discuss my shortcomings later, I’m afraid…. no time now…. Oh, look, it’s a bunny, AND a dinosaur!…

Right, so, I guess we’ll be off now, into the depths of the ocean of knowledge that is the Web, throw in some Smart Bee, some personal ~~smarm~~, er, charm, and find some pearls worthy of note….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Don’t teach your children what to think; just teach them to think.” — Tannenbaum

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

“The sunlights differ, but there is only one darkness.” — Ursula K. LeGuin, “The Dispossessed”

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Law-enforcement-employers-still-view-private-5722229.php?cmpid=hp-hc-bustech

I have but one, coined, word…. OUTFUCKINGRAGEOUS…. Though, not at all surprising, the information, and quotes, in this article are, to say the least, FUCKING INFURIATING, and, oh, I don’t know…. it makes me want to take one of these ASSHOLES by the lapel, and just BITCH-SLAP them, to see if THAT might get them to HAVE A FUCKING CLUE…..

Whew!… Okay, I feel a little better… Sorry to have shouted at you, or, in your apparent direction; none of it was aimed at y’all, or anyone I’ve ever called “ffolkes”… No, my anger, nay, my outrage, is confined to the bloody idiots, who, unfortunately are typically in positions of authority in our police departments, such as the one in the article who said, and I quote, directly from the article, “Obviously, when hiring someone who will serve as a public servant in law enforcement we do a thorough background check,” Corney said. “We turn over every stone. … Even now, it’s not a perfect system. So why would we want to restrict it?”

Do you hear it? The subtext in what he states here? “why would we want to restrict it?” Well, maybe, I thought immediately, because the law says you are supposed to?. Or, maybe, your “interpretation” of the law makes the (unwarranted) assumption that police forces shouldn’t be restricted by the same laws the rest of the populace is required to follow?… Perhaps he feels they are ‘entitled’ to not be restricted in their efforts to…. what? To know everything there is to know about everyone?

It seems to me, if they were really concerned about the relative trustworthiness of their job applicants, they would have them examined, thoroughly, by a psychologist, or even a psychiatrist, to determine their reliability, their moral and ethical strengths and weaknesses, and the suitability of their persona for this kind of important work…

A psyche evaluation makes much more sense to me; it gives them the information they SHOULD be considering in their candidates, not just their weak, stupid moments, but their tendencies, their decision-making skills, their flexibility, their courage, etc…. All of that, and more, would be much clearer, without having to invade their privacy, which still should be sacrosanct….

If all those who wished to be police officers at ANY level were required to undergo psyche evaluation, I think we would see a much different, much more intelligent, more efficient, and less violent institution, whose members would, once again, be viewed as they were in the past, as the best examples of integrity, honesty, courage, and, compassion for their fellow man, that our society can produce…. Instead, in today’s society, most police are seen, by the people they are supposed to protect, as examples of arrogant, racist, entitled bullies, flaunting their immunity from the same laws they enforce upon a fearful populace, teeming in destitute poverty, in so many inner city communities across this nation….

Unfortunately, in the minds of today’s modern police, and the mentality of most of those who end up in that field, the laws being enforced should not have to apply to them, or anyone in their position as the “guardians” of society…. In short, the field tends to attract those who need to be regarded as special, and important, just for doing the job they’ve chosen to do, no matter their motivation, or their talent for the job…. Being large, aggressive, and able to follow orders is more highly prized than compassion, judgment, or intelligence, in today’s culture of militarization, a process affecting of all of society….

I gotta take a break…. On Memorial Day, (today) this was the first news item that drew my attention, after finishing all the steps in posting the Pearl for the holiday (as per policy, and practice, I don’t recall mentioning it at all… I never do remember it IS holiday, until I’m done… Well, most of the time, if not never….)… When I read it, and saw the incredibly asinine quote you see excerpted above, I felt like a cherry bomb firecracker went off in my head… I damn near fell out my chair, literally, when I read those words “why would we… etc.”; I was so astounded my whole body gave a big jerk, throwing me off balance, and almost out of the chair…

Any who, break-time…. I’ve been writing straight for twenty minutes, in a rage, and need to settle…. As Arnold said, playing the Terminator, in the greatest acting performance of his life, (and, just for a second, think about THAT….)….. “I’ll ….”, well, you know what he said….

