Look, Amelia, it’s a flock of abusive platitudes….

Posted on March 16, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Hardly a day goes by I don’t think about that old man…. I don’t know, exactly, why it still bothers me; I didn’t even know him. But, ever since that day we first saw him, standing there on the corner by the market downtown, waving around that silly old broken pistol, threatening to start shooting if people didn’t listen to him…. Of course, nobody ever did, and he never started shooting; he was just another crazy old coot with a decrepit war souvenir and too many memories…. Who wants to listen to some old guy rambling on about honor and duty and stuff, anyway?

I was only six the first we saw him there, outside the neighborhood store on 114th & Linden, when we came out from the weekly shopping…. I recall him standing up on that old wooden box, shouting and yelling at whoever walked by….. I remember, even then, in the middle of a New York winter, he didn’t have a coat….

I think that’s what bothered me about it for a long time…. At six, I still worried about people, and how they lived, so it bothered me to see this old man out in the cold with no coat…. I asked my mother why he didn’t have one, and she told me he refused to wear one, that he was too broken in his mind to understand it could hurt him; at six, this idea made him an irresistible bone for my mind to chew on….

REALITY BREAK: This is a message from normal space/time…. Well, make that, as normal as ever, I suppose…. I’m bored with that opening…. Okay, that’s a lie; I’m not bored, but I don’t like it, and it’s expedient to use boredom as an excuse …..Sometimes I forget, like everyone, that one MUST BE an example of what one preaches in re: honor and truth…. or, it’s just another bunch of BS…. Mama don’t allow no BS around here, so, the truth it must be, for this boyo….

I do get tired of being accused of being a miserable sinner, but, hey, all those hard-ass tightwads (or is that tightass hardwads?…) need to have somebody to pick on, and they don’t bother me much, so let ’em talk…. Now, where was I, before I so rudely interrupted myself?….

Ah, here we are…. Me apologia, but, I’m cutting this off here because I don’t like it much, and none of the faux introductions are biting at me to get turned into a full story, though, it may happen some day…. You’ll have to be patient, because it will be a while before I do get any of them completed…. It’s just not high on my list of stuff to get done right now…. Currently, I’m not sure what IS on the list, but, I know I’ve got one around here somewhere…. Maybe it’s in…. nope…. Ah well, I’ll look for that later…. I’m thinking right now I should either throw out another distraction, start over, or just get on with today’s dive for pearls….

As you might guess, I’m leaning toward the latter, as it’s the only one that fits in with the plan I have going…. a plan you didn’t even know was there, did you?…. C’mon, now, ‘fess up…. I managed to keep you from seeing this coming, didn’t I?…. Yep, I know I did, so there’s no point in denying….

Well, if you’re going to be THAT way about it, I suppose I’ll just have to assume control of the ship again, and take us out of here, before I lose track of how much fuel we have…. There’s probably enough, but, we don’t want to have to bail out on the way back because we ran out, now, do we? No, I didn’t think that would go over too well….

Ah, the hell with it…. Screw the Mr. Nice Guy routine…. Fuck it, ffolkes…. hang on, we’re goin’ for a dive!…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It is great good health to believe, as the Hindus do, that there are 33 million gods and goddesses in the world. It is great good health to want to understand one’s dreams. It is great good health to desire the ambiguous and paradoxical. It is sickness of the profoundest kind to believe that there is one reality. There is sickness in any piece of work or any piece of art seriously attempting to suggest that the idea that there is more than one reality is somehow redundant.” — Clive Barker
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“…when all government… in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1821

Before we begin, please read the article attached to the link below; it contains information that will be necessary to a full appreciation/understanding of the discussion to follow…..

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/FDIC-sues-16-big-banks-that-set-key-rate-5318301.php

After reading this article all the way through, I came perilously close to puking, only resisting the urge, strong as it was, because I wasn’t in a place where it would have been convenient….. However, I WAS able to determine, immediately upon completion of the article, that I would definitely be ranting on this one, for sure and for certain…. This CRIES out to discussed, and, who am I to destroy the wishes of such a plaintive, compelling cry for social justice?

Did you catch the key points in the report on these asshole bankers and their naked avarice? To me, one of the key points in the article, which shows just how ridiculous the whole thing becomes when examined in ANY light, is the sentence imposed on the banks for admitting their guilt…. Essentially, the decision says this: a) the banks were guilty of defrauding their customers (again)…. they admitted it without a qualm; b) they only have to pay back PART of what they stole by doing so, and c) they don’t have to go to jail, they get to stay in business, and keep ALL of the profits they made by this theft.

You know, it makes me wonder…. I’d wager serious money (if I could cover the bet…. I’m not a bank, and I bet with honor….)….. very serious money, that the banks, when they planned out their campaign of theft in this instance, included in their plans a certain amount of money to be set aside to pay the legal fees involved in defending themselves, once they were found out, and sued for the fraud….

I BET they knew before they started that, eventually, the SEC and their counterparts (i.e., government thieves….) in the BRC would catch them in their thievery, and take them to court, so they set aside a percentage of the profits to be made to cover that, and proceeded with the plan to steal from their customers, (i.e. US, you and me, and all the other little investors whose money they steal on a regular basis….), knowing ahead of time that they’d never do any time in jail, and could count on a certain amount of profit on the deal…

I don’t think anyone would take that bet, unless they’re stupider than they look….. Ffolkes, how much more proof is necessary? How many times do we have to let these assholes fuck everyone else in the world, and let them get away with it, before we do something about stopping it?

Personally, I’ve about had it up to here (makes motion at neck…) with their sheer gall, to carry out a scheme like this, in full view of the public, knowing they’ll be able to not only get away with it without ever spending any time in jail for their crimes, but will make a decent profit by doing so…. a profit they, of course, feel is their RIGHT to make, just because they want it…..

It’s not the money…. though, of course, it would help a lot of people if it wasn’t stolen…. No, it’s the sheer effrontery, the gall, the entitlement that gives these assholes the idea they can do this with impunity that bothers me the most…. It’s the kind of thing calculated to piss me off thoroughly enough to take action in a very real sense, even if that action isn’t necessarily the one that will help the most….

No, I’m tempted, almost beyond control, to go buy a gun, and a LOT of bullets that go with the gun, so I could start picking off the greedy bankers, inept and/or dishonest politicians, corrupt judges, aggressive, entitled, police ~~bullies~~ officers, pedophiliac, smarmy, manipulative priests & preachers, and all the other assholes who dump their loads of BS all over everyone else in the pursuit of their own agendas, never caring at all how many others they harm in the process…

Yep, ffolkes, the time is drawing nigh when my patience will be at an end, and I’ll actually DO something that will, if nothing else, make me feel as if I’d helped in a small way to put a stop to the bullshit going on all around us…. It may not change society, but I’ll damn sure feel a lot better, you betcha….

Bah, humbug! Writing about this has gotten me as worked up as reading the article did originally; I’m sitting here vibrating with anger at the corporate assholes who are constantly degrading life for the rest of us, and wishing there were some way to speed up the time until I can afford to buy a decent weapon (by “decent” I mean, of course, that it will do all I want it to do….)…. I have a feeling it won’t be terribly long now until that day actually arrives…. and I can’t wait, to tell the truth….

I’m too worked up to rant further about this, though I can feel a lot more inside me that needs to be released…. So, I’ll finish off with a little five-star pearl, using as a parameter the same subject upon which we’ve been gnawing…. Hey, it’s a quick, legitimate way to bring this to a dignified, if choppy, ending….. Enjoy….

— How many politicians does it take to change a light bulb? Four, one to change it and the other three to deny it. — Smart Bee

“Dealing with the government is like kicking a 300-pound sponge.” — Finagle’s Law of Government Contracting

“We are hypnotized into believing that two TV sets will make us twice as happy as one TV set.” — Laura Huxley (wife of Aldous)

“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.” — John E.E. Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902), — “The History of Freedom in Antiquity”

“I don’t want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.” — Spanish Proverb
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Yesterday’s poem reminded me why I love Emily Dickinson’s work….. and….. since I’m already in a mood from writing the above, I’m going back to the same well for more sustenance….

It was not death, for I stood up,
And all the dead lie down;
It was not night, for all the bells
Put out their tongues, for noon.

It was not frost, for on my flesh
I felt siroccos crawl,–
Nor fire, for just my marble feet
Could keep a chancel cool.

And yet it tasted like them all;
The figures I have seen
Set orderly, for burial,
Reminded me of mine,

As if my life were shaven
And fitted to a frame,
And could not breathe without a key;
And ‘t was like midnight, some,

When everything that ticked has stopped,
And space stares, all around,
Or grisly frosts, first autumn morns,
Repeal the beating ground.

But most like chaos,–stopless, cool,–
Without a chance or spar,–
Or even a report of land
To justify despair.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

Well, I feel better….. and that’s enough. I hope you enjoyed it as well (except for Shawna…. she doesn’t have to, if she doesn’t want to….That is, if she’s still out there, reading this….) (If she is, it would be nice to know…. hint, hint…)
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You know as well as I do what is coming now, so don’t tell me you weren’t expecting it….. Since we’re assuming prior knowledge here, I’m going to also assume y’all know how this works, so I’ll merely say this…. When picking these pearls, I had only one thought in mind, to use as a guide about what should, or shouldn’t, be included…. It’s really too bad the thought I had was so strange, so very odd, almost to the point of perversion, I had to throw it out, and find another one…. Unfortunately, on such short notice, I have no frigging clue as to what that one might be, so we’ll just have to deal with whatever shows itself, ‘kay?….. ‘Kay!….

BRAHMA, n. He who created the Hindoos, who are preserved by Vishnu and destroyed by Siva — a rather neater division of labor than is found among the deities of some other nations. The Abracadabranese, for example, are created by Sin, maintained by Theft and destroyed by Folly. The priests of Brahma, like those of Abracadabranese, are holy and learned men who are never naughty.

O Brahma, thou rare old Divinity,
First Person of the Hindoo Trinity,
You sit there so calm and securely,
With feet folded up so demurely —
You’re the First Person Singular, surely.
Polydore Smith

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“I’m not sure I want popular opinion on my side — I’ve noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts.” — Bethania McKenstry

“Forget about World Peace…Visualize using your turn signal.” — Bumper Sticker

(Irresistible side comment: I’d like to see this tattooed on the forehead of every police officer in America…. gigoid….)

But Memory blushes at the sneer,
And Honor turns with frown defiant,
And Freedom, leaning on her spear,
Laughs louder than the laughing giant.

— Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) — A Good Time going

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“YOW!! I’m in a very clever and adorable INSANE ASYLUM!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Okay, so it’s a strange one, even for around here…. deal, ffolkes, deal…. anything that starts with Ambrose Bierce, and ends with Zippy, is guaranteed to make some kind of logical, and/or illogical, sense…. It’s mathematically impossible for it to NOT make sense, so, believe me, it’s in there…. It may take a broken pencil or two, and possibly a month’s supply of erasers, but, it’s there…. Trust me…. It’s okay, I’m not a politician, so it’s really alright to do that….
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Whatever I had in mind when I sat down today to begin, this isn’t it. What it is, is, though, and, as we all know, Popeye is never wrong about stuff like this…. So, this means we’ll all just have to deal with that…. To reinforce that concept, and, I suppose, to enforce it as well, I’ll now go post this, entrusting the gods of email with the task of delivering these random musings to the Pearl Drops group, and, having faith the gods of html:protocol will enable their presence on the World Wide Web, even if hidden in my domain…. See you tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

We’re inspecting hot beef sandwiches…

Posted on March 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Howdy… Come on in, & look closely at this paragraph…. Please note the obligatory placement, here at the front of this article, where one expects to find it, in all its introductory glory. If it were another kind of paragraph, we wouldn’t be able to abuse it like we do here at ECR…. The others are all too vocal in their complaints. This one seems to just lie there and take whatever I throw its way, never complaining. Of course, it never does much to help, either…. it just sits there, allowing me to force practically ANYTHING down its gullet, to see if we can come up with something new and fresh for ffolkes to enjoy. I suppose it would be nice if it had a bit more pizazz, but, hey, what do you want in an actual intro?…. Style? Hah! Interest? Bah!…. A bold faced LIE! That’s what we need!…. It always works for Barack….

Sorry, couldn’t help myself….. I get carried away by my enthusiasm at times, as you may have noted…. or not. Regardless, I do tend to go a bit overboard in certain literary instances; it’s habitual, you see, from my misspent youth, the major portion of which I spent as a captive journalist in an unnamed Third World country….

I was on safari with my family when I was very young, when I was taken by slave hunters, and sold to a business man in China…. He forced me to slave away my tender years in his newspaper office, chained to a desk in the Features section, writing fluff pieces for the insert magazines in the weekend edition…. It was a torturous way to grow up, and I don’t miss it, except, occasionally, I’ll feel a pang of nostalgia for the fond memories I have of removing my master’s head from his shoulders with a nice, sharp katana….

Now that we’ve had our little sojourn into the land of fantasy, and a short break or two, (I’m a bit stiff this morning…. and not in a good way….), I think I’ve figured out how to extricate myself from this intro section with a bit less pain than usually is the case…. we’ll use some WD-40!…. It’s amazing how many things can be unstuck by a little bit of this technological magic…. Just a bit of it, right on the keyboard, and there’s no typing on it for hours, until it has all ‘penetrated’ to its required depth….. I know, it SOUNDS perverted, but it really isn’t any big deal, and for all its a tool, AND a household tip, it’s actually pretty clean in its habits…. Doesn’t whine much, either…

Of course, now that we’ve adopted this somewhat odd method of introductory shenanigans, there is a distinct possibility of becoming hidebound, or, alternately, completely deranged….. Both have been seen in clinical trials of this product, so, we’ll have to wait and see on those…. In the meantime, I’m looking back over what’s been done so far, and it’s not bad…. I don’t see any blood anywhere, and nobody has asked for any bandages; this makes for a nice, quiet morning, don’t you think? I do, sort of…. think, that is…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man’s deeper nature is soon found out.” — Oscar Wilde
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This pearl will be what I call an odd duck…. well, I guess one could say it already is, and I’m just pot/kettling, or, prognosticating without a license…. Any who, in the normal course of events in our mornings around here, a rant would be the order of the day for this point in time…. A rant, however, requires from me a certain state of mind, fueled by outrage, supported by angst-filled emotional turmoil left over from my days as a certified, full-on crazy dude, before I tore up my certificate, and went natural….

As is patently obvious by this time, that state of mind is in a different state, probably Minnesota by this time. (I don’t KNOW why it would, or should be Minnesota…. that’s just what was in the note…), so a rant won’t be forthcoming, despite having beau coups material to choose from out in the BBR…..

What I DO have for you is a very, very good article by one of my favorite columnists, on one of the subjects about which I tend to rant, to wit: recent events in the central arena of the political circus, wherein we have DiFi (Her Gargantuan Majesty, Senator Dianne Feinstein….), and her current feud with the CIA, over the continuing cover-up of their involvement in torture during the Shrub’s reign, a cover-up they have been (clumsily) trying to extend to include her precious Senate Committee on Intelligence, by refusing to show documents, or hacking into Congressional computers to try to steal back documents they didn’t want seen…. She is now pissed off at them, big time, and the following article discusses that issue with great clarity and insight….

After you read the article, like a good little Gentle Reader, I have included a nice little seven-star pearl for your reading pleasure, and, hopefully, your eventual enlightenment…..

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/DiFi-bites-the-hand-that-fed-her-5315594.php

(The parameter for this pearl is: “Politics, schmolitics…. Back off! We’re talkin’ business here!”…. Joe Lobbyist…)

CUI BONO? [Latin] What good would that do _me_? — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary

(You will find this engraved over the doorway to every law school in America….though, in many cases, the translation reads, “What’s in it for ME?”)

“Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 17

“God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.” — Gaiman and Pratchett, Good Omens

“There’s no problem so awful that you can’t add some guilt to it and make it even worse.” — Calvin and Hobbes

“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” — Joseph Joubert

“All the world’s a Schrödinger Box, and we are merely kitties.” — Smart Bee

“We read of a certain Roman emperor who built a magnificent palace. In digging the foundation, the workmen discovered a golden sarcophagus ornamented with three circlets, on which were inscribed, “I have expended; I have given; I have kept; I have possessed; I do possess; I have lost; I am punished. What I formerly expended, I have; what I gave away, I have.” — Gesta Romanorum — Tale xvi

No, I don’t know, so, please, stop asking me why it turned like that…. It just did, and wouldn’t let me turn it back…. Oh well, there must be a lesson in there we need to learn…. I’ve found that to often be the case when I don’t get a pearl’s subconscious point at first look… It can take a few readings, and some percolation of ideas before it becomes clear just what my inner sage was trying to get us to see…. I think, though, given the pearls I see here, you can trust that this lesson is one worth meeting the challenge to figure it out….
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There are days when finding the right poem becomes problematic…. Usually, it’s because I can’t make up my mind, not for any esoteric, intelligent reason, so there’s no need for sympathy…. I’m just telling it like it is…. Any who, in many of those cases, as in today’s instance, I turn to the person whom I most admire as a poet…. If you asked me “why”, my only response would be “because”…. because of poems like this….

Death sets a thing significant
The eye had hurried by,
Except a perished creature
Entreat us tenderly

To ponder little workmanships
In crayon or in wool,
With “This was last her fingers did,”
Industrious until

The thimble weighed too heavy,
The stitches stopped themselves,
And then ‘t was put among the dust
Upon the closet shelves.

A book I have, a friend gave,
Whose pencil, here and there,
Had notched the place that pleased him,–
At rest his fingers are.

Now, when I read, I read not,
For interrupting tears
Obliterate the etchings
Too costly for repairs.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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I don’t know if it is obvious to y’all, but I’m suffering today from severe burn-out; my creative juices are dried up, to the point of choking me on dust when I try to compose anything more complex than whining, as is patently the case today. Rather than subject y’all to any more of my less-than-dignified complaining, we’ll go for another old-school pearl, with the only parameter being that the each included pearl should say something “nice”…. Let’s see how realistic THAT is….

“For man, as for flower and beast and bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive.” — David H. Lawrence

(It took me four readings of this before I finally figured out what other name David H. Lawrence is known by…. think, “D.H…”) (Yeah, me too…. Doh!)

“There is no difference between a wise man and a fool when they fall in love.” — Murphy’s laws on sex

“It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money.” — Elinor Goulding Smith

“Sir? She’s giving “Reality” as a *previous* address!” — Smart Bee

“Do not do unto others as you would they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.” — George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903), Maxims for — Revolutionists: The Golden Rule

“I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?” — The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Consider the daffodil. And while you’re doing that, I’ll be over here, looking through your stuff.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

I don’t care what anyone says…. I like it. Since it, surprisingly, measures 8 on a scale of 10 for whimsy, it may be one of the better pearls we’ve found in some time…. I hope reading it is as much fun for you, as putting it together was for me….
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Having thus completed the required number of sections, without calculating the cost, or the consequences, I shall now proceed to perform the last act of defiance…. meaning I’ll go post it, regardless of how insane that may seem to anyone else…. I stopped worrying about that a long time ago, thank goodness…. Fair warning: see you tomorrow….

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

Dreaming in Calliope’s house….

Posted on March 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

In the near distance, sharp echoes of gunfire erupted, shattering the peaceful quiet covering the wide, debris-littered street, reluctantly revealed in the dim light of the struggling morning sun. In the bitter cold, icy clouds of vapor bled slowly from the mouth of the man standing in a doorway, as he gazed with intense concentration to his left, down the street toward the sound of guns in the distance. Nothing else moved, nothing made a sound….

Then that damn cat jumped on the back of the chair, again, breaking my concentration into tiny little pieces, and I gave up…. Sorry, ffolkes…. I HAD wanted to write a brilliant fictional opening this morning, but, my “muse” (as my blogger-friend Lou suggests) doesn’t particularly care for what I came up with, apparently, because she keeps doing stuff to distract me from trying to write it. Who knew that a 5 lb. black cat could be a literary critic? Actually, it’s a bit lowering, thinking about how I COULD have been a rock star….

Not really, it just sounded good, and gave a good finish to a weak paragraph…. SIGH…. How frightfully depressing! I’m reduced to critiquing my work paragraph by paragraph, just so I can monitor the quality of what I’m creating….. How sad can one get? I suppose I could ring up one of those support groups for struggling authors, but, that would mean I’d have to actually SPEAK to another person…. Today, that’s probably not a good idea….

Last time I felt like this, I experienced a deep fugue state, which apparently lasted three days, or so, by all evidence…. When I woke up, seven local politicians had gone missing, and were never seen again…. That’s not to imply that I had anything to do with it, but, such events have happened before, in other towns, at other times, and, well….. Hell, I don’t actually KNOW for sure that I did it…. I DID send some nice flowers to the families…. But, I think I’ll just stay in today, and not go looking for trouble…. it always manages to find me anyway….

I wonder, do other bloggers have this sort of difficulty? Or is it just me? Homicidal urges notwithstanding, I don’t believe I’ve been overly troublesome for society to have to deal with; I’ve managed to stay out of jail thus far in my life (I’m not counting that one time in Guatemala…. we broke out the same day they put us in there, and we didn’t actually KILL anyone, so, I don’t think it counts….) I suppose I should just use all my experiences as material, and write the story I’ve lived…. and then I realize, A) nobody would believe it, and B) not even I could be so egotistical as to think my own life would be of interest to enough ffolkes to warrant such indulgence….

Oh well, at least I have this time each day to pull this crap out of my head, where it (obviously) would fester, and put it onto the screen, where the only possible trouble comes only if others take it seriously…. which I know MY Gentle Readers would NEVER do…. They’d know better….. On that note….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
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“Rdio drops Echo Nest after Spotify move” — SFGATE news headline, financial section

What does that MEAN? Unless one knows it comes to us from a financial page, this sentence would be nearly impossible to decipher…. unless, of course, it were a coded message…. In that case, I’m sure the NSA, (or any other of our fine public institutions that deals in encryption-breaking, such as the FBI, CIA, and, no doubt, a number of others), wouldn’t have any difficulty at all in drawing every last iota of meaning out it….

As it is, one need only speak the technical language of business-speak, whereupon it becomes clear we’re talking about some companies going through merger & acquisition contortions, jockeying for a bigger piece of whatever pie they’re consuming…. But, hey! It COULD have been a terrorist plot… sure it could…..

I took today’s inspiration for this short period of ranting from Reality…. I ripped it out of the headlines. just like Reality rips poems out of my soul, with no mercy, and a lot of bloodshed, metaphorically speaking…. In this particular case, the metaphorical blood will show up as I rend the flesh and limbs of whatever poor member of our Beloved Ruling Class who draws my ire, and my attention today….. Oh god… I just realized, this means I’m going to have to actually READ that article, so I’m not talking through my ass…. Hmm… or maybe…. yeah, that’s better….

Rather than take the chance of becoming incapacitated by the sheer tedium of that business report, I’ll find an appropriate pearl on the same concept, and use THAT as my springboard, saving Rdio and Spotify for my coups de gras, nearer the end, where the blood loss won’t have such a deleterious effect on anyone’s sensibilities…. Yeah, that’s the ticket…. be right back with that…. Okay, so it took a little longer than I’d surmised it might…. you never noticed, anyway, did you?…. Nope… so, to try to keep the BS at a minimum, (oops, too late…. ), here ’tis…..

“I know everything, I just can’t remember it all at the same time.” — Sara Kate Robinson

Oops…. sorry, wrong one…. Ah, here we go…. check this out….

“Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Chap. xvii

Damn, that’s good, but it’s not the one I wanted, either…. Where’d I put that damn thing?….

“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.” — Oscar Wilde

Ah, the hell with it…. I can’t find it, so, I’ll just finish off what is now an old-school pearl, with a more general theme than the intended rant…. I’ll see what I can do about the rant later…. for now, I’d best let Smart Bee get this out of its system, by letting it give me four more pearls, to make this one of the seven-star variety….

“The earth hath skin, and the skin hath diseases. One of these…is called man.” — Nietzsche

“A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” — James Joyce, “Ulysses”

“Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” — Albert Einstein

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don’t try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

— Tao Te Ching

So be it….. gigoid has spoken…. he didn’t say much, but, he spoke, so there….

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/10695841/In-pictures-Artist-Saint-Hoax-transforms-world-leaders-into-drag-queens.html

After I finished the above section, and had uttered the final “so there”…. I went for a cruise on the internet, to the UK Telegraph news site, where I came across this WONDERFUL set of pictures, all of which you can see by following the link…. One of them is below this, to give you a taste of them…. they’re all brilliant, and hilarious…. Enjoy!

(I couldn’t figure out anywhere else to put this, so you get it here, in this weirdest of pearls, which resembles nothing I’ve ever produced before…. and don’t ask me to tell you what THAT means!…. Or, for that matter, what any of this means…. I’m done worryin’ ’bout tryin’ to figure it out…..)

_____________________________

“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.” — Emily Dickinson

A Man’s a Man for A’ That

Is there for honesty poverty
That hings his head, an’ a’ that;
The coward slave – we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a’ that!
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
Our toils obscure an’ a’ that,
The rank is but the guinea’s stamp,
The man’s the gowd for a’ that.

What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, an’ a’ that?
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,
A man’s a man for a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
Their tinsel show, an’ a’ that,
The honest man, tho’ e’er sae poor,
Is king o’ men for a’ that.

Ye see yon birkie ca’d a lord,
Wha struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that;
Tho’ hundreds worship at his word,
He’s but a coof for a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
His ribband, star, an’ a’ that,
The man o’ independent mind
He looks an’ laughs at a’ that.

A price can mak a belted knight,
A marquise, duke, an’ a’ that;
But an honest man’s aboon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa’ that!
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
Their dignities an’ a’ that,
The pith o’ sense, an’ pride o’ worth,
Are higher rank than a’ that.

Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a’ that,)
That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an’ a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
That man to man, the world o’er,
Shall brithers be for a’ that.

~~Robert Burns ~~

_____________________________

Apparently, Smart Bee has rebelled, as it did in the first section, on previous occasions…. I found this old-school pearl seemingly comprised of the same sort of unintended collection that occurred above…. It’s pretty good, all things considered, so, I’m being lazy again, and putting it in here, even though I haven’t ranted today…. I know, breaks your heart, don’t it?…. (I may be an egotist, but, I’m NOT stupid, you know…) Any who, enjoy this blast from the past, ffolkes…. it’s your last chance today to do so….

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

From 12/4/2012:

So, I’m diving around, looking for oysters, and these random quotes on various aspects of religion kept popping up. Since I’m not particularly bursting with material, or angst, sufficient to either rant, or write much of interest, I thought I’d string them together for an old school pearl…. my default position in these instances. There is no real point to be made here, though it is entirely possible that there is one…. I just like these because they made me think…. Hopefully, they’ll do the same for you…. enjoy!….

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” — C. S. Lewis

“A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.” — James Feibleman, “Understanding Philosophy”, 1973

“While it cannot be proved retrospectively that any experience of possession, conversion, revelation, or divine ecstasy was merely an epileptic discharge, we must ask how one differentiates “real transcendence” from neuropathies that produce the same extreme realness, profundity, ineffability, and sense of cosmic unity. When accounts of sudden religious conversions in TLEs [temporal-lobe epileptics] are laid alongside the epiphanous revelations of the religious tradition, the parallels are striking. The same is true of the recent spate of alleged UFO abductees. Parsimony alone argues against invoking spirits, demons, or extraterrestrials when natural causes will suffice.” — Barry L. Beyerstein, “Neuropathology and the Legacy of Spiritual Possession”, The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII, No. 3, pg. 255

We are arguing like a man who should say “If there were an invisible cat in that chair, the chair would look empty; but the chair does look empty; therefore there is an invisible cat in it.” — C.S. Lewis

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

“…there can be no public or private virtue unless the foundation of action is the practice of truth.” — George Jacob Holyoake

No, it isn’t a trick…. The last one was, indeed, added on purpose, and actually brings all the rest into focus, making what I said above about this pearl having no point a lie…. or perhaps, premature ejaculation would be more appropriate….. Whatever it is, or might have been, or isn’t, it is what it is, so there…. And, believe it or not, it actually makes some sense, on a very basic level…. Any who, it was a few moments of exercising a muscle we all need to keep strong, so, all is well that ends well, yes?….. And, at the very least, you may comfort yourself with knowing it is ended….

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

Or is it?….. cue Twilight Zone theme music…. dedo dedo dedo dedo…. dedo dode dahhhhhh! Ha ha ha ha ha….. It will NEVER be over…… except in your dreams, all of which have turned to nightmares….. You may go now, if you dare….
_____________________________

I’m fairly certain the events that have transpired here this morning would fall under the heading of Results of Unintended Consequence. The only fresh portions today are at the beginning, and at the very end…. Everything in between those two points was created yesterday, or much further in the past….

Looking back over it all not only convinces me of the truth of my categorization, but also establishes a new, if all-too-achingly-familiar, pattern of insanity and self-indulgent egoism. As such, it may not be exactly the most enlightening thing you’ll read today, but, it will most certainly be the most challenging, in re: it can alter, or at least affect, your own level of insanity…. That being said, I think it’s probably best if we go now, before the authorities arrive…. See ya tomorrow, if I’m not in jail, or on the run….

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

Dead ducks found on subway–fowl play suspected…

Posted on March 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I apologize most heartily for the title today; I couldn’t resist the pun, or the fun…. Since I don’t recall hearing it before, (This is probably a lie, but, we’ll let it lay, or lie…. Oh, hell, we’ll let it alone…), to me, it’s a new pun, which justifies any and all attempts to share it…. or, as some states call such self-indulgent behavior, a misdemeanor hate crime….

It isn’t that I don’t understand those states’ objection to punning, but, I think a minimum sentence of five years at hard labor is a bit harsh, don’t you?….. I suppose I should feel lucky I live in a state where it is still considered a social faux pas, without entering the realm of criminality….

Now that the fantasy portion of our program (pogrom?) is completed, or, at least, neglected due to disinterest, we can go on to bigger and hopefully better things…. I’m up, in theory, at a time I’m having a hard time believing, given my habits of late…. It’s almost 5 AM, and I just finished sleeping for a solid eight hours…. so long, I had time to pass through the point where the body is rested, to the point where it is becoming MORE stiff and sore from laying down too long…. I got up to a bit of stiffness, but, thanks to my new magic cream, it won’t last long….

I found a new product at the medical cannabis store I’ve been going to; it’s a topical pain relieving cream that gets spread on the skin over any part of the body that is hurting, such as shoulder joints, lower back, hips, etc…. It is extremely effective for almost all the different pains I’ve tested it on….

It relieves pain and stiffness in the back muscles… it makes the hips stop singing…. and it works wonders on sore joints like the wrist or thumb, at those times when arthritic pain strikes…. It acts almost instantly; I have milady apply it to my entire back, and within a moment or two, it feels as normal as it ever gets, giving a feeling of release you would not believe….

As I said, it’s pretty magical stuff, especially for those of us who know the accuracy of the old adage that says, “True freedom is release from pain.” The release I feel when my back stops hurting is phenomenal, almost to the point of giddiness, and makes me understand why the pharmaceutical companies are so worried about these products hitting the market….

This cream alone could completely destroy the market for products such as Ben-Gay and Tiger Balm, as well as threatening the entire line of pain killers like Aleve or Tylenol, that are designed for arthritis pain…. They’re all unnecessary in the extreme if one possesses this magic cream, which the Big Pharm companies don’t have in their formularies…. In other words, it would eat into their bottom line profits, thus making them nervous to know the products are out there, not under their control or influence… They’re asininnies, they can’t help being assholes….

So, now that we’ve explored further into the details of my life more than is either necessary, warranted, or even desired, we can at least go on to bigger and better things, as I’ve again managed to go completely overboard with this sharing of TMI, or TMOI (Too Much Obscure Information)…. At any rate, we’re done here, so we can go for a nice, quiet dive for pearls, to soothe the savage breast…. Oh wait, that’s music… Hmm, okay, well, just put on your earphones, plug in the jack, and you’ll have music…. even if it IS just public radio, and it’s time for their Gardening Hour….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Change is the essential process of all existence.” — Spock, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” stardate 5730.2.

(FYI, today, the stardate is, officially: [-27} 00060.0 The -27 means it is now twenty seven years prior to mankind’s first foray into interstellar space, using the Cochran ftl (faster-than-light) engine, as noted in the History of the Galaxy, Star Trek universe…..)
_____________________________

As noted, I’ve started a bit late, and want to get done in jig time today…. This means some cheating, if only by making this first section the old-school pearl for today, rather than ranting right away…. which is another cheat that will come later…. In the interval, let’s enjoy a random, harlequin pearl, followed by one of my favorite poets, and one of my favorite of his poems…. Abondanza!….

“As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose.” — Bhagavad Gita

“A lot of what I say comes off as political satire. In that, I have a lot in common with Congress.” — Solomon Short

“It is better to have a little than nothing.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 484

“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.” — Voltaire

“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.” — James Thurber

“Everybody thinks himself so well supplied with common sense that even those most difficult to please. . . never desire more of it than they already have.” — Rene Descartes

“Ah, tell them they are men!” — Thomas Gray (1716-1771) — On a Distant Prospect of Eton College, Stanza 6

Damn!…. Sometimes, this process just amazes me, at how it can produce such depth of meaning when none is sought after during the search…. This, ffolkes, is one DEEP pearl…. I hope you enjoy it, and find the point to which I refer…. If not, no worries, as this one, due to its not being listed on the curriculum listings, will NOT be on the Quiz….
_____________________________

As noted above, a classic poem from an acknowledged Master….

A Draught Of Sunshine

Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port,
Away with old Hock and madeira,
Too earthly ye are for my sport;
There’s a beverage brighter and clearer.
Instead of a pitiful rummer,
My wine overbrims a whole summer;
My bowl is the sky,
And I drink at my eye,
Till I feel in the brain
A Delphian pain –
Then follow, my Caius! then follow:
On the green of the hill
We will drink our fill
Of golden sunshine,
Till our brains intertwine
With the glory and grace of Apollo!
God of the Meridian,
And of the East and West,
To thee my soul is flown,
And my body is earthward press’d. –
It is an awful mission,
A terrible division;
And leaves a gulph austere
To be fill’d with worldly fear.
Aye, when the soul is fled
To high above our head,
Affrighted do we gaze
After its airy maze,
As doth a mother wild,
When her young infant child
Is in an eagle’s claws –
And is not this the cause
Of madness? – God of Song,
Thou bearest me along
Through sights I scarce can bear:
O let me, let me share
With the hot lyre and thee,
The staid Philosophy.
Temper my lonely hours,
And let me see thy bowers
More unalarm’d!

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

The last three or six Pearls have all been either over 3000 words, or very close to breaking over that limit; one of them came in at a whopping 3900+….. It hasn’t been deliberate, in the sense I don’t start with a number of words in mind… I just like to keep writing until done…. But, that’s a lot, so, I’ll try to keep this a bit shorter today, to keep from driving too many ffolkes away, chased there because they’re tired out from fighting the fatigue factor that is often found when reading my blog…. Occupational hazard, I suppose.

I only say this because I COULD rant further about this subject today; I’ve got plenty of angst biding its time inside me, especially for the corporate members of the Asininnies, the ones I consider to be the absolute WORST of those who prey on mankind…. Well, okay, but, wait…. I only put them there on those days I DON’T put the men, and, sadly women, who enable, and profit from, the abuse of women in the sex trafficking trade into that primary position on my list, the list of those the world would be better off doing without….

Both of these groups, as far as I’m concerned, are only worthy of becoming the target of any right thinking person with a gun in their hands, no trial needed…. I think, in those two cases, I wouldn’t mind playing God, making up my own mind as to who is guilty…. Nope, no trouble at all, not when the crimes are as egregiously inhuman as those perpetrated by these two groups….

As you can see, it wouldn’t take much to get me going, so, I’ll leave it there, and let you enjoy this piece, from a couple years ago, addressing a subject near and dear to my heart…. or, at least, to my head….

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

From 12/4/2012:

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

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

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

Mr. Heinlein’s character, is a young woman with designer genes, & a genius IQ, giving her almost superhuman powers, as well as a strong portion of Heinlein’s innate sardonicism, as part of an assignment from her boss, is required to perform a research and analysis of how the major corporations in the world affected the political and economic scenes of their society, obliquely referring, of course, to the one we have now.

It’s a very interesting part of a very good book, and well worth a read, not only for its perspicacity in explaining the piracy we are seeing today, but because Heinlein was a master storyteller, who created fascinating characters in fantastic situations, making it all seem perfectly normal and real.

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

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

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

Unfortunately, these men (and they are almost ALL men….) will not give up their power and control without a fight. They will not respond to reason, giving up all their wealth and perceived power, to benefit the rest of mankind. They will not suddenly see the light, and give it all back. They will have to be rooted out like weeds, tough, hardy weeds; ultimately, they MUST be destroyed, if we are to have any chance of survival….

It is unfortunate, but no other method will work, and it brings with it the danger of falling into the same kind of behavior by which they have always achieved their own ends. But, I can see no other way to solve the issue, since they will not cooperate with the rest of us for the benefit of all….

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

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

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

–Smart Bee
_____________________________

I made it…. When I started, I had some doubts, but, all went well, and it’s done…. I think…. They don’t call me “the dubious” for nothing, you know…. Any who, I say it’s done, and, since I’m the final arbiter of all such questionable issues, it’s done…. Nyah, nyah, nyah…. Okay, I’m now done being three years old, and I’m outta here, before I get any sillier (That probably isn’t possible, from a reality-based viewpoint; nevertheless, it had to be said, for form’s sake….)…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

We’ll find some in the bargain basement….

Posted on March 12, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Hello there… When I lay down last night to sleep, at 8:00 PM, or thereabouts, I had little idea I’d be up now, at 2:00 AM, asking myself why I ever thought I liked cats, or where I put the damn squirt bottle, so I could soak its evil little ass with sulfuric acid… or, with just the water in the bottle. The acid will have to wait until I catch it, preferably by the throat….

At approximately 1:45 AM, I was awakened by some hard-to-identify, weird scratching noises, coming from somewhere in the bedroom…. Investigation found the cat, underneath the laundry basket, digging at the carpet, just for fun, I guess…. I chased her out of the room, & decided to just get up, as I was now fully awake, thanks to the middle of the night search routine…..

This is fucking early, ffolkes, even for me…. I’ve been sitting here staring at this mostly empty screen now for a good twenty-five minutes, with nothing but static running through my mind….. Great….

Now I’m stuck awake, without the boon of being able to write, or even thinking about writing, to help pass the time until the rest of the hemisphere gets going…. I’m smart enough to remember that the ffolkes on the other side of the world are already up…. as well as, obviously, too stupid to outwit a four-pound feline with a brain the size of a walnut….

I swear, though, this IS the cat from Hell you hear about so often….. She seems to have a direct line to Murphy’s office, where she gets advice on timing her acts of instigation to perfection…. I’ve never seen one better, as she seems to get us when we are least expecting it, every time….

She has her morning wake up routine down to a science, knowing she can get me up anytime at all, as long as it is AFTER my lady has gone to bed, so it will wake her up, too…. For some reason, the cat likes BOTH of us to be awake whenever she is, even if it is the middle of the night…. Neurotic little asshole…

Ah well, at least she’s stopped her old trick, of “accidentally” clawing one’s toes at night while stretching….. I declare, I really don’t miss that particular habit she used to display…. Waking up from sleep to excruciating pain in one’s toe is not what I’d call conducive to a restful night, and she used to get one or the other of us a couple times a week, before apparently giving it up….

I guess she must have gotten tired of flying out of the bedroom, as opposed to walking out under her own power…. I can be a bit irritable when awakened like that, and show a strong tendency to throw whatever comes to hand….. hard…. I know its cruel, but, hey, at that time of night, whatever comes to hand is gone before my mind registers what it might be…. living or inanimate, doesn’t matter at that point…. it’s going to fly….

Well, since there doesn’t seem to be much else to do at this time of the day, and, I’ve apparently blathered about nothing much for long enough to fulfill the local requirements for such documented insanity (too bad I can’t get a discount for how early I had to start….), I may as well get a head start on the dive for the day…. Of course, I won’t be diving right off, as today’s first section is set aside for a new-format pearl, but, I’ll get wet a bit later, for section three’s old-school pearl…. Whatever, right?….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Yow! We’re going to a new disco!” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

So, today, we’re going to use the newest format for a pearl of virtual wisdom…. This is the one where I show you a link, to an article that, to me, demonstrates one (or more) facets of how bad, weird, strange, and/or screwed up the world has become, (or, as in one case today, how good things CAN be, if well-written), followed by a comment or two from yours truly, to highlight whatever point has been dug from the article’s subject matter for discussion…. Easy, right?….. Well, I like it, so let’s give it a whirl, okay?…..

Our first article is a discussion that shows, once again, just how low the butt heads in the cyber-security sector of our government will stoop to protect their asses from prosecution…. and just how far they’ll go to spy on whomever they can…. regardless of WHO it might be…

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/S-F-judge-blocks-destruction-of-NSA-phone-records-5305045.php

I’m encouraged by this decision; it’s one of the first that indicates there might just be hope of putting a stop to their machinations, at least in this particular arena…. It’s getting harder for them to hide what they’re up to, thanks to our über-patriot, Eric Snowden, may he be forever blessed for his sacrifice…. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m just a little pissed off at the administration and the PTB** for their harassment of this man, and hope he is able to find some peace…. I also hope that, someday, he will be able to return home, to the hero’s welcome he deserves….

** To be clear, the “administration and the PTB”, along with their myrmidons, the NSA and other cyber-security agencies that steal data, or acquire and use the data gathered…. are the “their”, and the “they” of whom I speak above, (“their machinations” “to hide what they’re up to”), who are illegally spying, or manipulating data, or making false statements to attempt to deny or cover up their guilt….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Former-Christie-aides-to-judge-Quash-subpoenas-5305649.php

When I saw this, my first, immediate reaction to hearing these assholes say they don’t want to have to ‘fess up to what they’ve done was, “Oh, those POOR babies! They’re being SO persecuted…. and all they did was a) commit felonious activities while in a position of authority, for the purposes of political punishment, and b) act like the guiltiest bloody assholes they could when caught, attempting to cover up the incident, instead of just admitting to their foolishness…” As might be surmised, I’m not terribly sympathetic to their pain, as they are getting exactly what they deserve….

I can only hope that the shit they flung around in their mad attempts to hide their guilt gets all over that major asshole, Chris Christie’s, shoes and coattails, and is dirty enough that he will be forced to drop the insane idea that he is an appropriate candidate for a major office…. I don’t think the rest of this country is quite ready for a New Jerseyite in the White House…. That particular state has always had its own strange methods of political action, which is, quite simply, too frigging crazy for the mainstream….

Think about it…. it would be like “Goodfellas” in lock step with a Tea Party Congress…. Brrr…. the very thought makes me shudder….

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/Continents-roam-people-come-and-go-5304865.php

As usual, Jon Carroll applies his particularly acute vision and his very personal, companionable writing style to say a lot of the same stuff I’ve been ranting about over the last few months…. and says it more engagingly, and much more clearly than I…. I’m not ashamed to say he’s better at this than I am; I’m a realist, and I’ve always appreciated his intelligence, and his very balanced outlook on reality….. A good piece, well worth a read….

http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Feinstein-blasts-CIA-over-torture-probe-documents-5307500.php

I’m not sure how to take this article…. Dianne the Gargantuan has been one of the most vocal supporters of this administration’s policies on the subject of illegal surveillance, even going so far as to throw her support behind the potUS, making a number of supportive statements as part of the program (pogrom?) of persecution against Mr. Snowden….

Now, however, it seems the table has been turned, and she, along with her oh-so-powerful committee members on the Combined House and Senate Intelligence Committee have been the targets of the outrageous spying being done, this time by the CIA, in conjunction with the NSA, the FBI, and all the other federal agencies who have a hand in the “War on Terrorism”…. They’ve been messing around with trying to hide documents that prove their complicity in torture during numerous interrogations, which occurred, naturally, under the Shrubs….

Now that this sacrosanct committee has suffered at the hands of these out-of-control dogs-off-their-leash, who aren’t afraid to steal from, and manipulate, whomever they see as an enemy, she’s all a-flutter, and very angry that this agency, an arm of our own government, has been spying on, and manipulating data at the expense of their own governing members!! Me, I wonder why she is so surprised, even if I understand why she is so mad…. Welcome to the club, Di-Fi…..

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/San-Jose-police-officer-charged-with-rape-5306907.php

I really don’t think I need to comment much on this…. It’s pretty clear that this is just one more example of how the police forces in this country attract the most aggressive, angry individuals, with the accompanying sense of undeserved entitlement, to work for them, refusing to consider that their recruiting tactics, and their own lack of ethical discipline, are the very reasons they continue to have these kinds of incidents take place….

It is my firm opinion that the job of police officer, military officer, fireman, or any other type of public service job that has people put into positions of authority over the public, should ONLY be filled by people who have passed certain psychological tests, to weed out those people who will, if given a chance, take advantage of their position….

I believe this should be the case now, and should have been the case for a at least 50 years, since our knowledge of psychology advanced to the point of being able to test for these attributes in people….. If we tested applicants for these kinds of public service jobs for the possibility of aggressive patterns of behavior, it might just prevent some of the problems that NOT testing has created, to the point now where over half the police on the ground are what I would term as, if not insane, neurotic as hell, with issues of low self-esteem, aggressiveness as their first response to crisis, and a lack of ethical discipline….. As a point of evidence, I would submit this question…. When was the last time you saw a police car use a turn signal correctly?…. Think about that for a minute, and you’ll begin to understand whereof I speak….

I found myself having to stop gathering more articles, as I could have kept collecting them all day…. Then, we’d NEVER get out of this section…. As it is, I’ve taken it upon myself to end this here, with just the following as a closing thought for today….

“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.” — George Carlin
_____________________________

I decided I wanted to put in a poem of my own today, one from further in the past than most of what you’ve seen lately…. I found these two, from a couple of years ago, and couldn’t make up my mind…. so, being the egotistical fool I am, you get them both…. I hope you enjoy them….

Dreaming, I wait….

In the most patient moments of rationality
kindness flows smoothly in a special milieu,
fallow thoughts speed first from equality
to give no anxious fever, anger to eschew.

Indignant mothers and step-sons in-law
shall fade simply from brilliant to grey,
intoning ritual dogma, fresh, avid, and raw,
falling, falling, in massive pastoral disarray.

Safety lives not, save brightly in ignorant bliss,
it follows us all, silent and infinitely frail,
foremost too often, soft as a virgin kiss,
alive, always eager, willing, and pale.

Intimate knowledge finds only the bold few
with courage and virtue to gift, unbidden.
No solemn royal version may pass in review,
true love for man, never to remain unhidden.

Sweet feathers of Emily’s hope uplift,
calm, drowsy episodes bursting with light,
With final glad cries we set ourselves adrift,
swimming in the oceans of natural delight.

When sorrow is banished, in ages yet to come,
roots solidly anchored, cold and remote,
Ample supplies of kindness sit silent and dumb,
and the old stranger shrugs on his faded coat.

Dreaming, then, I wait with shadows in the night
aspiring to inspire, a message from the muse’s heart
Never forgotten images, framed in color bright,
tempt me only, grieving, steeped in serenity’s arcane art….

~~ gigoid ~~

Random Visions/Coloring Between the Lines of Grief

Everywhere is dark, and shining,
with points in dissonant pain.
Sharp, senses dull past divining,
tears burn, a torrential rain.

Escape! Flee within to cower,
find an unconscious cave.
Call on Morpheus’ power
deny reality’s beckoning wave.

Light breaks, drawing the inner eye,
leading to the slippery slope.
Risk is critical, we may only sigh,
yet welcome, for bringing hope.

Sanity seems far out of reach
Insanity’s a stronger friend.
Decisions made will merely teach
our way toward Death to wend.

Lost, while still on familiar ground,
the future yet undesigned.
Making way on paths unfound,
to Now, as yet undefined.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Now comes the fun part, for me…. I’ve written rant-like material, and poemed, so now it’s time for an old-school pearl, to loosen up the old mental muscles, for those among us who enjoy keeping those muscles in the same kind of condition that any world-class athlete enjoys…. To keep any muscle conditioned it takes regular, consistently challenging exercise, that pushes the muscle to its limits before slacking off, preferably for just a bit longer each time, to increase stamina… The mind, though not composed of the same kind of tissue, nevertheless responds to the same sort of challenges; they are simply of a different nature than those that work the muscles attached to our skeletons….

I only wish I could still use those other muscles, the big ones on my body, to stay in the physical shape I was in until my mid-forties, when my injuries began the progressive decline I’ve seen, in my strength, and stamina. Now, sadly, my mind is in much better shape than the rest of me, though I’m still pretty tough…. I just have no stamina, and trying to use my strength and/or skills as if I were younger, stronger, and still limber is more expensive than it is worth, in terms of the pain that comes after such use. As I’m fond of saying, I can still do anything I used to do, but now I pay a much higher price to do so…. So, mostly, I don’t do so…. Now, I’m more likely to say, “I spend my time avoiding pain…”….

I’m uncertain as to how this devolved into a short intimate discussion of my frailties, but, since it did, we’ll just have to ignore it the best we can, and go on to bigger and better things, if that is still possible…. I think if I can just shut myself up for a minute, I can jump in the water before any further incidents of sharing TMI can occur….. Like, right now… Just for the record, no known parameters were used in the collection or inclusion of any of the following pearls…. They’re all fresh from the oyster, just as Mother Nature intended them to be…

“Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.” — Albert Camus (1913-1960)

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

“He is the best of men who dislikes power.” — Mohammed

And wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xiv, Line 520

“These are the days when men of all social disciplines and all political faiths seek the comfortable and the accepted; when the man of controversy is looked upon as a disturbing influence; when originality is taken to be a mark of instability; and when, in minor modification of the scriptural parable, the bland lead the bland.” — John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 – )

“The art of government consist in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens and giving it to another.” — Voltaire

“We have only two things to worry about: That things will never get back to normal, and that they already have.” — Smart Bee

Well, in today’s case, parameters might have been a good idea…. But, since this one is done, and it’s fairly decent, all in all, I think we’ll let it fly…. I mean, they can’t all be immediately obvious, or for that matter, indelibly relevant…. All they have to do is make you think, and NOT make you feel bad about anything that doesn’t deserve it…. Which, I suppose is what Life is all about, yes?…. Hey, I’ll take whatever metaphor that presents itself, and turn it right into an assertion of consensual reality…. it’s what we do here….
_____________________________

Okay…. I’ve stretched this process until it screamed…. I’ve taken breaks… (in fact, I’m taking one now…. I’ll bet you didn’t even notice…)…. I’ve perused the news, I’ve searched SB for the best pearls I could find. I’ve pre-edited & pre-proofed, which means there will be, without doubt numerous errors in syntax and/or typos which will drive me batty when I find them after I’ve posted this… I’ve racked my brain to find something new, and funny, or compelling to write, which was obviously unsuccessful in the extreme…. I’ve subjected myself to reading a number of my own poems, along with several of Emily’s, and Keats’, before settling on subjecting y’all to a two-fer of my own…

All of that, and it is now 5:09 AM…. The wind here in Northern California is currently blowing at a good semi-typhoon speed, swinging our plant and wind-chime all over where they hang on the porch…. The cat continues to seek out whatever mischief she can find, and I am desperately wishing I could fall back asleep…. Alas, that isn’t to be, at least, not for a while yet…. I may as well post this, and get a bite to eat…. Then, having completed all the tasks involved in my day, I can begin another, while everyone else is up, too…. SIGH…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

We could try one of those ornamental dwarfs….

Posted on March 11, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

In numerous past editions of the Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, of the Daily variety, you will have noted that I refer often to our old pal, Murphy, the iconic force of nature, whose effect on reality and humanity has been thoroughly, if reluctantly, recorded on innumerable occasions, by those he has favored with his kind attention.

I, of course, am one of those favored souls, sadly, and have repeatedly offered my own take on this….. this….. this ENTITY (for lack of a more descriptive epithet….), after his efforts have screwed me over, one way or another…. I am, naturally, not his ONLY target, merely one of his favorites….

This morning, however, I’ve been presented with an idea that refutes his entire existence, with a pretty persuasive argument as evidence….. It’s logical, and tautological, and doesn’t seem to have any flaws in its reasoning…. I cannot say for certain who made this observation; I found it in Smart Bee without attribution…. which is odd, as I can’t believe anyone in their right mind would object to taking credit for this…. It could conceivably make their reputation, in one short statement that would, in time, become universally known, having to do, as it does, with something that touches the lives of EVERYONE…. That statement is:

“If Murphy’s Law were true, whenever you tried to take a breath, all the air would be on the other side of the room.” — Smart Bee

Now, isn’t that a heartening thought? Doesn’t that just make you feel like there is hope for the future? No? Oh….. Well, it does all of that, and more, for me…. I don’t know if I have suffered more than others from the machinations he has performed throughout my life to get my goat…. I just know that he could start a fucking goat farm, with a huge herd of goats, just from how many times he’s fucked with me…. I’m sure everyone else has their own tales of woe that he caused in their lives, so, a statement like this provides me with a bit of hope that….. Wait a minute!….

Damn!….. I just realized, this CAN’T be a true statement….. It doesn’t take into account the physical laws that govern our universe, regarding the behavior of gases in a gravity field…. No matter how much influence over reality Murphy has, he can’t create vacuums whenever he wants, just to fuck with people…. If the physical laws, such as this one, are subject to that sort of mishandling by the off-shoot forces of nature, nothing could be counted on to be the same from one minute to the next, a state of affairs which, I’m sure, even Murphy wouldn’t enjoy….

Oh well, it was, for a moment there, about to be a more beautiful universe, but, once again, Reality, and that asshole Murphy, find us completely at their mercy, with no real, effective way to either avoid the ministrations of such forces on nature, or to contemplate any breaks from his assholishness…. a word I just made up which perfectly describes not only Murphy, but the state of mind, or of personality, if you will, of many of our beloved ruling class…. In fact, it may as well just get added to those adjectives that best describe human nature…. Assholishness…..yep, that’s us, ffolkes, for sure….

On that note, shall we Pearl?….

“Few people have the imagination for reality.” — Goethe
_____________________________

Originally this morning, in this section, you would have found a very long rant (double the normal, as it is part fresh, and part archive material…. Sorry, it got away from me…. Talking about the NSA will do that to me…. ), which, had I left it here, would probably have eliminated a significant number of my readers, causing them, possibly, to NOT want to finish today’s effort, due to the extreme length….

In order to better emulate our Beloved Ruling Class, I’m cheating…. I moved the rant to the last section, where, if you insist, you may skip over it to the concluding remarks, after consuming this old-school pearl (What ELSE would be going here?….)….. See? I can be nice….. Here is a pearl of pearls, with no parameters at all, just whimsy…..

“You don’t learn anything the second time you’re kicked by a mule.” — Smart Bee

“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway

“[Freedom is] the power to live as you will. Who then lives as he wills?” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

“There are two ways of teaching people: You can teach them how to think, or you can teach them what to think. Socrates taught people how to think, Jesus taught people what to think…. and look what happened to them.” — Smart Bee

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

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

“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.” — Thomas Jefferson

“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.” — Albert Einstein

Hmm…. Even my whimsy is becoming eclectic in my old age…. I kind of like it, don’t you?…..
_____________________________

This particular poem is not what I first intended to include…. I DID go looking for a poem by Yeats; there are days, such as today, when no one else will do…. This, however, wasn’t what I was looking for…. It is, however, one that appeals to me, in such a way that I don’t wish to examine my reasons for that reaction…. Whatever the reason, here ’tis, such as it is…. I like it, and, that’s all that matters, in the final analysis….. I hope it suits your fancy, as well….. Hmm… Come to think of it, I’ll bet it was the title that drew me….

Another Song Of A Fool

This great purple butterfly,
In the prison of my hands,
Has a learning in his eye
Not a poor fool understands.

Once he lived a schoolmaster
With a stark, denying look;
A string of scholars went in fear
Of his great birch and his great book.

Like the clangour of a bell,
Sweet and harsh, harsh and sweet.
That is how he learnt so well
To take the roses for his meat.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

“There is a very real and critical danger that unrestrained public discussion of cryptologic matters will seriously damage the ability of this government to conduct signals intelligence and the ability of this government to carry out its mission of protecting national security information from hostile exploitation.” — Admiral Bobby Ray Inman (then Director of the NSA) — in a public speech in March 1979

You know, what I found almost as disturbing about this as the words he stated, which, obviously, are completely and diametrically opposed to any sort of democratic society that has a Bill of Rights…. (In any such society, “unrestrained public discussion”, of ANY subject, is never out of place, no matter what sort of ridiculous, paranoid reasoning one might apply to convince anyone else…. Thus, it becomes clear, what is wrong with this statement is the fact that ANY part of our government’s leading officials, elected or, as in this case, hired as a career professional soldier, would have the asininity to make such a statement….)

But, to return to my original statement, what disturbed me almost as much as that, is the date the statement was made…. I hadn’t realized the NSA had been around as long as it had, to have had its head making speeches in 1979…. 1979? Oh, right…. Let’s see, that was when Reagan was president, right? Let me check…. Nope, that was right after Nixon, so it had to be Gerald Ford…. So, let’s see when the NSA came into being, shall we? Hang on….

Okay, wow…. the agency first began during WWI, first established sometime around 1917, but was strengthened in purpose in 1947 with the passage of the National Security Act, which can now be seen as one of the first examples of the BRC hiding information from the public…. and the logical forerunner for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011….

How many of y’all were aware that the NSA started its clandestine work in 1917? How many of y’all were taught in school about the National Security Act of 1947, passed after WWII to ensure the funding and continued existence of the government’s primary spy agency (the official euphemism for that is “encrypted signals intelligence gathering”), in its first centralized form…. Paranoia strikes deep, does it not?….

I know I wasn’t taught in school about the NSA…. A lot of the spying and clandestine war stories from WWII were discouraged, at least, outside Hollywood, where the government had its own spies in place, to let them know if the movies coming out were propaganda from their opponents, intended to school the public in matters they didn’t want public, or, if they were propaganda from our own side (called, of course, by another euphemism, to wit: “educational information”, or, sometimes, even more euphemistically, “public service announcements”…),….. or if they were entertainment, or just plain fiction, and thus, not seen as harmful to their secret existence….

As I recall from growing up at the time, (I was born in 1950….) Congress and much of the Hollywood community were at odds for most of the 1950’s, and into the 60’s, with the government winning the most important battles, behind the scenes…. Hence, the media support for the Vietnam War, etc., that continued unabated until the Internet came along, at which point, the NSA turned their expertise to gaining control of that new communication tool…. The fight for that control is still raging, currently the score is even, thanks to people like Eric Snowden…. but, it is far from over….(Insert dramatic epithet here, please…)

So, it seems, if the agency’s own historical documents are accurate, ( http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/misc/origins_of_nsa.pdf ) our government has been lying to us for even longer than I had realized…. I probably should have guessed it; I grew up during the 1950’s, and I can tell you for sure, this country, at that time, was very paranoid….

This public paranoia was a direct result of the way the BRC of the time portrayed “Commies”, as being the Anti-Christ, or, at minimum, evil incarnate, keeping the public in a constant state of paranoid fear, of having an “H-bomb” dropped on their home city, by the godless communist regimes that were out to take away their freedoms….

Even though I was a kid, I heard the talk on TV, and in the news the adults all talked about (also, remember “current events” in school?…. It has always been a good way for the PTB to disseminate propaganda to the innocent school children….who have little defense against what they’re told at that age….

Of course, I had a different reaction than most kids, as my crap detector went off almost constantly during the fifties and sixties, whenever I heard about anything having to do with public affairs, as reported in the news, on TV, radio, magazines, and talk…. By the time the sixties came, my faith in anyone in public office was shattered forever when JFK was assassinated ( The responsibility for which is a subject for another time…. As flawed as he was, Jack Kennedy was the last, best hope we had for any kind of rational public discourse in this country….), then reinforced by all I heard re: the Free Speech movement in the early 1960’s

Now we come to the present day, when our BRC continues its policy of trusting NO ONE, not even its own citizenry….. Now, however, they have increased their power, not only, but primarily, in the form of a vastly expanded NSA, to the point where they are capable of monitoring EVERY aspect of the public’s daily affairs, including phone calls and private mail of all types….

What? You don’t believe they’ve been reading your snail-mail, as well as your E-mail?…… Boy, are YOU naive…. What is the name of the major snail mail operator in this country? Yep, the USPS….. And, where are the phone numbers for all their offices listed? Yep, right there under US Government in the phone books…. They may have gone private in one sense, but they are still the government’s lackey agency, not anyone else’s….. They (the police and government agencies…) have had access to our mail for a long time, ffolkes, and even will admit it, in the right circumstances….

Any time they wish, the laws are already in place for them to intercept ANY of your formerly private forms of communication…. The only way left we have to be totally private is to hand a personal letter, written by hand, in a close room swept for cameras and recorders, then handing it to someone we trust to personally carry it to its intended recipient, whom we also must trust to destroy the letter when read, and return any replies via the same method…. As far as I can see, that is the only way, now, that we can trust it to a completely private communique….

Thus, we can see that today, having ensured that they are able to access any and all data about those citizens, even though the greatest majority of them have ever broken any laws, they have become far more than merely an agency that protects us, in terms of how much control over our communications they possess, or how few restraints have been placed on them in their quest to control it ALL. No type of restraint matters to these profoundly paranoid assholes; they won’t be satisfied until they are able to monitor and control EVERYTHING they can, up to, and including, the most mundane and inane activities of our daily lives…..

I’m already tired of ranting today, probably because this is a subject that I’ve ranted about a lot, and partly just because I’m tired of ranting to little purpose…. This one was stimulated by the above quote, and the following link, which I read yesterday…. It’s an encouraging story in one way, in that it appears that the general run of public attitudes is running in favor of what Eric Snowden did for this country when he blew the whistle on the NSA last year…. It was, however, discouraging in another way, as it delineates a part of the applicable “whistleblower’s law” that seemingly classifies his act as one not covered by the law’s intent… a certain miscarriage of justice, if true….

Ffolkes, I’m going to say it right out…. What this man, Eric Snowden, did for the world, and the American people, cannot ever be repaid…. His was, in spite of any criticisms made, an act of supreme courage, and one of very sincere patriotism for his country…. Anyone at all who cannot see that is, in my mind, a fool, and an enemy of this country….

This would include, it seems, every one of the BRC who is currently entrenched in the halls of government, but, I’m not surprised about that much…. They, after all, are the ones he exposed as liars, charlatans, and thieves….. a fact they are NOT happy about, and are unlikely to give up their animosity toward the one honest man who pulled their covers….

Here then, is the latest word from the man who will, I’m sure, some day, be considered as one of the most heroic and important figures of the last 1000 years of history…. No shit, ffolkes, no shit at all….

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/edward-snowden-defends-nsa-surveillance-leaks-at-sxsw-20140310?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

“HEY CONGRESS! What ever happened to the Constitution?” — Smart Bee

My built-up quantity of angst and outrage is so large right now, I want to continue ranting…. an event which, I am positive, would completely drive away anyone remaining…. Instead, I’ll sublimate, with an older rant, that might go a ways toward explaining at least part of what is wrong with the picture we are being painted in Washington D.C. , and, on the canvas that is the world at large…..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From 4/28/13:

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.” — Vince Lombardi

I have spoken previously on this subject, of human will, and will no doubt do so again, as I believe it to be one of the key elements of finding the Truth in Life. It takes practice to be able to use it to full potential, practice that many people never take time for, to their regret. Without it, Life can be extremely difficult, as it will toss us about just like a small boat in a big storm at sea. But, when it is honed to a sharp edge, and tempered to a great strength, it can become one of our most powerful tools.

It can help to bring peace and serenity into our lives, if used with intelligence, guided by strong ethical intent. I mention the latter because it is equally important to the proper use of the will; it is an unfortunate truth that the will can also be used to pursue results that are NOT beneficial for everyone, but only for the one who uses it without ethical direction, i.e. to benefit themselves, only.

“One sits down first, one thinks afterwards.” — Smart Bee

A long time ago, I found out something about society, and those who are ostensibly in charge of running it, that has had a distinct influence on my thinking. I discovered that what I heard in school, from books, did not match what I observed in society, and that the people who were in the positions of authority were, for the most part, not telling the whole truth, or, often, telling bare-faced lies.

This had a profound effect on me, because I had always been inspired by the idea of a democracy, a system, and a society, where the people decided among themselves what was best for all; their consensual collective will was to be carried out by the individuals elected to office…. At least, I’m pretty certain that is what our founding fathers envisioned when they cut loose from the monarchical rule of England….

Unfortunately, soon after beginning this experimental Utopia, the bankers and merchant classes began their campaign to pervert the system, buying control of key officials to make laws that favored them. At the same time, the preachers started their campaign to make sure the government was composed of men and/or women who were under their control, ethically and morally, using the time-honored tools of divine entitlement and guilt so that their interests could be monitored and controlled.

Today, well over 90% of all elected officials in this country are of one major religion, and the lobbyists who represent the money-lenders and corporate entities are more influential in making laws than the electorates who elect those officials. The campaigns to control the government of this country have been quite effective, especially since nobody even notices most of the time, or says anything about it….

“To see the light at the end of the tunnel, you first have to be in a tunnel, then the correct tunnel and last, facing in the right direction…. What the heck are we doing in a tunnel anyway?” — Larry G. Smith

This is a pretty good description of modern society, I think. What the heck are we doing here, on the brink of extinction? The BRC, the 1%, whatever you choose to call them, have brought us to this dead-end tunnel, with no light at the end, because it is our own end we see. They, those in control, don’t choose to believe in the damage they have wrought to the environment, nor in the terminal nature of that damage, so, nothing is being done to counteract the suicidal policies our species continues to follow.

All the responsibility for this state may be laid at the feet of the ones I call Asininnies, the corporate assholes, the professional politicians, the lawyers, the police, the priests and preachers, and all who support their efforts, knowingly or not…. These are the people who have turned their will to the selfish pursuit of their own desires, with no thought to either the effect on others, or the potential danger of doing so. They don’t care, and the rest of us, because of our own lack of will, to work together in defending ourselves against them, are going to pay the price right along with them, unless we wake up to the danger, NOW….

I could rant about this all day, and have seemingly done so in the past…. but, I’ve made my point for today, and rather than bore you to death with more logical, but time-consuming evidence or argument, (note: more than I already have done….), I’ll leave it at that…. Well, almost…..

We are all in danger of species extinction, this is a FACT, not a supposition. We have the means to save ourselves, IF we can find it within ourselves to rise up and throw out the people who are causing the problem. They are NOT going to stop themselves; if we want to live, we, the people, will have to MAKE them do it, or we will all die. It’s that simple, and that urgent…. If it doesn’t happen in this next decade, it will be far too late, because the ice is already melting, ffolkes, and it isn’t going to stop or slow down… It will only get faster with time….

gigoid has spoken…..

“If you view your problem closely enough you will recognize yourself as part of the problem.” — Ducharm’s Axiom

Ah, how unjust to Nature and himself
Is thoughtless, thankless, inconsistent man!

— Edward Young (1684-1765) – Night Thoughts, Night ii, Line 112

This one got away from me, but, it’s all valid stuff, and needs to be said…. If not by me, then, who? The worst part of it is, practically no one who really NEEDS to hear this kind of information will ever see this, and that’s just too bad…. SIGH…. Ah well, life goes on, until it doesn’t….
_____________________________

Once again, I have gone to great lengths in my thus-far apparently futile attempt to save humanity from its own folly…. (I only use the qualifiers because, hey, we ARE still here…. I just don’t see how that can last….) SIGH…. At least, today, I put the rant LAST in line, which may have given my Gentle Readers enough advance notice to skip over much of the rant, much of which they have, no doubt, heard previously…. We can, and do, hope so…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes…. I suppose it wouldn’t be out of place to wish ourselves luck in meeting that appointment….

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

Incidents of illicit protuberance rose rapidly in January….

Posted on March 10, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

It has been my habit in the mornings, before beginning to write, to try to consume at least a little bit of my coffee; the results of doing so are, by a large margin, better than if I start typing before I do so…. a difference which you have possibly noted, without knowing the reason for it…. I’ve always known this was a risk, ever since that time back in the 1990’s, when I came to work at NSH one day, without having had any coffee…. The events of that day are still being talked about in police stations around the state, and I’m pretty sure the federal government passed three laws in response to what happened….

It isn’t something I like to talk about, in spite of the deep lesson it taught me; it’s the kind of lesson one doesn’t need to share, even though it is a bedrock of existence, and could be of use to others…. I don’t care at all. It’s something that I had to learn, and that’s all I need to know…. You, too…

Sorry if I sound a bit harsh about that, but, there are just some things one doesn’t want to have others know about; I don’t think there is anyone out there who can tell me they are an open book, in every respect. Anyone who does so, well, I’d have to believe they weren’t being as straight with me as they could be, and I wouldn’t be able to give them my complete trust any longer…. If they will lie to themselves, they’ll lie to others; that’s a natural law when it comes to people…. another flaw exhibited frequently by a lot of people, as well as one I don’t believe can be denied by anyone truthful….

Now that I’ve gone completely bonkers, I wonder if I can find my way back to some sort of coherency….. it will be difficult, given the extremely BAD (spelled S-H-I-T-T-Y….) material I’ve created thus far…. I swear, some days it’s not worth getting out of bed…. Here I am, half-asleep, physically uncomfortable (compared to being asleep, anyway….), without a reasonably intelligent thought in my head, yet still typing away at this, just as if I had something useful, or even interesting to say…. It’s sheer egotism, that’s what it is…. Who the hell wants to read this stuff? I don’t, that’s for sure, and I’m the one writing it…. Now, THAT is a conundrum, for sure and for certain…

Since it only took me four paragraphs to create, find, and identify a conundrum, I’d say this intro may now be considered to be, if not saved, at least salvaged…. After all, can a blog really be saved? Hell, why not? If some of the people who they say are saved are any example, the standards for doing so are pretty loose, and I think I can slip this by the morals monitors without them catching on…. If not, well, we can always do like I am right now, and retreat into sheer fantasy, talking as if someone were actually listening, getting further and further from REALITY with each word…. I can do that at the drop of a cliché…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

I’m feeling more than just a little lazy today; in addition, I’m having a lot of pain, in my hands, as I type, so I’m going to have to keep it to a minimum, so to speak…. For y’all, this means a lot of archived material…. Today, that’s probably a good thing, as I don’t think anything that comes out of my head today will be worth saving for posterity… The following, however, is well worth it, so, please, enjoy…..

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

From December, 2012:

Here is a short trio of pearls, old school style, to indicate a certain point (which, as always, is left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader….). Please note, for later reference, the roller coaster characteristics of the path from the beginning to the conclusion…. Taking notes will not be necessary, or graded….

“A little experience often upsets a lot of theory.” — Cadman

“If the King’s English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!” — Ma Ferguson, Governor of Texas (circa 1920)

“Life is always like high school. Which is interesting, because high school is nothing like life.” — Jon Carroll, SF Chronicle, November 17, 1995.

Hmm….. this is interesting. I’ve noticed previously that Pearls often would take on a completely different meaning if presented in a slightly different order, on those occasions when more than one pearl is used to make a point. At times, the conclusion may be different, while other times may cause the conclusion to remain valid, while the road taken to get to that validity traveled through a different country. This is kind of like that, except that it is so flexible, I believe it would change its face and clothing no matter which way the three quotes are ordered. In this case, I have merely inverted the order of presentation, to find that the meaning stays the same, relatively, while the path does not….

“Life is always like high school. Which is interesting, because high school is nothing like life.” — Jon Carroll, SF Chronicle, November 17, 1995.

“If the King’s English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!” — Ma Ferguson, Governor of Texas (circa 1920)

“A little experience often upsets a lot of theory.” — Cadman

Same idea, basically, but it got there on a Segway, not a roller coaster….. I really do love the English language; it is so amenable to torture….. and as an inanimate entity, has no feelings to offend, nor blood to spill…. Well, I guess, given my heavy-handed writing techniques, some blood is unavoidable, but, it cleans up well with a bit of cold water and salt…..

“It is not a fish until it is on the bank.” — Irish Proverb
_____________________________

The following poem, I think, is one of my best…. it speaks of the process of Pearling, in a deeply metaphoric style….. In my view, it does so, quite well….

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

From September, 2012:

Piraeus calls me, silently

Sizzle, sizzle, crash, bang, boom.
Intellect burning with subsequent doom.
Lingering long over decisive style,
Whistling up chaos all the while.

Such frozen thoughts may shatter,
Should we infer, but, no matter.
Firing blanks is children at play
Blooded sages all gasp in dismay.

Nonsense is good sense at times
Mundane objectives trip lightly in rhymes.
Fallen angels dance on a pin
Until each sinner enters within.

Fast moments with natural rain
Bring ashes, yet still must remain.
Final thoughts clamor for more
Find them only on a far distant shore.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

The following isn’t a rant, per se…. There are some rant-like qualities to it, but, I’d say its more of a discussion, or perhaps, an essay…. Either way, it’s better than anything I could come up with on my own today, even an old school pearl, so, I’m going to fly with it, and let the chips fall where they may….. This discussion took place on one day in December of 2012, a month I was writing fairly well, from all indications…. if not quite as sharply defined as what I’m doing these days…. Enjoy it anyway, if you please….

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

From December, 2012:

“I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics but for our contributions to the human spirit.” — former US President John F. Kennedy

At last! A worthy pearl! JFK, like the current President, was a superb public speaker, “Ich bin ein Berliner” notwithstanding, and, whether he wrote his own words, or relied on his speech writers, he delivered, arguably, some of the most memorable, and insightful, aphorisms in US political and social history. The above statement is a perfect example, as he expresses a sentiment that can only be applauded, if not necessarily verified. I say verified because there is not a lot of verification from the past that history remembers anything BUT the battles. However, one can hope….

Actually, I believe what Jack said above very strongly, in the sense that there are different histories that are remembered, most of which become altered in some way over time, as does all memory. The great teachers and philosophers who have lived throughout history have left their mark on the world in more ways than always show, in spite of the inconsistency in the records of their deeds, which did not always survive intact. Indeed, throughout history, there have been men, and women, who have done much to advance the human condition, whose words and deeds were never seen, and never recorded, but, nonetheless, are words whose effects will endlessly ripple down the river of time.

Some of the greatest minds in history, such as Lao Tzu, Zoroaster, Genghis Khan, Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and many others, all made such advances in the human spirit; their ideas keep proving their worth every day, by their still valid relativity to modern society. Men like Leonardo da Vinci, whose genius was so bright it shines even today, and modern philosopher/scientists such as Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, have advanced that human spirit as much as anyone.

I’m not being as eloquent as I’d wish for such a deep subject….

What I’m trying to get to here is that we all, each and every one of us, have the power and opportunity to do the same as these historical figures, to advance the human spirit, just by the way we live our lives. What the philosophers say, and write, and the wisdom they pass on, is all very good, and a lesson to the rest of us….

But, what the average person does every day in their lives is just as important to the future as any scientific breakthrough, because what they do will determine what their children learn, and THAT is where the advancement really takes place, in the moments of teaching that happens every moment for children, and their adult teachers.

Living a life of integrity, with honesty and duty as the watchwords for action, is the best teaching method there is; to provide a good example for a child holds no less promise for mankind than all the work, of all the geniuses. of all time. How each one of us approaches life will, in the end, determine what happens to our species as a whole.

It isn’t an easy life, especially given all of the people in society who do NOT wish to have any part of advancing anything but their own interests…. and especially when so many of those kinds of people are in positions of authority. But, it can be done, and is done, every day, by millions of men and women of good spirit…. They are truly the future of mankind, and, if there is any hope for survival, it is held in their honest hands….

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

Also from 12/1/12:

“The sage wears clothes of coarse cloth but carries jewels in his bosom; He knows himself but does not display himself; He loves himself but does not hold himself in high esteem. Thus he rejects the latter and takes the former.” — Lao-Tzu

In spite of how it must appear, there is a small degree of organization to this blog’s contents. Most days I try to make sure that the first and third sections, while possibly related, are essentially about different concepts. The second section is, of course, reserved for whatever poetry strikes my fancy that day, whether classic, humorous, or original (Though it does seem that my recent outpouring of original poems has run dry, I don’t think I’m done with that, yet…..). It seems to work for me…. well enough, at least, to keep my internal critics quiet most of the time.

Today, it seems that most of what I’m seeing for pearls are related somehow to what I spoke of peripherally in today’s first section, to wit: the importance of integrity in human life. Integrity…. hmm…. not the precise word, or the characteristic I am thinking of, actually; it’s more than merely integrity. I suppose one could say the concept to which I’m referring is too mystical an idea to be presented clearly, and not be too far off the mark….

However, not being one to ignore a challenge to my vocabulary, I’ll take a few unseen moments here and find the correct word to facilitate further discussion, because, hey, if I can’t, no discussion, right? Right…. Be right back…. instantly, by all you will know and see….. Well, the challenge is a strong one, and I think best answered with more than one word to describe what I’m trying to say. Those words are all contained in Axiom #7 of Peruaosophy, to wit: Do your Duty. Honor the Truth. Respect Life. Share your Love.

I know that it is my own philosophy, and some may think that is cheating, but, not so. All that I hold to be true is in that axiom, and it represents the four cornerstones of my personal foundation. I find that when I am able to live up to all of these concepts, able to use their direction in guiding my actions, my life is much smoother, and my moments of joy are plentiful, to balance the pain that life brings all of us in turn. This, to me, is the best way to advance the human condition, little by little, with the efforts of each man and woman adding its weight to the forward momentum.

Yes, the actions and discoveries that the best of history’s minds bring to us are wonderful, and work to make the lives of every human better…. It is the everyday efforts of each man, though, that takes that wisdom and turns it into reality, by using ideas, and integrity, to add their experience to that of the rest of society.

Since there are a great many folks who do NOT subscribe to this kind of ethical behavior, choosing, instead, to make their own self-interest their primary concern, it is the duty of those who do believe in these ideas to carry them out as best they may, so that the world can retain some semblance of harmony.

It doesn’t always work, and, in fact, is in constant jeopardy of not working at all, but, it is the only way that will make the changes our society needs to survive…. which is another discussion for another time…..

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

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I can’t say it is the most organized, logically constructed piece I’ve ever produced, but, it’s not bad for off the cuff, and it will do for our purposes here today…. The message, after all, is a good one, and worth whatever we do to share it with others…. (Remember, ffolkes, if I don’t keep telling myself things like that, I’ll lose all my hope for the future, so, just leave it alone, ‘kay?….)…. So be it….
_____________________________

Having thus fulfilled all of my self-imposed duty without much effort, I will proceed to see if it will fly at all…. Well, it will fly…. It won’t fly fast, and it won’t fly very straight…. and, hopefully, it won’t crash. Without making any judgments as to the veracity of any of those three statements, or to the quality of any of this, I hereby pronounce it completed…. therefore, it is approved for posting, which I will now proceed to do….. See ya tomorrow…. and, I promise, we’ll have some fresh pearls to share….

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

If the figures are correct, we’re not lost; we’re dead….

Posted on March 9, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

In the normal course of human events, none of us are free of guilt…. At least, that’s what the preachers tell us, right? I’m here to tell you, ffolkes, that this particular message, that they’ve been trying so hard to convince us of all these years, is a load of bilge water, and you’d be better off not paying any attention to it…. I mean, what is the point? It isn’t true, and trying to live one’s life as if it were can only lead to a lifetime of misery, in which the Universe at large will spend most of its time laughing at you….

I think this is what that famous guy, whose name escapes me completely, meant when he said that “the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation, and go to their grave with that song.” (Okay, so it was Henry David Thoreau…. Google, of course, knew who I meant….) Like most of us, the need to subvert one’s own opinions and/or true beliefs in order to keep from being ostracized will, after a time, become difficult to maintain, causing resentment and anger; this is a process which, after a certain amount of time, will create in anyone a sense of fatalism that can lead to….

What? Lead to what?….. SIGH…. I’m lost, ffolkes. I admit it…. I can’t find my point anywhere, nor any of the reasoning that led me to start off the way I did…. Gone, kaput, disappeared without a trace…. I don’t think it will matter, in either the short, or the long run, but, it’s still a bit disconcerting to lose an entire train of thought like that….. Of course, I never really bought into any of it anyway; it was all just another exercise in futility my mind came up with when I sat down to write…. The fact that it had no real connection to anything real is probably a factor of not having consumed any coffee to that point….

I’m positive, though, that I’ve never had that happen just that way before…. which means this is a UNIQUE intro section, something for which I search diligently every day, without ever having much success…. Then, I go and have a brain fart, and voilá, instant uniqueness, with no effort at all…. Is that not elegant proof of the existence of Murphy? I would say yes, even if not constrained to tell the truth…. I tell you, there is no justice, no justice at all….

Of course, expecting justice from the universe at large is probably one of the dumbest things we can do, without a doubt…. As far as I can tell, and according to ALL the evidence, the universe doesn’t give a shit, one way or another, about much of anything…. Pretty much, the way things happen will be the way they are, and nothing anyone does, says, or feels about it will make any difference at all in what happens…. In one sense, this gives us a great deal of consistency we can depend on…. but, on the other hand, it also allows for enough flexibility that NOTHING is predictable, at all, at all….

Most people spend the greatest part of their lives coming to terms with this particular one of reality’s rules of conduct, which isn’t so much of a rule, as it is a suggestion…. They try and try to make their life fit into some predetermined script, and wonder why it never works very well, or why it always seems so much easier when they DON’T try so hard to be consistent….

But, that’s humanity for you, always haring off in one direction, when their best bet is to calm down, walk slowly and carefully to the nearest river, and throw themselves in it, as they really don’t have much of a chance at succeeding at life without having the use of at least a small bit of common sense, a commodity we all know to be not particularly common….

Now that I’ve lost my way completely, and have blathered for a completely absurd number of paragraphs, I think it would be for the best if I just fade off into the sunrise, taking this intro with me…. otherwise, we may NEVER get out of this section….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Anything sufficiently bizarre is indistinguishable from the truth.” — Steve Gardner
_____________________________

There are a number of Gentle Readers out there who can testify to the fact that, around here, we don’t settle for the least…. in fact, we don’t settle at all…. What that means, in terms of this particular blog, or this section, well, your guess is as good as mine today…. If you hadn’t noticed yet, my brain is not functioning…. I don’t mean it is working slowly, or painfully, or with difficulty…. the damn thing is refusing to work at all, and to be honest, it’s almost refreshing in its simplicity of decision…. No fuss, no muss, just plain old-fashioned hedonism, with a strong overlay of ego….. and that’s all. So far, I haven’t noticed a single coherent thought pass through my conscious mind…. I also can’t say I would have noticed it if it had….

I’ve had this happen before, but, it usually waits until the Daily Pearl has been completed; it’s never dumped on me right in the middle like this…. so I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to deal…. I suppose the best idea is to just go for an old-school pearl, with no particular parameters (which I couldn’t think of anyway…. no brain function to speak of, remember?….)…. It’s probably our only hope for any kind of salvation…. Me, I’m gonna go for a dive, so….

“I want to be so HAPPY, the VEINS in my neck STAND OUT!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.” — Lazarus Long

“Living your life according to the Bible is like trying to fix your stereo by using toaster instructions.” — Chris Pirillo (chris@lockergnome.com)

“L’homme est bien insense. Il ne saurait forger un ciron, et forge des Dieux a douzaines.” (Man is quite insane. He wouldn’t know how to create a maggot, and he creates gods by the dozen.) — Montaigne

“Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said, “Strike, if you will; but hear.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Themistocles

“Do not allow children to mix drinks. It is unseemly and they use too much vermouth.” — Fran Lebowitz

“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.” — Gustave Flaubert

Okay, so, a bit of caution is warranted here…. The above pearl is of a type that, without proper venting, can conceivably cause your brain to overheat, with less than desirable results….. While reading, please remember to breathe in through the nose, and out through the ears….. er, mouth…. Sorry, no wonder there’s confusion…. there’s a typo in the instructions!…. Damn!…. Billy, break out the printer ink, we got a problem…. You ffolkes, just carry on to the next section, okay? I’ll catch up when I get this squared away….
_____________________________

This…. is an astounding piece of poetry; it’s also an astonishing piece of Truth, which, in order to experience, one must first show enough courage, and fortitude, to wade through the entire work to the very end, where they will find it laid out for them in the last line…. You HAVE to read all of this, no matter how much the strong imagery disturbs, or how long it takes (not as long as it seems…) …. otherwise, the full meaning, and dramatic effect, of the last line, and the power of the truth being told, will be missed…. Once you get there, though, you’ll see why I insisted on it…. Enjoy, please….

Darkness

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went–and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill’d into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires–and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings–the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum’d,
And men were gather’d round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other’s face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:
A fearful hope was all the world contain’d;
Forests were set on fire–but hour by hour
They fell and faded–and the crackling trunks
Extinguish’d with a crash–and all was black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil’d;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and look’d up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the dust,
And gnash’d their teeth and howl’d: the wild birds shriek’d
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl’d
And twin’d themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless–they were slain for food.
And War, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again: a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;
All earth was but one thought–and that was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails–men
Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devour’d,
Even dogs assail’d their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept
The birds and beasts and famish’d men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lur’d their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,
And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answer’d not with a caress–he died.
The crowd was famish’d by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap’d a mass of holy things
For an unholy usage; they rak’d up,
And shivering scrap’d with their cold skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other’s aspects–saw, and shriek’d, and died–
Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless–
A lump of death–a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirr’d within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp’d
They slept on the abyss without a surge–
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expir’d before;
The winds were wither’d in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish’d; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them–She was the Universe.

~~ George Gordon, Lord Byron ~~

_____________________________

The following can be considered a rant….. In sooth, however, it is more than that…. and less at the same time…. Yes, it indicts the BRC, taking shot after shot at what I now term the Asininnies, targeting their cupidity with a fair degree of accuracy, and aplomb, if I do say so myself…. It isn’t as vituperative as some, and probably less boring than others, as the central theme connects, at least tentatively, to the realm of comedy….. not necessarily my own, which, as is known, tends to be suspect, subject, as it is, to the vagaries of my bozoid nature, and undisciplined habits….

For an older piece, though, it’s pretty sharp, I think…. But, that could be my Early Onset Alzheimer’s rearing its ugly head…. ( Otherwise known as EOA, that debilitating, dreaded disease of the mind affecting far too many of us….)

Nonetheless for all that, this has a good message, twined in amongst the original text, and, in what comes after…. Well, I’m hoping, anyway…. it’s all right out there, & shouldn’t be hard to spot….. Abondanza!….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From 12/19/12:

“He was sweet and sincere and giving and good… AND A CHERISHED NEIGHBOR UNDESERVING OF SUCH A FATE!! Nevertheless, better him than me. Amen.” — Eulogy given by Banana PC Jr to Opus in “Bloom County”

As an indictment of modern society, this little remark from Berke Breathed manages to hit just about all of the high points, and is wickedly, viciously sarcastic, to boot. Just plain charming, is what it is….. I forget exactly how Opus died, but I remember it was particularly mundane, as well as inane, and also made the sarcasm grade higher. I really don’t understand why Berke Breathed stopped writing his/her comic strips; he/she may have been the best cartoonist ever….

I thank the stars that, for a while, we were able to enjoy his or her wit (I never did know if the person who drew Bloom County was male of female…. it never seemed to matter….). Between this strip, and Odds Bodkins, which came before Bloom County, my sense of proportion was sculpted into a truer figure, resembling reality much more closely than it did prior to being exposed to the deadly sharp, brilliantly targeted humor in those comics.

The indictment is brilliantly delivered here, in one simple phrase… “Nevertheless, better him than me.” I don’t know about y’all, but that seems to me like it would be a pretty good slogan for the general attitude society presents in the modern world. It shows of that perfect sense of selfishness and entitlement that is held by so many of today’s folks, given to them mostly by their elitist religions, when not by their insane nationalism, or provincialism of almost every kind.

Of course, this egregious attitude, so common to those in the Western religions, is strengthened and exemplified by the beloved ruling class, as they continue to lie to the public on a daily basis, all while they go about their business of looting the public treasury, and carrying out the wishes of their true masters, the bankers and corporate executives.

The beloved ruling class, and the preachers who support them, are so effective at their work that they have trained most of the public to accept their lies without question. People are so controlled that they believe the pittance they earn is a blessing, actually believing they have the right, and the power to do anything at all to try to improve their own lot, without fear of consequence. What other conclusion is possible, given the picture that is presented to us by our leaders? They (the BRC, beloved ruling class….) say whatever they wish, no matter how untrue. They steal, and call it business. They cheat, and call it expedience. They kill, and call it spreading democracy. For such treatment, the public rewards them, by electing them to office again, and again…..

“Do not be afraid of enemies; the worst they can do is to kill you. Do not be afraid of friends; the worst they can do is betray you. Be afraid of the indifferent; they do not kill or betray. Yet only because of their silent agreement, betrayal and murder exist on earth.” — Bruno Yasienski, contemporary Soviet novelist

Indifference is a condition of mind the true world masters have refined to an art, one they employ constantly, to ignore the evil they cause. In this, they are not alone…. Humanity at large has become indifferent to the struggles of other people, and have that indifference rewarded regularly, by advantages to their self-interests. Indifference becomes a protection for the weak and vulnerable, who cannot afford to give up any of their own resources to aid another, a situation perfectly set-up by our beloved rulers, and maintained by them as suitable for their purposes.

It must be very satisfying for the shadowy masters of our society, to see how easily people in society have taken to their training, applying it so well to their own pitiful existence, as this kind of attitude, when adopted as a societal norm, becomes self-protecting, and self-reproducing…. the more people are cruel to each other, the more it will continue to be so…..

“If you have ever seen a four-year-old trying to lord it over a two-year-old, then you know what the basic problem of human nature is — and why government keeps growing larger and ever more intrusive.” — Thomas Sowell

Comedy, as produced by some cartoonists, is a very accurate portrayal of the true nature of society, and can serve as a means of causing change. Unfortunately, our beloved ruling class already knows this, and takes steps to curtail the effect as much as possible. In my opinion, comedians like George Carlin, cartoonists like Berke Breathed, Garry Trudeau, and Walt Kelly (Pogo), should be held up as the heroes and honored philosophers of Society, because they are always fighting to expand the human consciousness, rather than limit it, as is the case for the entire ruling class, and the priestly hierarchies.

They, the masters, do not want a public that can think critically, for then their chicanery is exposed. Oh, they are well enough protected that they are in no real danger; they just don’t like to be in the light, where they can be targeted…. It is the same for all evil; it does better in the dark, where its purposes and methods can be hidden from sight…. which is why I love the comics, both live, stand-up comics, and those who scribble on paper, for they are in the thick of the revolution of the mind, the war that is still raging here on Earth…. The war to see whether reason, or venality, will determine the future of the human race…. I, for one, salute them all….

— Bother! said Pooh, as he bribed Ron Brown.

(See?…. Even Pooh has been corrupted…..)

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

When I copied this in for inclusion today, I intended to add on to it, but, a bit of editing, some buffing & polishing, as it were, and, it will do just fine…. It’s kind of fun, to go back over older stuff, noting how my skills have advanced in some areas, or not…. It’s also comforting, in a way, to find I’m generally in complete agreement with my former self, in re: whatever subject is under discussion….

Well, it’s comforting in one sense, while, at the same time, disturbing in others, since it also means the same issues are still causing the same problems today…. showing we haven’t made much progress in solving them…. Ah well, we all have our little idiosyncrasies, don’t we?…. At least, mine doesn’t require any lubricant….

It DOES, however, require that one reject indifference…. If I’ve learned anything in my life, it is the importance of CARING, of engaging in life, of having compassion, accepting and appreciating the pain, and the joy, and learning how to love…. all of which boils down to a simple idea, as it says in the Tao Teh Ching… To find the balance of Nature, it is necessary to put aside apathy…. in more than merely a physical sense….

“Time as he grows old teaches many lessons.” — Aeschylus (525-456 BC) — Prometheus, 981
_____________________________

Gosh, mister Wizard, we’ve finished so early! What will we do now?

Well, I can suggest a number of things that would be far more productive, and probably more interesting, than continuing to pay further attention to my babbling….. but, y’all can most likely figure out for yourselves what you want to do next…. Hell, I can’t tell you, I don’t even know where you keep your toaster oven!

Not that I really WANT to know, but, it always helps when giving suggestions in other people’s houses…. I think it is becoming patently obvious, in light of having gone back over the rest of this concluding section, my brain is still missing in action, and there is little point in continuing this charade…. So….. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Measuring infinitesimal increments may take a while….

Posted on March 8, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I’m tired….. in my head…. I’m tired of writing, tired of sitting, tired of not being able to do enough to keep my mind from chewing on itself. I have a mind that requires rather a lot of stimulation, to feel as if it is being utilized in a way that maximizes its qualities, which are extensive, to be sure, although never as much so as could be wished…. In other words, I’m smart enough to have a strong need to keep busy, but, not so smart as to have all the answers I’d like to have…. Just smart enough to know how much there is still to learn, is the way I like to think of it….

My tiredness is, I think, a result of having written this blog each morning, with only a few minor failures, every single day for almost three years…. In that time, I’ve made some changes to the structure, and tweaked it until I pretty much have it how I like it….. and, according to the WP stat bots, I keep getting new followers…. Just yesterday, two new names showed up as new followers of our blog here at ECR, one of which is an old blogging friend, who just now followed, after almost 3 years of visiting the site, and leaving an occasional ‘Like’….. So, I know that there are at least a few ffolkes who read it every day…. Out of the 375 ffolkes who have hit the button to follow, at least a few MUST come by each day, right?….

In addition, I send the Daily Pearl out via my own email to 47 others who have been receiving them now for over a dozen years…. When I worked for the State, it was sent out each day for about six years to almost 400 employees at NSH, all of whom were addicted to receiving them in their morning email, to start their day….. Conceivably, I could still send them to those people…. but, it annoys their IT folks, as 400 emails sent in a group tends to burn up a lot of bandwidth, causing a spike in their traffic, and the possibility of a network slow-down…. Of course, I figure that’s their own damn fault for not spending enough on infrastructure to handle the traffic, but, hey, they’re friends, so I don’t fuss with them….

All in all, I’ve been writing A LOT for the last couple of years, since retiring…. which, in the ultimate sense, is a good thing…. But, I’m tired of the frustration of constantly feeling as if what I have to say is extremely important for mankind at large to be aware of, but, never having that message heard by anyone who NEEDS to hear it….

If we are to have any real chance at surviving the upcoming events in the environmental arena, all of which are a result of our own foolish asininity, (speaking from the viewpoint of one who knows quite well what NEEDS to be done, but, has no clue as to how to get people to get off their asses to do it….) well, if we ARE to survive, we’ll need to first admit the need to do so…

As you are well aware, if you’ve been here previously, I write a lot of such “gadfly” rants, exhorting the public to wake up, to pay attention to what the corporate assholes, political assholes, and religious assholes have been up to, because what they’ve gone and done is going to kill all of us if we don’t put a stop to it, NOW….

It needed to be done yesterday, and, it certainly won’t help to do it tomorrow; tomorrow, (metaphorically) we’ll be DEAD (literally).

We, as a species, need to get off our collective asses and kick the stupid, selfish, ignorant bullies, who are busily killing us all, straight into the ocean, where their sorry, no-doubt bitter-tasting carcases can at least provide the sea life with some little bit of extra protein…. which would comprise the FIRST useful, unselfish act of their lives….

These rants are generally justified with evidence, or, if nothing else, a link to where such evidence may be found; I try not to make assertions without some sort of proof, as I’m unwilling to base them merely on articles of faith…. a habit of writing and communicating which, I may point out, is more than you’ll ever get from a political pundit, a preacher, or some corporate asshole….

THEY will all expect you to believe whatever comes out of their mouths, without ANY sort of proof, other than their version of the Bible, or, hilariously enough, their “word” as to it’s veracity…. We’ve all heard a pundit on TV, saying “Trust me!”, with the obvious sub-text of, “I’d never lie to you!”…. which, of course, is the first lie….

My rants, however, in spite of the number of followers who evidently stop by only now and then, are not getting into the mainstream consciousness of society, which is where the need for them is strongest…. The message I’m putting out is one that isn’t going to help much unless it is seen or heard by a very large number of people, who would then, hopefully, use the information and stimulus contained therein to form the nucleus of a movement, that eventually would lead to the eradication of the centuries-long oppression of mankind by the slave masters, and our eventual survival on this beautiful planet….

Or, the message will be lost, as are, thus far, ALL the other common sense messages that might be of help to us, buried in the cacophony of noise that is always roaring in the background of TV, radio, and the internet, never to be of any help, or aid us to survive beyond the next hundred years or so that are left to us….. all because of the insane blindness of those who have usurped human culture for their own purposes….

I’d rather there was a greater chance for us to survive, but, there’s not a lot I can do about it…. People are gonna do what they WANT to do…… That seldom means anything intelligent…. and, sadly, that’s just the way it is….

Shall we Pearl?…. We may as well, we’ve got nothing better to do…..

“Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy,and it isn’t original sin. He’s born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. A lot of people don’t have the courage to do it.” — Helen Hayes
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Obviously, the intro section this morning fulfills any ranting requirements that may be in place, anywhere…. So, that means I can go bananas in this section…. Well, maybe not fruit, but, perhaps, a rutabaga, or other vegetable would do?….. As you can see, my bozo wants to come out to play, and, it’s best all around if I don’t get in the way of that…. So, I’ll give that side of me the reins, and we’ll see what SB can do for us today, in the way of a group of pearls to start us off in the proper direction to get us where we need to go….. where it will, hopefully, come to a halt….

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

“A student brings something to discuss, saying, “I don’t know whether this is really good, or whether I should throw it in the wastebasket.” The assumption is that one or the other choice is the right move. No. Almost everything we say or think or do — or write — comes in that spacious human area bounded by something this side of the sublime and something above the unforgivable.” — William Stafford

“Actions lie louder than words.” — Carolyn Wells

“I never understood why God decided to endow the military man with His big brain when bone and marrow are all that he needs to execute his purpose.” — A. Einstein – Ideas and Opinions

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” — HAL 9000

“Do you think there’s a God?” “Well, SOMEbody’s out to get me!” — Calvin & Hobbes

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 289

Well, it’s a tough one, I’ll admit, but, those are always the best kind, you see, because, hey, challenge?….. Believe it or not, it IS a good one…. just a trifle abstruse…. In fact, upon reflection, it’s a lot like that word, abstruse….
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In truth, I suppose, the translator of this poem is the one who deserves a lot of the credit for the power, and the clarity, of the images and language that make this so compelling a poem…. Whomever is responsible, it is one of my all time favorite poems, and I include it today, again, with great pleasure….

Shui Tiao Ko Tou

Will a moon so bright ever arise again?
Drink a cupful of wine and ask of the sky.
I don’t know where the palace gate of heaven is,
Or even the year in which tonight slips by.
I want to return riding the whirl-wind! But I
Feel afraid that this heaven of jasper and jade
Lets in the cold, its palaces rear so high.
I shall get up and dance with my own shadow.
From life endured among men how far a cry!

Round the red pavilion
Slanting through the lattices
Onto every wakeful eye,
Moon, why should you bear a grudge, O why
Insist in time of separation so th fill the sky?
Men know joy and sorrow, parting and reunion;
The moon lacks luster, brightly shines; is all, is less.
Perfection was never easily come by.
Though miles apart, could men but live for ever
Dreaming they shared this moonlight endlessly!

~~ Su Tung-p’o ~~

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This was already an old rant last time I posted it, in June of 2013…. and, since I spent all of my fresh angst in the intro section today, this will have to suffice, to fulfill any other legal standards that may apply…. I think it will do, just fine, as it remains as valid today as the day I first wrote it….

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

“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt (1759-1806) speech on the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783

I had not intended to start with a political rant, but this just came up, so here we go…. This is as true today as it was in 1783, perhaps even more so. Since 9/11/01, when those fanatic idiots carried out their insane delusions of grandeur on the world stage, the “necessity” for Homeland Security has been the watchword of the political pundits who unfortunately are in charge of the legislative and executive branches of our government. Bill after bill after bill keeps coming down the pike and bulling their way through into becoming law, or even worse, is created by executive order, without the benefit of review by Congress, useless as that may be.

The entire incident that happened that day was blown completely out of proportion by the media. Yes, it was a tragedy, in which something over 3000 American lives were lost, in three separate incidents. The videos of those planes hitting the buildings in New York must have been replayed a thousand times before noon, all over the country, until every American, and for that matter, anyone in the world, who had access to a TV was informed of what had occurred….

The American media, and the political machinery that manipulates it so effectively, then proceeded to flood every channel with the after-effects, making sure that the sorrow and fear of every person they could find willing to speak of it on camera was put on the evening news, thus, ensuring that no rational, dispassionate examination of the events would take place. Before the first day had passed, the national reaction had been whipped to a frenzy, stirring the fears of every paranoid in society, and making it seem as if the entire nation was filled with anger and vengeful righteousness. Though I didn’t join in the paranoia, I could feel it happening all around me, as normally intelligent people became so angry they lost all sense of proportion, or for that matter, all sense of truth.

In the ensuing months and years, whenever the politicians have wanted to distract the nation from what they were actually doing, all they needed to do was mention the words “terrorism”, or “national security”, to immediately pull the attention off of them, pointing it firmly at the pitiful group of fanatical Muslims they blamed for the attacks (completely ignoring all the valid reasons those same politicians had provided those fanatics in the first place, reasons specifically designed to stimulate an attack….). Thus, the Hunt for Osama bin Laden was on! (“We’ll get him, by God”… We did, of course…)

In this country, as a result of those attacks, approximately 5000 American lives were lost (that figure is larger, by quite a lot, than the actual number, purposely…. it is near enough to correct to make the point…). At this time, in the quest to find Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, over 50,000 Afghan civilians have been killed. In Iraq, which we somehow decided to invade, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, well over 250,000 civilians have died to soothe our national pride.

(Note from 2014; the number of casualties in both arenas has, naturally, grown on all sides, with the greatest number of deaths, by far, having been suffered by the Afghan and Iraqi civilian populations, just as the number of our American casualties remains, by many thousands of deaths, the smallest of any of the participants…. This amounts to, literally, millions of Afghan and Iraqi deaths, and fewer than 10,000 Americans…. go look at them yourself if you don’t accept my figures….)

In that same period, WE lost another 1000 or so soldiers in fighting and bombings. And, as a side effect, the US Bill of Rights has been effectively eliminated, by Executive Order, disguised as Homeland Security (June, 2013 — Now authorized by what is so laughingly called the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012…. signed by President Obama on New Year’s Eve of 2011, while everyone was partying, not paying any attention to their so-called “rights”…..)

“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated” — George Bernard Shaw

So, what is my point here? My point is this…. those pathetic fanatics killed more, of people THEY considered to be the enemy, than they had ever been able to kill, one time….. ONCE….. Since that one time, our country has killed more than 300,000 civilians in retaliation (amendment from 2014: make that >1 million…).

You can call it what you like, I call it nothing more than schoolyard revenge by bullies. The events of that day provided every politician in this country the opportunity to wrap themselves in the flag, not to proclaim their patriotism, but to manipulate the unreasonable fear they created in the public to keep them from realizing the truth of the matter.

That truth is this: we are in no real danger from Al Qaeda, or from any other splinter faction terrorist group, nor have we ever been in any real danger. We never really WERE in MUCH danger….

Oh, sure, they may be able to pull off stunts such as this one occasionally, but for the most part, the world has gotten pretty good at either catching them in hiding, or stopping their plots before they actually carry them out. Governments have a LOT more resources than terrorists, no matter how rich they may be personally. Most times, their piteous efforts kill a handful of people, and destroy a building or two, and that is the extent of it….

No, the pathetic, desperate people who become terrorists, in direct concatenation of intent, action, and responsibility, are actually created by those same political pundits, who, after bombing their villages, killing their families, and destroying their homes, are now reviling them as monsters, using all their bloated resources in hunting them down.

The terrorists I see in the news are not a real threat to anyone; they don’t have the wherewithal to perform more than one act of violence at a time; they cannot wage a war, they can only try to act as guerrilla forces, at best. Mostly, they are just sad schemers, planning glorious (in THEIR twisted minds….) deaths, that ultimately have no meaning, other than to provide the Western politicos another unreasonable fear to use against the American public, in order to continue the raping and pillaging among their own people.

The entire issue is one that is repugnant to me; I have watched in horror, not as terrorists have been hunted, but as the rights of the American people have been taken away in the name of “security”. Security from what? We don’t need more security from terrorists; the techniques for dealing with it are well-established, and effective, as they employ the very same methods used by the fanatics to achieve their ends, and many more not available to them, because of the depth of their resources, and their lack of morality. (Note from 2014: See, Eric Snowden, NSA, “US Cyber-Security Forces”, etc….) No, we need more security from our own pundits, who have utilized these tragic events for their own benefit, to the everlasting regret of every true patriot….. Bloody fucking assholes, every one of them…..

“I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background. I have seen a great deal of patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge of the scoundrel.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Judgement of Dr. Johnson, Act III

So be it…. gigoid has spoken….

3/8/2014: This rant has been updated and edited to conform with the most current version of Reality, including, but not limited to parenthetical comments, and actual textual edits to improve the flow of thoughts… I also have to say, with this one, I hit the nail right on the fucking head, so, I can say, without any doubt whatsoever…

So be it…. gigoid has spoken, again….
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I’d suppose it’s a function of having done this repeatedly for a relatively long time, but, gosh, Wilbur, I think I’m getting the hang of this…. Even if not, it feels as if I am, so, I’ll take comfort in axiom #1, to wit: “I think I am. That’s close enough.”….. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, if YOU’RE lucky….

Just kidding….. 🙂

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

Analyzing inventory on hand to find the shortest shrift….

Posted on March 7, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

As a practicing curmudgeon, I am required by law to ascertain daily how often I hear the term “grumpy old fart” as applied to myself; something to do with national demographics, I understand, and how many of us are allowed to coexist with the mundanes in any one city block at a time….

Apparently, a while back, some busy-body, wannabe do-gooder noticed that, when there are four or more of us in that small an area, the vegetation tends to suffer, and weather patterns for the area take a turn for the worse…. which wouldn’t have mattered, but, combined with the higher rates of cancer among 17 year-olds without severe acne, somebody got nervous, and called their legislator to have the law prohibit us from congregating in small areas…

I heard they also have a new research study that shows how more than three of us in a specific amount of space can have serious side effects on reality, which only served to make the bill go through faster, as the study was done by the state’s research labs, commissioned by some citizen’s panel of paranoids….

Apparently, and this is just what I heard, mind you, one of us scared the governor one day, so this negative research study was done, so he could pressure the legislature into the bill to curtail our getting together…. not that we ever did; socializing with each other isn’t part of the program of training….

S’alright, let ’em legislate their little hearts out…. It won’t stop us from completing our training, and going forth into the world (fewer than four at a time, legally….) to annoy and to be annoyed…. It’s our lot in life, and the lot of society to put up with us, so there….

Okay, I’m done being silly for the moment…. I couldn’t take that any further, as it was threatening to stimulate my ACTUAL curmudgeonry to go active, and it’s way too early for THAT! I’ve tried to let that out at this time of day in the past, and the results, both times, convinced me it isn’t worth the hassle….. Both times, it took over an hour to clean up the mess, and I don’t think that kid down the hall will ever be the same…

In fact, I heard she’s been seeing a therapist on a daily basis, just to keep from being committed…. Poor kid… I felt bad, but, hey, what can a poor curmudgeon do when the little buggers come up to us in that stupid brown uniform, with that silly-ass vacant expression, and a box of cookies they want to sell me?

It isn’t MY fault that answering the door in my ratty robe, untied, wearing skivvies, hair all over, five day beard, and full-on morning grump caused her to run screaming away down the hall, shedding cookie boxes as if they were plucked feathers….. Nor was it necessary for her damn father to come down to try to chastise me…. an event that even now, I regret….

I suppose that stuffing him into the dumpster WAS a bit over the top, but, hey, he’s the one who woke me up the SECOND time…. He should be glad he survived at all… Besides, the Boy Scout managed to pull him out of the dumpster before he was overcome by the smoke from the explosion….

Now that my internal clock has had the little hand get to the 4, and the big hand to the 12, it has once again caught up to the real world…. Since that means, obviously, it’s now 4 AM, I’ll stop the blather and BS, and get on with whatever we’re going to do today…. I haven’t really decided what to write today…. I’m trying to shake things up a bit, trying to make it more compelling, and, hopefully, more interesting for ffolkes who stop by to read….

Not that my material isn’t grand…. else why would I write it? No, I’m just tired of ranting about the same old stuff, without ever seeing any changes in the real world, so, I’m going to try to vary my delivery, and my material enough to make it a bit more, oh, flashy, or noticeable, or SOMETHING to get ffolkes to spread my message around a bit wider, to more of the public at large, the folks who NEED to read it….

I have a feeling that much of the time, my material gets read by the choir; they have already been converted, so the message, while not completely wasted, isn’t getting the play with those by whom it needs to be seen, in order to be completely effective…. We’ll see how it goes….. fluff is everywhere, it seems….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne
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Early as it is, I won’t give in to my urges to vent….. The easiest, most efficient way to accomplish that goal is to provide myself with a sublimated task, which will give me the sense of venting, without having to actually create the path for it to be released into the blogosphere…. Well, that’s the plan, anyway…. What this means in a practical sense is, of course, an old-school pearl, with parameters set at “rage against the machines”, otherwise known as Sublimated Rant Mode….. Enjoy!….

“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde

“There are scores of thousands of sects who are ready at a moment’s notice to reveal the will of God on every possible subject.” — Smart Bee

“I’d rather that a bigot mistake me for a lesbian than that a lesbian mistake me for a bigot.” — Tovah Hollander

“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” — Thomas Jefferson

“A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.” — Anatole France

“The next best thing to doing something smart is not doing something stupid.” — Flo Capp’s Observation

Truckin’, like the do-dah man
Once told me “Gotta play your hand.
Sometimes your cards ain’t worth a dime
If you don’t lay’em down.”
Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it’s been.

— Truckin’ by Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Hunter

Wow…. not bad, not bad at all…. I don’t think a pearl has ever come together so quickly, or so seamlessly as this one…. It took a total of eight minutes, as pearl after pearl jumped up to be included, sandwiched between a very few obviously unsuitable quotes, easily dismissed in jig time…. It was almost as if the universe was rewarding me for having picked the correct venue for this group, which, patently, is an excellent one to highlight such valuable gems as these….

From now on, I think you’ll be able to use this pearl when you want to show someone a real-life example of the definition of the word “eclectic”….. You could probably use it with the same effect to demonstrate the meaning of the word “esoteric”, too, but, that might stretch the minds of those to whom you show it to a point of no return…. It’s entirely conceivable that, upon assimilating the concepts contained herein, they would never be normal again, which, all in all, in today’s world, might not be such a bad thing, eh?…..
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Another archived poem of my own, serendipitously dumped in my lap yesterday afternoon…. from January of 2013….

“A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.” — William Stafford

Roses for Noses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

As I stated in the intro section, I’m trying to NOT rant as often; at the very least, a rant a day is simply too much, and cutting down on how often I produce a fresh rant can only do me good. Most likely, it isn’t good for my blood pressure to put myself through the angst and emotional turmoil on such a regular basis….. Therefore, to keep things balanced, and healthy, here is a not-at-all-shabby politireligirant from 6/17/13….. Enjoy!….

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“Nevertheless, in the system of Copernicus there are found many and great inconveniences; for both the loading of the earth with a triple motion is very incommodious, and the separation of the sun from the company of the planets, with which it has so many passions in common, is likewise a difficulty, and the introduction of so much immobility in nature, by representing the sun and stars as immovable, especially being of all bodies the highest and most radiant, and making the moon revolve about the earth in an epicycle, and some other assumptions of his, are the speculations of one who cares not what fictions he introduces into nature, provided his calculations answer.” — Francis Bacon, Descriptio Globi Intellectualis, 1653

In his time, Frank Bacon (Oh…… Okay, now I understand: no wonder he went by Francis!….), was considered a learned man; even today, he is regarded as one of the brightest minds of his era…. Such regard, however, doesn’t go far toward explaining this statement. As is patently obvious, according to what we now know, Frank is talking with his head firmly planted up his ass; every one of his objections to Copernicus’ work is WRONG. It has long been proven the Copernican system of physical construction of the solar system, and all the stars and galaxies, is the closest to reality, when compared amongst all of the ancient theories on the subject.

No, Frank was being a coward here…. He was afraid of the churches of the time, as well he might have been; the Church, (actually, ANY of the churches, but, most especially the priestly hierarchy under whose aegis Sir Francis lived….), during the middle ages, was notorious for their intransigence when it came to what they defined as heresy…. So, Frank, being the mealy-mouthed opportunist that he was, dutifully issued this condemnation of Copernicus’ theories, to satisfy the priests, and get on their good side….

I have a feeling that he KNEW he was telling a bald-faced lie in this instance…. It’s too wordy, and too UN-scientific in nature to disguise the lack of truth, and gives me the impression that he would have found it difficult to state this aloud, with a straight face…. I know I would….

“Appearances deceive and this one maxim is a standing rule: Men are not what they seem.” — Harvard

The point I’m making here, or, more accurately, that I’m circling around in the attempt to make, is simply this:

Ffolkes, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but, people lie…. They do it for a lot of reasons, but, regardless of whether it is justified, or not, by whatever standards one chooses to apply, they still lie…. Mostly they do it for reasons that are not particularly public minded; humanity, as a rule, finds it hard to act other than in their own self-interest, even when acting honorably. It is the rare man, or woman, who makes their decisions based on the public good on a consistent basis….

This, of course, is merely my observation, but, I think it’s fairly accurate, given my age, and how extensively I’ve observed people for my entire life. Most folks, I’ve found, act in their own self-interests FIRST; they may act otherwise AFTER they are satisfied they’ve achieved their own ends, but, any such acts will be an afterthought, and will, no doubt, also be designed to benefit themselves more than anyone else…. There are very few who act with complete honor in this respect, and I don’t exclude myself from this accusation; I’m no saint, to be sure….

But, I think that Truth is more important to me than to most of the people I see out in the Big Blue Room, or, for that matter, amongst those who inhabit the rooms inside, where our computers live….. It is that dedication to finding what is true in any situation or issue, I think, that allows me to have a clearer view of reality, than those who tend to color it with their own preconceived notions of right and wrong, with right being what is good for them, and, conversely, wrong is what is not good for them….. The effect of this policy toward life on others, good or bad, isn’t usually a significant part of their decision, as to which is held to be which…

“He who would distinguish the true from the false must have an adequate idea of what is true and false.” — Smart Bee

How often do we meet someone who even makes any attempt to find out the truth? Most people, from what I observe, tend to just accept whatever they are told, (especially if they hear it on TV….), preferring the abrogation of responsibility for their own opinions to having to spend the mental effort to find out what is true….

I don’t think anyone can argue, not very hard anyway, about such a basic observation of human nature; there is far too much undeniable evidence of this truth to be found in an obvious place, to wit: almost every home in middle- and lower-income American, with anywhere from two to six or eight people in them, all of whom are glued to the huge flat-screen TV up on the wall, absorbing everything they’re told by the talking heads they see there….

It’s an all-too-human characteristic to want to have someone else take the responsibility for all those hard mental tasks that go along with finding the truth; real, effective thinking takes much more effort than most folks are willing to put forth in that direction, no matter how often they are told they are being lied to….. not even if the telling comes with anything in the way of actual evidence, unless it is visible, tangible proof that actually slaps them in the face…. They prefer to let anyone who appears on TV show them, preferably with lots of bright, colorful pictures, exactly what they should think and feel….

SIGH…. I’m depressed now. This is an issue that burns my ass on a daily basis, because it is not amenable to resolution, at least, not any easy, peaceful resolution. It is a serious, inherent flaw in the very nature of humankind, that allows this kind of chicanery, keeping the majority of mankind in ignorance, at their own behest; this has been true for all of our history, and will remain so until our untimely demise, somewhere in the not-so-distant future….

I wish I could bring myself to entertain hope, for enough changes in society that we, as a species, would conceivably stand a chance of survival…. Given the stubbornness of even the most average person in resisting any kind of regular, effective cogitation, however, I’m afraid I don’t hold out a lot of hope for that, not in the long run. Humans aren’t going to stop acting in their own self-interest, or being deliberately stupid, and it’s a damn shame there isn’t much that can be done…

“What is man’s chief enemy? Each man is his own.” — Anacharsis (f1. c. 600 B.C.), Scythian philosopher — Quoted in Stobaeus, Flor., II, 43
_____________________________

Not everyone can do this, you know…. nor, in any case, should everyone be encouraged to do so…. Hell, any encouragement I get just makes me worse, and I know it, so, encouraging everyone might just be more than Reality can take…. It probably has enough trouble assimilating what I do; I don’t think it really wants to have to deal too many others spewing all over the place like this….

Of course, one must remember this is all good, clean, digital fun, and the only possible harm to be found is in the ideas and concepts it contains, ideas that could conceivably inflame the hearts and minds of the public, thus smiting a great blow to the very fabric of society, with possible aftershocks produced in the connective fabric of the space-time continuum….

Far be it from me to wish any harm to the space-time continuum; not a healthy habit, I should think…. I think I’ll go now….. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

gigoid

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

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Smart Bee

Look, Amelia, it’s a flock of abusive platitudes….

We’re inspecting hot beef sandwiches…

Dreaming in Calliope’s house….

Dead ducks found on subway–fowl play suspected…

We’ll find some in the bargain basement….

We could try one of those ornamental dwarfs….

Incidents of illicit protuberance rose rapidly in January….

If the figures are correct, we’re not lost; we’re dead….

Measuring infinitesimal increments may take a while….

Analyzing inventory on hand to find the shortest shrift….

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