I am. Back. But, you knew that, didn’t you? I can always count on y’all to see what is necessary…. Now that I’m back, I’ll tell you…. I’m still mad as hell, and find myself wishing very badly I could justify typing the word “fuck” a few times more, just because it releases the anger so well.

But, I also typed so much on this already, my thumb is screaming, so, instead, I’ll inform you that I went to look for some pearls to go with this diatribe… One for the top, one for here, in the middle, to solidify the concepts under discussion, and provide the impetus for the remainder of the rant that is just waiting to burst out onto the screen…

Rather than take the chance of overdoing it, I’ll finish off these thoughts with the pearls I found… In fact, an entire seven-star old-school pearl, with parameters set to find whatever seems appropriate to the theme of the now-aborted politirant…. You can thank me later for sparing y’all from the rant itself…. I’ll just go sublimate, by going out into the Big Blue Room, & finding some poor officious bureaucrat to torment…. Sounds like fun!….. Y’all enjoy the pearl, and the pearls that make it special…. Hmm…. Since the poetry is next, I think I’ll format this into the center, to blaze the path….

“Earthmen like Ramses, Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Lee Kuan.
Your whole Earth history is made up of men seeking absolute power.”

~~ Spock ~~

Patterns of Force, stardate 2534.7.

`Business!’ cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. `Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!’

~~ Charles Dickens ~~

A Christmas Carol

“People seldom improve, when they have no other model but themselves to copy.”

~~ Oliver Goldsmith ~~

“I don’t know WHY I said that.. I think it came from the FILLINGS in my rear molars..”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

“Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.” — Thornton Wilder

“1935 will go down in History!
For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration!
Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead to the future!”

~~ Adolf Hitler ~~

(1889-1945), prior to confiscating all civilian firearms

“Between the vision and the act lies the shadow.”

— T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

Here’s a link I found, AFTER finishing the above…. It’s perfectly appropriate humor to serve as the final word today on this subject; it’s only here to lighten the mood a bit…. Enjoy!

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/slideshow/Who-were-the-most-hated-presidents-92564.php

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

While cruising through old Pearls, I found this, which was written over a two day period, sometime a couple years ago; I forgot to write down the date, and can’t find it now, offhand…. But, it’s a nice poem, I think, and matches the sort of mood I’m cultivating right now….

Serendipity Morning

My mind wants to fly,
my soul wants to hold close, the source,
strong, the moments of time;
each as precious as golden thread,
binding together such elements of longing desire.

Love hovers, always patient,
   seeking the open heart,
reaching for the promise of tomorrow…..
   only for one, only for now, only what is real….
Dreaming, the morning calls,
   heavy with mordant belief,
replete, and eternally alive…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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

“Once I belonged to a group that really had THE WORD. I fought like hell for them. But another group came along and exposed the word of my group as shallow and degenerate. They had a better word. So I quit the first group and lost all the friends I had made and I joined up with this new group. I fought like hell for them. But another group came around. They exposed the word of my group as false and materialistic. Their word was very much better. So I quit the second group and lost all the friends I had made. And I joined up with this new group. I fought like hell for them. Till this one guy came along and proved that there wasn’t any word at all. That I should go off as an individual and grow! So I quit the last group and lost all the friends I had made. And now I sit home alone all day and all I do is grow. It would be nice to join up with some others who feel the way I do.” — J. Feiffer

As the beginning of a pearl, this quote from Jules is perfect, whether to lead into a rant on human nature, or, just as easily, a five- or seven-star pearl of the old-school variety…. Since I ranted today already, y’all get to reap the benefit of that; we’ll make it an old-school pearl, and be content with that…. Besides, I used up all my angst complaining about assholes in badges…. We’ll start our search with no parameters, leaving the results to Smart Bee to determine the pertinent train of thought to board…. Enjoy….

Mythology, n.: The body of a primitive people’s beliefs concerning its origin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth, as distinguished from the true accounts which it invents later.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.” — George Eliot

“Curiosity is a lust of the mind.” — Thomas Hobbes

“A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: “Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time.” When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, “The one I feed the most.” — George Bernard Shaw

Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
My heart detests him as the gates of hell.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~
(1688-1744)
— The Iliad of Homer, Book ix, Line 412 —

“A democracy is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no property, and vulgar employments.” — Aristotle

“A man is called a good fellow for doing things which, if done by a woman, would land her in a lunatic asylum.” — H.L. Mencken

CARTESIAN, adj. Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, _Cogito ergo sum_ — whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: _Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum_ — “I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;” as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“And never think about the past. No regrets, ever.” — Robert Heinlein

Okay, so, it seems clear that Smart Bee has trouble counting; probably just gets distracted…. In this instance, I think the nine-star pearl that turned up is one of the most powerful ever, in some ways…. With two entries from the Devil’s Dictionary, and a closing thought from Bob Heinlein, (not to mention Pope holding the middle ground like a rock, bonded to the center of reality….), how can it lose? Abondanza, ffolkes… Smart Bee done good….

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

Yesterday, Memorial Day here in the US, the temperature here in the North Bay reached 91 bloody Fahrenheit degrees, about 36 Celsius, with the humidity natural to a city right on the edge of the Bay… in short, miserable, especially for us ffolkes with no A/C…. Too hot to go out, unless to find an air-conditioned environment that is comfortable enough to stay in…. hard for me to find, with my issues with being comfortable, at all…

It’s usually best to just stay home, lie on the floor in front of my little personal vortex fan, and pant like a dog, seeking the oblivion of the trance-like state one can sometimes find in high heat, which allows us to take our minds elsewhere, where it is icy cool, with sweet, cool air to breathe…. I lived through it, as always, and not too uncomfortably, & today looks to be better, with a promised 12-15 degree drop in the high temperature…. If the Weather Channel got it wrong, they’ll be getting a visit from me, personally….

Alright, let’s go over the checklist for the day, shall we? Okay, quote, picture, reasonably coherent intro (standards set at their customary lenient level), check… Section one, one link to an article demonstrating the latest outrageous statements of a brick in the “blue wall of police solidarity”, one decent, if a trifle abbreviated rant, complete with seven-star pearl and a bonus link for humorous contrast, check… Original poem, from the past, but, not too shabby, and quite romantic, if I do say so myself, check…. Section three, one fine nine-star pearl, with excellent balance and wit from some favorites….check… Closing remarks, check… Okay, I guess that means there’s nothing left for me to do, other than, maybe, beat on this dead horse a little while…. Okay, maybe not…. Instead, I’ll be good, and just say, 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.

gigoid

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

View Full Profile →

	katiemiafrederick on Are those Foster Grants to blo…
	katiemiafrederick on Funk-o-matic accessories are o…
	katiemiafrederick on Dodge those taxes with dignity…
	katiemiafrederick on Dodge those taxes with dignity…
	katiemiafrederick on But…. but…. what a…

gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Smart Bee

Thirteen metric tons of bio-hazardous waste? How droll….

Okay, but, who takes the hindmost?….

Eleventeen of one, twelve dozen of the other….

Paltry remnants of boldly patterned briefs….

Sans beau, there is no coup….

Polly frigging HATES crackers!…..

All those attending the apocalypse, board here….

Pending legislation will prohibit affordable pants….

No sweet sorrow today for YOU, slick Willie….

Pulsating filigree in short pants…..

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: