Tag Archives: Society

Don’t forget to pack a sewage pump….

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10

Ffolkes,

Powerful visions often pass through my mind, generally on their way somewhere else, thus making them merely an annoyance, rather than a joy. Such is life in reality, where we seldom get a proper chance to do just as we would like, even though we adjust and flex both our efforts, and our desires, in the quest to achieve whatever it is we are seeking to accomplish. This is because reality is like an amoeba, always changing shape and character, right before us, with nothing we possess that can affect it one way or another before it changes. All we have is the ability to change our minds, which, to those of us who study reality, is our most valuable tool….

This ability is the one saving grace we have in the face of reality, so it is a good idea to train it well. If not used, and guided, this ability, to be flexible in our thoughts, becomes weak, and can disappear altogether if neglected. The people to whom this has happened are doomed, to a life of misery and ignorance, because there is nothing new to learn for them, once they have abrogated the control of their own mind.

These poor folks are unable to adjust to the rapidity of modern society, and constantly yearn for “the good old days”, which in their minds are golden, but in reality are just gone. It’s sad, but true, that the greater majority of this particular country has done just that, and now allows the pundits on TV to determine for them just what they will think….. It’s much easier than making up their own minds, and easy is what they are all about…

Whoops! I didn’t mean to start ranting, but, it’s just so easy sometimes, when I start thinking…. That right there is the whole problem…. I start thinking, and things just get all intense, and I start taking shots at the parts of society that seem to thrive on stealing from the others with whom they live….. It’s all such a waste, in my mind, to see the potential talent and abilities that even the most average person possesses subverted, and/or deliberately perverted into either disuse, or misuse, all for the sake of keeping the BRC in their positions of power over everyone else.

Those who wish to be in charge of others, who want the power over others that goes along with being an elected official in this country, are, in my mind, clinically insane, and I wish sometimes I was more of a curmudgeon than I am, and that I owned a gun…. But, then, if I did, I’d feel compelled to use it, and my targets would be mostly found in one particular environment, a large city on the East Coast where those who are crazy enough to want that power gather to perform their arcane rituals of theft, misdirection, and aggrandizement.

It might take me a few weeks, and a couple boxes of ammo, but, I could make a serious dent in their numbers, given the time and space…. Too bad I’m disabled now, and can’t work up that much angst…. it might be fun….

Of course, then I’d be falling into the same frame of mind they cultivate in themselves, where they believe they are smart enough to actually make decisions for others….. It has always amazed me to see how much these men and women can delude themselves into thinking this kind of crap; it’s like they have a complete blind spot for other people, and what they might think or feel, and believe that what they want has the right to be paramount over what everyone else wants, or needs….. SIGH….. To make it all not just worse, but stupidly worse, they not only believe this nonsense, they are all-too-successful at getting everyone else to buy into it as well, and will use any persuasion they can think of, no matter how immoral, illegal, or just plain untrue it is, to assert control over the rest of society….

As the perfect example, I give you the attacks of 9/11/01, which the BRC used to perfection. to create fear, and even paranoia, in the public, thereby freeing them to mount their assault on the Bill of Rights. Without even considering the source of the money that paid for the attacks, or who might have had a part in planning it, let us note how the politicos ALL jumped on the security bandwagon, shouting for more restrictive laws to keep the terrorists at bay. They do this, while simultaneously pocketing all the extra money that now pours into the Homeland Security monstrosity of a bureaucracy, where it disappears down the black hole that such behemoths always create, sending piles of money into places where the pundits can more easily transfer it to their pockets…..

Well, I see that I’ve completely lost my way, and fell into a full-fledged rant, before even seeing any headlines, and before consuming sufficient coffee to prevent it….. I’d better take a short time out….

Okay, well, that didn’t help much; I’m still in rant mode, but, now I don’t have the physical acumen remaining to get any more of it out; it’s going to be one of those days, I think, and I might just go back to bed to avoid the worst of it…. Let’s see if I can get a Pearl done first. It should be fairly quick and easy…. I’ve already ranted, so I can go old-school for sections one and two, and I’ll find a good poem for section two…. as long as it all goes smoothly, I should be done, and back in bed within a couple hours…. Yay….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I only touch base with reality on an as-needed basis!” — Royal Floyd Mengot (Klaus)
_____________________________

As noted above, this will be an old-school pearl. I’ve just about given up on giving Smart Bee a set of parameters to use in choosing the pearls for these groups; it seems to work out better when I let it go random, allowing fate, as it were, to determine the best pearls to include. Besides, that way, I can’t be fully to blame for what happens, and my insurance guys are all over that, so…. here is another set of harlequin pearls for your edification and delectation, hopefully….

“All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.” — Federico Fellini

“Don’t claim that you know everything- besides not being true, it’s very irritating to those of us who do.” — Smart Bee

“People are the nucleus of great idea that hasn’t come to be yet.” — Richard Pryor, American Comedian

“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

“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.” — Dorothy Parker

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

“We all carry it within us; supreme strength, the fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy. It is never thwarted and cannot be destroyed. But it is hidden deep, which is what makes life a problem.” — Huston Smith

Though quite nice, this doesn’t quite make the point it is shooting for, so, I’ll look for one more to include that will bring it all home, I hope….

“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.” — Buddha

Perfect….
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Well, it’s one of those days, alright…. I can’t make up my mind between two poems, so, you get saddled with them both… They’re both mine, and both kind of fit with how I’m feeling today, so, bear with me, ffolkes, it will be over soon enough…

Future Shocked:

Weeping, I wake;
waking, I weep, I weep.
I weep for the ages to be lost,
for the children never to be born.

Time comes calling, strident and spare,
nudging us toward the future with bony hands.
No pausing, no waiting, always away,
Frantic hearts unseen, unheard.

Spirits are dark, afraid.
And the Beast hunts, hungry and cruel,
seeking out the weak, and the foolish.

We all weep now…..

~~ gigoid ~~

Funny Bones

Dreaming the way home, lost, unseen,
from the dance, where
he felt so free, and clean.
Sorrow couldn’t find him there.

Waiting, filling up the hours, hoping,
some connection can be found
keeping busy as bees, coping.
Love creeps in, without a sound.

Fat days, skinny nights, passionate
visions of semi-conscious entities,
cannot seem to fully illuminate
or hide our innermost frailties.

Resolute, find the perfect sense, codify
simple rules with every breath
never waiting, anxious to modify.
fear nothing in life, not even Death.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Today’s effort is going quickly, and fairly smoothly, for which I’m grateful, as I really don’t feel all too well, and need to do SOMETHING to make that change…. I only wish I knew what the proper SOMETHING might be… Ah well, I can put together an old-school pearl in my sleep, and often have, so, here is another one, with no parameters to get in the way of something really sharp and unusual…. I can hope, can’t I?….

“To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer.” — Saddi

“A worm, with very few exceptions, is not a human being.” — from Young Frankenstein

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

“Corruptissima republica plurimae leges.” [The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.] — Cornelius Tacitus, 56-120 A.D., Annals III 27

“A man who carries a cat by the tail is getting experience that will always be helpful.  He isn’t likely to grow dim or doubtful.  Chances are, he isn’t likely to carry the cat that way again, either.  But if he wants to, I say let him!” — Mark Twain

“Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger” —  from Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Ever eating, never cloying,
All-devouring, all-destroying,
Never finding full repast,
Till I eat the world at last.

— Swift (1667-1745)

All’s well that ends well, yes?….
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Life has just entered a flux zone, and the future has become clouded in my vision; foreboding fills me, and I am afraid. But, I am my father’s son, and there is no question of giving in, so, I’m going to take today to try to figure out how to feel better. I’m tired of not….. Let’s see how this truncated version of a real Pearl came out….

Well, somehow, it all came together adequately, so I’m going to take the money and run…. 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

dozer3

Such sang froid should be rewarded….

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5

Ffolkes,

A fat moon blundered across the sky, hesitant and pale, as if afraid of the stars. The weak light revealed the face of my guide under the dark hood, throwing shadows like darts, adding to the uncertain terror filling my heart and mind. Without a word, the heavily cloaked warrior, hired to lead me through this den of poverty, moved away from the wall, slipping into an alley, unseen until right upon its opening. The darkness intensified as we moved deeper, silently gliding toward the fetid smells of decay wafting toward us from the alley’s shadowed depths. As we snaked through the narrow way between the buildings on either side, many eyes noted our passage, but no voice rang out to challenge, no alarms sounded…..

Okay, that’s enough of that….. I don’t think I’ll take that one any further, today, or anytime soon; it’s not really my cup of tea, I think, though it’s always good practice to set scenes, trying to make them into clear images that people can easily see in their minds…. Not bad for someone still suffering from coffee shortage…. but, that will soon be relieved, as I am sipping as I type…. Well, not exactly at the same time, but, you know what I mean…. I’ll be fine, soon, as long as nobody talks to me….

Which isn’t to say that all will be well right away; it’s too early to make such unwarranted assumptions. I’m merely going with the odds, which are in favor of no injuries or lethal casualties at this point, always a good thing. Of course, I can’t say for sure the odds won’t change; they often do, especially if we try to depend on them, and bet accordingly…. It’s a better idea to let it ride for a round or two of betting, and chime in when they are a bit more in our favor….. That’s the theory, anyway….. turning it into a proven theorem can be tricky, on the best of days….

No, I really don’t have any more idea of what any of that means, or if it really has any bearing on what we are about to do here today. Since that hasn’t really been decided yet, it would be silly to attempt any lead-ins, or directional hints, as they will just go wonky before I can possibly fulfill them; I’ve seen it happen too often not to know what’s what…. No, all that was just what I call literary bubble-wrap, only there to take up space, and afford some cushioning for the bumps and bruises that can occur when we change directions suddenly. I find it good planning to provide these little head’s-up messages for our passengers, and the insurance folks love it, because we have fewer injuries when people are aware of the hazards ahead of time…

Now that I’ve thoroughly confused y’all, and myself, as to just where in reality we are, I’ll begin the process of trying to find our way back to some semblance of that reality, if not actual normalcy…. Hey, it’s not Masterpiece Theater material, but it keeps me off the streets, mostly….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Happiness is a state of mind.  Not happy?  Change your mind.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

Golly, Mr. Wizard, how did that happen? We seem to have gotten through the intro without major bloodshed, but only after a twitch in time to complete the poetry section.  Now, ready or not, it’s time for section one, and Smart Bee decides to be all cute and coy, throwing all these strange, and unusable, quotes at me, seemingly with no regard at all for anyone’s sensibilities, much less my own. I’m disappointed, to say the least, but, I’m thinking a fake tantrum will do the trick, and get it back in line, or at least guilt-trip it badly enough to push it into the proper frame of mind…. Before I completely mangle any more euphemisms, and lose my license to use metaphor, we’ll see what kind of pearl emerges after that happens…. Be patient, should only take a moment or two…. Ah, good, here we go….

“If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war.” — Pentagon official, on why US military censored graphic footage from the Gulf War

“Never do a thing concerning the rectitude of which you are in doubt.” — Pliny the Younger (61-105 AD) — Letters, Book i, Letter xviii, 5

IMMORAL, adj.  Inexpedient.  Whatever in the long run and with regard to the greater number of instances men find to be generally inexpedient comes to be considered wrong, wicked, immoral.  If man’s notions of right and wrong have any other basis than this of expediency; if they originated, or could have originated, in any other way; if actions have in themselves a moral character apart from, and nowise dependent on, their consequences — then all philosophy is a lie and reason a disorder of the mind. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“As one reads history… one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted.” — Oscar Wilde

“Silliness is the last refuge of the doomed.” — Opus

“But pain…seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come on regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can you win from life in addition to the pain?” — Lois McMaster Bujold, Barrayar

“Belief is not the beginning but the end of all knowledge.” — Goethe
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Normally, or, as much so as that word ever means around here, I pick poems that aren’t connected to religion, or religious subjects…. It isn’t anything against the poets who write the poems, for some of them are incredibly good poets, such as today’s choice, W.B. Yeats…. The reason is, as you know, I’m not very supportive of the delusional system upon which I believe the entire concept is based, and don’t like to make it seem as if I am encouraging exceptions, or being hypocritical. However, this one, no matter how misguided its author may be on the subject of religion, is too good not to enjoy…. For balance, I’ll include another poem, from a poet relatively new to me, that has nothing to do with religion…… which will assuage my guilt, and give y’all a bonus…. Enjoy!….

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of i{Spiritus Mundi}
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

Personal Helicon

for Michael Longley

As a child, they could not keep me from wells
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.

One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top.
I savoured the rich crash when a bucket
Plummeted down at the end of a rope.
So deep you saw no reflection in it.

A shallow one under a dry stone ditch
Fructified like any aquarium.
When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch
A white face hovered over the bottom.

Others had echoes, gave back your own call
With a clean new music in it. And one
Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall
Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.

Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

~~ Seamus Heaney ~~

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Once again, my outrage is on hold, while I recover from my travels, and the news coasts along building up levels of craziness for me to see and assimilate prior to commenting on it. While collecting the group of pearls for section one today, these gems kept popping up between usable quotes for that group (the theme of which is left for the gentle reader to define….). They weren’t exactly what I needed, or was looking for, but, they worked, sort of, so I kept them handy, to see if they’ll fall into place for another old-school version of a pearl…. and, they do. So, without further ado (what does that MEAN?….), I offer the following seven star pearl for your delectation….

“In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.” — Mrs. Jameson

“Although it is tempting to resent disaster, there is not much use in doing so… Whether we remain ash or become the phoenix is up to us.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.  They don’t mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them.” — T. S. Eliot

“Beware! Your brain may no longer be the boss.” — Firesign Theatre, Everything you know is Wrong

“As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.” — Diogenes

“I drank WHAT????” — Socrates (470?-399 B.C.)

“I like people better than principles, and I like people with no principles better than anything else in the world.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
_____________________________

I don’t know if the well’s running dry, or I’m just getting dumber; either way, this one turned into an ordeal, so, I feel pretty good to have gotten it done, and without the loss of any more teeth, or more blood than I have on hand to replace. Now, if only it’s typo-free….

Well, the number of necessary tweaks wasn’t too large, and, it seems to be rather more okay than not, so, it can join the rest of the POVW that have been posted for the world to see here…. As is probably clear by now, I have no pride, so, take it as it comes, or let it lie…. Or, leave a comment, and start a dialogue… it’s all grist for my mill…. 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

dozer3

Wait! Don’t shoot, it’s Bob’s uncle!…..

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7

Ffolkes,

The life I lead now is much different from the one that I had back in the day, prior to the advent of the chronic pain with which I now live. For example, before the pain became a contributing factor, I could pretty much do anything, physically, that I wished to do. Sports, martial arts, camping, driving, cooking, virtually all of the activities I once pursued without a thought to how it might affect me are now proscribed, as being too painful to pursue.

Even activities such as walking are now limited to how long I can go without stimulating more pain, or becoming fatigued, which is the most common precursor to the upper realms of pain, otherwise known as pure agony, a state clearly distinguishable from any ecstasy, let me assure you….

I am not relating this to garner sympathy; thanks, but no thanks. I’ve had plenty of that, and would rather just get on with things, sans any more of it. No, I’m apologizing, in my own roundabout way, for my inability to sit and read the blogs I want to read, which I would very much LIKE to do….. I find, however, if I take that time to read, for more than just a few minutes, the pain takes over, and I have to get up and move around, or lie down until the spasms go away…. neither of which gets it done….. I have been hoarding the time I can spend at the computer for producing these Pearls each day; unfortunately, that is usually about the limit of what I can do, so, I end up posting, then having to shut down, or go do something else, because I am done with sitting comfortably….

Actually, sitting comfortably is what can be called a memory; there is no chair, and no position that can justify using that word, as it applies to sitting. It just doesn’t feel good after a couple of minutes, even with slight position changes every few seconds., and, unless some miracle happens to completely heal, or cure, the torn ligaments that are at the core of the issue, I can pretty much count on sitting comfortably again oh, say, in my next life, not in this one….

I’ve learned to be okay with that; I don’t piss and moan about it all the damn time, as I used to at first. I’ve accepted it as my lot, for having been so damn physically active when younger…. Yep, that’s right….. there is such a thing as being TOO active, according to my doctor…. Anyone who pursues a lifetime of sports or martial arts is TOO active, and, according to him, will pay a price in their later years for going too far when younger…. It’s not in the manual, but, it’s true, nonetheless….. and, if I am a typical case, then, he is right….

This is where the apology part comes in, to all of the bloggers I follow, and can seldom read…. It’s not as if I don’t want to read them, I just can’t sit long enough to get caught up to all of them I wish to get to…. I know there are a few ffolkes who make it by here every day, or nearly, and I really appreciate their custom…. Those who do come by often are also some of my favorite authors, so it burns my ass big time that I cannot get to their sites as often as I wish….. and, for this, I am sorry…. I keep hoping for a clear spell of pain-free time, but, since that hasn’t been fulfilled for over 8 years now, I won’t be holding my breath…. and neither should they…. I do hope they understand, though…

Now that I’ve bared my soul long enough to thoroughly embarrass myself, I’ll get on with today’s post, hoping I can last long enough to get some of it done before having to take a break from sitting…. I’ve been up 3 times already in composing this intro, so, it’s a bit dodgy today…. I’ll get it done, but, won’t be a happy camper for a while…. C’est la vie, reader-san!

Shall we Pearl?…..

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.

It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.

~~ Emily Dickinson
_____________________________

Obviously, ranting is out of the question when my back is like this; can’t sit long enough to get the outrage out onto the screen. But, Smart Bee has been pretty cooperative of late, so, we’ll let it pick out some nice pearls for your consideration…. We’ll make it a random, harlequin style pearl, with no set parameters, and see what happens….. Good luck, and don’t forget your lobster bibs….

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

— William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid”

“All things are the same,–familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 14

“Half the work that is done in the world is to make things appear what they are not.” — E. R. Beadle

“Rights” is a fictional abstraction. No one has “Rights”, neither machines nor flesh-and-blood. Persons… have opportunities, not rights, which they use or do not use.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Warning: Politicians can damage your wealth. — Smart Bee

The thief
Left it behind —
The moon at the window.

— Ryokan

“At this precise moment, no reproach proceeding from men or gods can affect me: I have as good a conscience as if I had never existed.” — E.M. Cioran

“The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance called “faith”.” — Robert G. Ingersoll

“As God is my witness – I am that fool!” — Gomez Addams

Wow…. a nine-star pearl! I’ve never made one of those before, but,  I think it came out pretty well, especially for the harlequin style…. I hope you enjoy consuming it as much as I did producing it…..
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So far today, we’ve had Yeats, we’ve had Dickinson, we’ve had Ryokan …. it must be time for someone equally spirited….

The Loser

Mama said I’d lose my head
if it wasn’t fastened on.
Today I guess it wasn’t
’cause while playing with my cousin
it fell off and rolled away
and now it’s gone.

And I can’t look for it
’cause my eyes are in it,
and I can’t call to it
’cause my mouth is on it
(couldn’t hear me anyway
’cause my ears are on it),
can’t even think about it
’cause my brain is in it.
So I guess I’ll sit down
on this rock
and rest for just a minute…

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

from the book “Where the Sidewalk Ends” (1974)

_____________________________

I’ve just taken a quick look at the news, and nothing outraged me enough to start a rant…. thankfully, as I’m currently not in the condition to do that without more sacrifice than I’m willing to endure…. This means y’all are the winners again today, as I’ll be going with another old-school pearl, which, though less straightforward in their approach to cognitive stimulation and/or attempted thought manipulation than are rants, they are patently less pompous by a factor of infinity; moreover, they’re guaranteed to provide fewer instances of mental heartburn…. In fact, a good group of pearls will actually cure baldness in adult males, given the right amount of faith…. or, so I’m told….

“You don’t fool me!! You’re not really an idiot!!” — Smart Bee

“The improver of knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties, blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” — Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)

“I’ll tell you what kind of guy I was.   If you ordered a boxcar full of sons-of-bitches and opened the door and only found me inside, you could consider the order filled.” — Robert Mitchum
(My hero!…. It has always been one of my life’s goals, to achieve this degree of “badass”….)

“I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil.” — Aeschylus (525-456 BC) — Suppliants, 453

“After a while he realizes that she is beautiful – he just hadn’t noticed it at first.” — Lazarus Long

MAD, adj.  Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual.  It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane.  For illustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any madhouse in the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers he may really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delight of many thoughtless spectators.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper.  Half never voted for President.  One hopes it is the same half.” — Gore Vidal

Some days, SB is just better than others…..
_____________________________

I do believe I’ve done it, Olly!  It’s another fine mess, just rarin’ to get read….. well, ready to be read, anyway. Let’s see how that goes….

Well, it’s definitely a Pearl, and, until someone disabuses me of the notion, I’m going to consider it to be a relatively good one…. I like it, anyway, so that’s something…. Y’all can make your own decision on that…. See ya…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, and 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

dozer3

Charged with gluttonous stockpiling of salient rationalizations….

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Ffolkes,

Oh, yay…. I’m home from the wars…. well, okay, from Texas…. and slept like a baby in my own bed, once the travel-buzz wore off long enough to sleep. Now, here I am, only a few hours later, up, and burning to write…. Okay, so I’m not burning up with literary fervor, either; I AM up, though, and at 5:30 AM there isn’t a whole lot else to do but write, so…. Now, don’t take that as putting y’all second-best, or that I’m settling for this; it’s just that my whole reason for being up at all is to write; otherwise, I’d gladly still be sawing logs in dreamland….

A word here about the day…. I always have a good day on Friday the 13th; something about being a triple Scorpio, or something, not that I put a lot of faith in astrology….. But, astrologers, as good con men and women always have to be, are good observers of human nature, and over the centuries have incorporated their observations into their “science” so that some of what they say, especially about how humans behave, is true…. or, at least, sounds true…. Otherwise, they couldn’t convince people that ALL of it is true, which is just ridiculous….. I mean, the basic law of conservation of energy puts the lie to astrology, which claims that the motions of the stars and planets determine the events of our lives, and our personality traits, which determine how we approach life…..

Even if one considers that to be true (a pretty fair stretch of the imagination, logic-wise….), it doesn’t account for the fact that in our Universe, physical law is such that, if it IS true, the opposite concept must also be true, to wit: the events of our lives, and our personalities, affect the motion of the planets and stars, equally as much as they affect us. The Universe exists in duality; symmetry must be maintained, in reality, though not in the human imagination…This is basic physical law in our space-time continuum, and not to be discounted, but, they don’t want to see that part of it, so they just ignore it…. Hmm…. sounds like a politician, doesn’t it?….

Sorry, it’s a bit early for shots at the BRC, especially when we’re still in the intro…. I know I’ve been ranting here a lot lately, but, that really is no excuse for rudeness…. Ah, what the hell, let’s go for it…. It’s not as if they’re not used to it, is it? Nope, and anyone with a thin skin should never go into politics anyway; there’s just too much name-calling and oneupmanship going on to allow anyone without a good, thick, rhinoceros-style epidermis to last for long….  Plus, it isn’t as if they listen much to what the peons say, anyway….

Okay, that’s enough for now…. I’m too glad to be home to be very nasty today, so I may skip a rant altogether…. We’ll see when I look at the news this morning, to see if there is anything new to report on the “spying on their own people” front, or the “let’s all get worked up over some asshole’s newest outrage, and start World War III” front…. both of which have dominated the news of late. I’m glad to see the danger of world-wide conflagration has receded a bit, thanks to some last-minute contortions, and a touch of common sense that somehow got worked into the whole issue, out of nowhere…. It was getting a bit scary there for a bit…. even the POTUS was, and is, leaning toward an idiotic response that goes against everything the public wants him to do….

SIGH…. sorry, I said I wasn’t going to rant, and there I went, straight into the same old story…. We’d best dive in soon, and start the search for some suitable pearls for today; I have a feeling I was getting lost there, and wouldn’t have found my way back any time soon, so, good thing I caught myself…. Hell, this is already getting out of hand, and, once again, we’re still only in the first section…. Well, I know the solution for THAT, anyway….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“C is for cookie, it’s good enough for me; oh cookie cookie cookie starts with C.” — Cookie Monster
_____________________________

Thankfully, I was right, for the moment…. I checked the headlines, and little of note is happening just now on the world’s stage, beyond some stupid remarks made by our Secretary of State (nothing unusual there….); that’s encouraging in that they are at least talking, and not bombing yet…. To relieve a bit of the heavy-handedness that has been seen, here and everywhere, of late, here is an old-school pearl, with the parameters left up to Smart Bee…. I just told it to look for stuff to make fun of stuffed shirts and closet bozos…..

“Before you have sex you have to be elected to a high government position.” — Zippy

“It’s better the world wonder why you *AREN’T* President.” — Smart Bee

“I think the mistake a lot of us make is thinking the state-appointed psychiatrist is our “friend.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“Truth exists. Only lies have to be invented.” — Georges Braque

“A drill is a tool. A hole is a solution.” — Smart Bee

“The United States has got some of the dumbest people in the world.  I want you to know that we know that.” — Ted Turner, media mogul, author, actor, and baseball team owner, — addressing international journalists, 1996

“When in doubt, think.” — Smart Bee

Damn! I love it when a plan comes together…. Hell, I like it when it only breathes hard by itself….    😆     No, really, though, thanks to Smart Bee, this turned out to be one of the best pearls in quite a while…. Well, I  think so….
_____________________________

I find myself lately wondering about motivation when I’m picking poems for this section, mostly because I don’t seem to know just what it is that makes me pick some poems…. Sometimes it is for the power of it, the breadth and width and height, and presence it creates; other times it is because it strikes a chord of beauty in my soul/spirit…. But, often, I just don’t know, and, moreover, don’t care…. This is one of those times, so, just enjoy the genius of this woman’s unique view….

Doomsday

The idiot bird leaps out and drunken leans
Atop the broken universal clock:
The hour is crowed in lunatic thirteens.
Out painted stages fall apart by scenes
While all the actors halt in mortal shock:
The idiot bird leaps out and drunken leans.

Streets crack through in havoc-split ravines
As the doomstruck city crumbles block by block:
The hour is crowed in lunatic thirteens.

Fractured glass flies down in smithereens;
Our lucky relics have been put in hock:
The idiot bird leaps out and drunken leans.

The monkey’s wrench has blasted all machines;
We never thought to hear the holy cock:
The hour is crowed in lunatic thirteens.

Too late to ask if end was worth the means,
Too late to calculate the toppling stock:
The idiot bird leaps out and drunken leans,
The hour is crowed in lunatic thirteens.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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“A promise must never be broken.” — Alexander Hamilton

It’s interesting to me that this statement is made by one of our country’s first politicians…. It was possible for him to utter such a thought, I suppose because, in a very real sense, they were unique politicians, unlike what we know as such today…. You see, most folks forget that most of the founding fathers didn’t start out as politicians…. They only became labeled as such because they took the responsibility for their fate, and went forth to change history….. Today, politicians are more closely defined and described by the Smart Bee quote I often use, from either Daniel Bowen’s Toxic Custarpedia, or Ambrose Bierce’s, “The Devil’s Dictionary”,  (I forget which, and am too lazy to go look…. but, it’s one of the two, for sure….) to wit:

Politics: from the Greek, “poly”, meaning “many”, and “tics”, meaning “blood-sucking insects”…. a most apt definition, if I do say so….

There is a corollary statement to this assertion by Mssr. Hamilton: I would say it is an obvious evolution of the concept of the inviolability of such moral laws. It says, simply, “If you can’t keep a promise, don’t make it.” In light of that, I can only say, not only do today’s version of politicians NOT display any knowledge of the above moral rule, they DO firmly believe in making promises they have no intention of keeping…. If anyone out there has an opposing view of this, please, please, say something that actually has evidence to back it up; it is common knowledge, among the people I know, that politicians will say anything to get people to vote for them, then have absolutely no memory of any such statements, once they are safely ensconced in office….

I’m not going to bore y’all with a long rant today, and I don’t think it will improve your day, or mine, for me to list a huge number of examples that DO provide evidence of the lies told by politicians in this country, or any other….. besides, all you have to do is go read a newspaper to get that list, anyway. Instead, I’m going to go old-school again, this time having Smart Bee look for humorous ways to drive this point home, or at least to a luxurious motel…. Or, in other words, I shall explain this by waving my hands about in an appropriate manner….

“And now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV– Act i, Sc. 2
(However, I am nothing, if not an honest man…. unlike SOME people I could name….)

“Anacharsis said a man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, 11

“Bush?  OK, he’s experienced, but he’s never going to be a GREAT liar. He can hardly bamboozle Dan Rather.  How’s he going to do up against a bloodthirsty, power-mad dictator, like Margaret  Thatcher?” — A. Whitney Brown

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

“If I could find a way to get [Saddam Hussein] out of there, even putting a contract out on him, if the CIA still did that sort of a thing, assuming it ever did, I would be for it.” — Richard M. Nixon

“Civil liberties are always safe as long as their exercise doesn’t bother anyone.” — New York Times editorial, 1-3-41

“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) —

I think this is still a bit unclear, so, we’ll add one more, that will bring it all into perspective….

“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” — H.L. Mencken
_____________________________

While searching for the pearls for the above section, the following pearls kept popping up to distract me…. Each of these is a real gem, of highest quality, but, they aren’t necessarily connected, other than by that same universal sameness of being absolutely true, and/or humorously logical…. or even logically humorous…. In short, they’re all perfect, in their own way…. I’m adding them in here today because I can….. It isn’t meant as torture, you know, but as a bonus round…. Regardless of all that, I hope you enjoy them, and pay heed to the wisdom herein….

“May the Forces of Evil become confused on the way to your house.” — George Carlin

“Experience has proved that some people indeed know everything.” — Russell Baker

How To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity:  4. Put your garbage can on your desk and label it “in”.

I am the mother of all things, and all things should wear a sweater.

“Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

The ruins of himself! now worn away
With age, yet still majestic in decay.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xxiv, Line 271

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

This is what happens when I lose my routine…. I get all blocked up; once it has an outlet, it pours out all over the place. I do hope none of it splashed on any of your good clothing…. There’s a lot here, I know, so let’s see if it’s worth the effort…. I’d say it will pass, though it IS somewhat lengthy…. (I do love understatement, don’t you?….) It’s certainly enough, and he who has enough is rich indeed…. To prevent any more damage to my mind, your mind, or the space-time continuum we share, or, indeed, any danger of same, I’ll stop now….

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

dozer3

Entirely new aspects of unpardonable sins….

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Ffolkes,

Today’s Pearl will be a typical road-based version, with mostly archived material…. The reason for this today is that the jet-lag caught up with me last night…. I fell out at 8 PM, and didn’t finish sleeping until 8 AM…. It’s a glorious feeling, getting enough sleep, but, it happened just in time to take another plane home today, and reverse the lag again…. I guess Murphy found me…

S’okay, since I’m going home today, I can comfort myself with knowing he will have to get back to California on his own, and won’t have time to mess with me a lot…. I know, probably wishful thinking, but, hey, one must maintain one’s illusions, n’est pas? All I have to do is drive an hour, yell at the rental car company folks for their outrageous hidden charges, and catch my plane home…. That alone will be an ordeal, as we fly to Phoenix first, get off, get on another plane, and then fly to SFO…. I’m glad I decided not to take BART home, as I’d probably end up getting lost at the airport trying to find it….

Any who, chatty bilge aside, today’s Pearl is one from mid-2012, prior to the elections in November of that year, so it has some good shots at Romney in it, along with the normal blather I produce at such an alarming rate. Never fear, tomorrow’s Pearl should be a fresh one, with all new material…. oh, joy…. In the meantime, please enjoy this one, a blast from the past….

Shall we Pearl?….

“I’m glad I did it…partly because it was worth it but mainly because I will never have to do it again.” — Mark Twain
____________________________

Ffolkes,
I’m giving up. Or, more accurately, I’m acknowledging that I’ve given up; the actual giving up part was accomplished some time ago, and I’m just now getting around to letting y’all know…. You may well ask “what are you babbling about now?”, and would be within your rights to do so. I’m talking about giving up some of my angst, just letting it go…. the part that I keep around to worry about whether this blog gets done by a certain time.

My sleeping pattern has achieved true randomness, I think; I can no longer tell when I might get sleepy at night. It seems to alternate between falling out at 6 PM on Monday, then being wide awake at midnight on Tuesday. Then Wednesday, I take a 3 hour nap, until 4 PM, and fall out again at 8. It’s absurd, and I can’t get a handle on it…..

I don’t know if this is a functional result of getting older, or if it is because of the medication I’m taking, (or not taking…. there are at least five things my doctor tells me to take that I can’t afford, so I don’t….), or just my PTSD throwing me mental curves and sliders. Whatever the cause, I can no longer count on being up by a certain time, so it makes no sense to get all worked up when I don’t get this Pearl done before 8 or 9 AM.

So, I won’t…. I may be a Bozo, but once I do figure something out, I’m not shy about implementing changes….. Just because one’s nose is big, red, and honks doesn’t mean one can’t be efficient…. We may all be Bozo’s on this bus, but the bus stops now and again, and one must get off and join the rest of the circus…..

That said, we can get on with the process of finding pearls. They may not get published as early as is usual, but they’ll get there. I’m just not going to sweat over it quite so freely….. Shall we Pearl?…..
___________________________________

“You can’t use tact with a congressman. A congressman is a hog. You must take a stick and hit him on the snout.” — Henry Adams

The political arena has been quiet of late; we are between elections leading up to the main one in November, and waiting for the National Conventions of each Party to take place. The Republican front runner, Mitt Romney, has placed a gag order on himself, having recently acknowledged that thus far in his campaign, his greatest problems have occurred when he opened his mouth to speak. So, he has been watching what he says very carefully, and in the process, is saying nothing at all.

Well, that is, he’s saying nothing if one doesn’t count his normal quota of lies and made up statistics. Why, just two days ago I read where he told a group in the Midwest how Obama’s administration had increased some debt percentage “more than ANY previous administration”. This of course, is completely false, as the numbers show, in fact, that the particular statistical number to which he referred, has DECREASED more than any previous administration had been able to do….. typical.

So, this leaves me little to rant about. I guess I’ll have to go look through the news before writing these pearls, to find something to use as the latest evidence of the ongoing chicanery and yes, illegal activities being acted out on the public stage. Hang in there, I’ll be back….

There, see? Nothing…. no outrageous statements, no news of new idiotic policies. Well, there was one story, about how Romney is now claiming that cutting spending will cause a depression (that’s Democratic cuts, not Republican cuts…. they’re different, you know… sure they are…. trust me….). Of course, he doesn’t bother to explain his reasoning for this claim; he just knows. I guess the information came in via radio, straight into his brain from the Cosmos… Hardly worth picking at, even for me….

Ah well, I’ll just wait. I am certain that it won’t take more than a day or two for the pressure to build up, and Mitt will have to blurt out some new idiotically absurd new statement that demonstrates his complete cluelessness. He’s been in the public eye now for several months, and if they are any indicator, it won’t be long before he opens up and inserts his size 10 alligator loafers…. and I’ll be waiting….

“There are things worse than a public speaker with a three word thought, a three minute vocabulary and a three hour speech, but I have not been able to think of any over the last three days.” — Smart Bee
___________________________________

“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” — Rafael Sabatini

A few days ago, I posted a quote from William Yeats, about making our words inevitable…. The above line is the opening line of the novel, “Scaramouche”, and is, in my not-so-humble opinion, one of the best opening lines ever written. With style and wit, and a strong sense of inevitability, it sets the tone for the entire book, and gives a taste of flavor from the feast to follow….. I would recommend the story to anyone who enjoys a well-told historical novel, rich in detail, and with engaging characters living in a time of great change.

The story is set in France, during the same period as Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”, i.e. the period leading up to the Peasant’s Revolt in the 19the century. Love, hatred, political intrigue, revenge, all play their part to paint a beautifully detailed picture of the period, and tell a story that holds one captive to the final page. I won’t bore you with a discussion of how it can be related to current times; you can see for yourself when you read it. But, even without any political overtones, the book remains a great read, and well worth a trip to the library…..
___________________________________

The Day Is Done

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life’s endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Poetry break…. enjoy!
___________________________________

“At once it struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously — I mean negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” — John Keats (1795-1821)

I have previously given my opinion on Shakespeare, and won’t bore you again with more samples of his impenetrable verse; it always gives me a headache anyway…. but it is nice to find evidence that my less than enthusiastic take on Will is shared by others who are not afraid to state an unpopular opinion. The fact that the person who makes this statement is possibly the best poet who ever lived gives me a lot of satisfaction; if anyone is entitled to an opinion about Will’s work, John Keats is certainly one of them.

Keats is acknowledged as probably the most influential poet of all time, not merely during his own life. His work changed the face of the entire genre; one can only lament his early death, and grieve over all the genius that was lost…. And not just genius, but brave genius, to be honest enough to say what he thought about the most revered playwright of all time…. It’s tough to be right, when everyone one else believes you to be wrong…. but it’s well worth it, to my mind…. Especially if it means I don’t have to try to sit through another reading of Will’s nonsensical refuse, trying to find some way to puzzle out what he was trying to say with all the extra verbiage he piled on to his verse….
___________________________________

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.        Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.                 Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.  But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” — Buddha

Obviously, this needs no adornment, nor comment from me, other than to say it is my idea of the correct path to a full and complete life, based on right action, compassion, and love…..
___________________________________

I’ve said it before…. All you can do is all you can do…. hopefully, it is enough. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here endeth the lesson…. We’ll not tempt fate by commenting here on any of the various characteristics of this piece, though we will acknowledge its age, if naught else. Such as it is, it deserves some respect, if only for that age…. and, for being right about Romney…. See ya back in California, ffolkes….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole,
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

dozer3

Dealing with randomness is almost fun…

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Ffolkes,

Traveling is not what I remember…. When I was younger, it was an adventure, and everything was fun. Now, it is a chore, and an obligation, and it’s all hard, physically speaking…. It is still an adventure, I guess…. there IS a certain amount of adventure implied in being lost in a strange land in the middle of the night, even if the adventure is more of a PITA than a soon-to-be-cherished memory. However, most adventures don’t end with the hero settling for the 1st hotel he sees, just so he can stop moving long enough to catch his breath….

It’s funny how the mind hides stuff from itself…. I’d completely forgotten the hassle and strain of flying to Texas, though I did so only a few months ago, in April of this year. All my mind sees is me, in a younger, stronger version, one unconcerned with how much energy it takes to do the simple tasks involved in getting across the country. It’s obvious that the subconscious mind, or, my subconscious mind, doesn’t like to acknowledge the passage of time….

Any who, to cut short this morning’s whine-fest, I will now attempt to create a Pearl, with a bit of help from the archives…. It’s cheating, I know, but a bit of flexibility is called for in such situations, so, y’all will just have to bear with me, and deal…. I’ll do my best to make it as painless as possible…..

Since I still have an hour’s drive to accomplish today, I’d best get on with it…. so, I will, legal sized intro or not….

Shall we Pearl?….
____________________________

Today’s Pearl, as advertised, comes from the archives, specifically, from the middle of July in 2012. The Pearls were still in the old format I was using then, with five sections rather than three, and shorter pieces in each section…. It’s a lot, but, it ain’t bad….

Ffolkes,
One day a long time ago, back in the Pleistocene Era, I was laying out back of the cave in my saber-tooth skin hammock, trying to sleep through the heat of the late afternoon, when my cave-mate, Lucy, yelled out the upper story window hole, “Did you pick up those extra mastodon steaks I asked for from the hunting trip this morning? Your brother and his cave-mate are coming over for dinner tomorrow, and I want to make sure we have enough meat; your brother eats like a T-Rex!” “Yes, I got them,” I called back, basking in the glow of a successful husbandly task completed…..

Ah, bliss! Nothing like barbecued mastodon to make up for the pain of having to sit through a night with my brother’s mate….As the mate of an important member of the tribe (my brother is chief hunter….) she thinks it is her responsibility to hear and repeat every bit of gossip she can find, a responsibility she takes very seriously, to the everlasting regret of the rest of the family, my brother included…. Living with her as he does, his defenses against hearing all of her drivel about everyone else’s business are quite refined, and effective, seemingly. He, at least, hasn’t killed her yet, though I cannot say whether the thought has or has not crossed his mind……

I think I’m going to stop here, leaving my cave-mate and my brother to deal with his partner’s loquacity on their own. I have bigger fish to fry…. Or, at least, shinier pearls to seek, so to speak…. Shall we have at it? Time’s a wastin’!……

“I’m having BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS about the INSIPID WIVES  of smug and wealthy CORPORATE LAWYERS..” — Zippy the Pinhead
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“Don’t ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun — and neither can stop the march of events.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

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

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

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

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

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

A Brook In The City

The farmhouse lingers, though averse to square
With the new city street it has to wear
A number in. But what about the brook
That held the house as in an elbow-crook?
I ask as one who knew the brook, its strength
And impulse, having dipped a finger length
And made it leap my knuckle, having tossed
A flower to try its currents where they crossed.
The meadow grass could be cemented down
From growing under pavements of a town;
The apple trees be sent to hearth-stone flame.
Is water wood to serve a brook the same?
How else dispose of an immortal force
No longer needed? Staunch it at its source
With cinder loads dumped down? The brook was thrown
Deep in a sewer dungeon under stone
In fetid darkness still to live and run —
And all for nothing it had ever done
Except forget to go in fear perhaps.
No one would know except for ancient maps
That such a brook ran water. But I wonder
If from its being kept forever under,
The thoughts may not have risen that so keep
This new-built city from both work and sleep.

~~ Robert Frost ~~

For me, one mark of a good poem, and poet, is that when one finishes reading the last line, the mind does not immediately let go, but follows the train of thought created by the poem to its conclusion, whatever that may be for each individual reader. Frost is a master at that type of poem, to my mind…. There is so much power in the phrase, “But I wonder….”!…..    Enjoy!
___________________________________

“I observe that there are two entirely different theories according to which individual men seek to get on in the world. One theory leads a man to pull down everyone around him in order to climb on them to a higher place. The other leads a man to help everybody around him in order that he may go up with them.” — Elihu Root

I’ve also heard it observed that there are only two kinds of people in the world…. Those who make lists about the types of people in the world, and those who are bored to tears by that…..  🙂    Sorry, couldn’t resist, even for such an obviously true aphorism, one that is completely  worthy of pearl status…..

I like to think that I act from the latter motivational base, that of working with my peers rather than against them, with my only thought of reward the good feeling that serving others gives me. One piece of evidence that I’ve been successful at that can be seen in my own place near the bottom of what most would consider the social scale. If I had been leaving bloody corpses behind me, I think I’d be enjoying a few more physical comforts than I do, and would have bodies buried somewhere that could be used against me, if they were publicized. When one has nothing, there is nothing to steal, is there?

“If you wish a life of trouble, fill your house with treasures.” — ancient Chinese proverb

I think the morality implied by the original pearl above is obvious, and is one that neither side of the issue would argue. But then, those who climb on the bodies of their peers to advance would never admit to such behavior; rationalization is one of mankind’s greatest skills. But, rationalized or not, they DO know that what they do is immoral; they have merely learned the art of lying to themselves as readily as they do to others.

To my way of thinking, it’s sad, as well as stupid, for far too many reasons to list here; relating one will do. It’s sad because these people will never even see any need to change, until it is too late for them to do anything that might help them. And it is stupid, well, just because it is…. no, sorry, just kidding… it is stupid because a life that is built on lies is no life at all…..

Joshu asked the teacher Nansen, “What is the True Way?”
Nansen answered, “Every way is the true Way.”
Joshu asked, “Can I study it?”
Nansen answered, “The more you study, the further from the Way.”
Joshu asked, “If I don’t study it, how can I know it?”
Nansen answered, “The Way does not belong to things seen: nor to things unseen. It does not belong to things known: nor to things unknown. Do not seek it, study it, or name it. To find yourself on it, open yourself as wide as the sky.”

I can see the Way, but cannot point to it, and this makes me pessimistic, for it (the Way) is possibly our last hope for redemption as a species, and the people who most need to find it are not even looking. I am optimistic because I see great promise in Man, even if I am not certain that promise will be kept….
___________________________________

Since I’ve already run the gamut from silly to serious, from giddy to maudlin, and back again, it would be best to just stop here….. so I will.  There is enough confusion in the world, and I’ve done my best to contribute….  🙂   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here ends the old Pearl, which proved to be more than I had originally intended for today, but, hey, I’m easy, as is well established….. Moreover, I’ve got stuff to do, a lot, so, I’m outta here until tomorrow, when, hopefully, I will be less wiped out than today…. Hope springs eternal, does it not?….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole,
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

dozer3

Novitiates aren’t expected to tango so well….

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1

Ffolkes,

The glory of autumn’s yearly advent, with it’s increasingly cold temperatures, and ever-growing daily cloud cover, greeted me as I awoke this morning…. Strangely enough, I was NOT outside, camping in a tent, nor was I sleep-walking, so this meant somebody, who shall remain nameless, left the windows wide open! Grabbing the nearest t-shirt, I jumped up (as much as I can at this stage in life…), and came out to get started on today’s Pearl. The entire space-time continuum breathed a heavy sigh of relief as I entered the kitchen, to find my coffee already brewed and waiting for me….. the same heavy sigh that escaped my lips upon taking in that first, life-giving sip…..

Today, and the next few days, promises to be an epic story, as I head off for the wilds of Texas once again, braving the land of the Shrub to honor my friend, a blonde, native California girl, who somehow found herself living there at the end of her life. I’m even flying into the airport in Houston named after the Junior Shrub, (I think it’s his…. it might be Daddy’s airport, but, doesn’t matter; either one is anathema to my mind….)

(Great word, anathema…. just for fun, ((I DO know what it means….)), I looked it up at Thesaurus.com, and got the following list of related words/ideas….

execration
n. hating

abhorrence
abomination
anathema
blasphemy

condemnation
curse
damnation
denunciation

detestation
hatred
imprecation
loathing

malediction
odium
profanity
swearing…..

Excellent, eh? Whenever I contemplate the notion of the two Shrubs, and all the damage they’ve done to my country, I feel, and exhibit, every one of those words….. End of digression…. for now…. they’re such easy targets, y’know?….)

Where was I? Oh, yeah, headed to GWB International Airport in Houston, on the way to meet Carole’s family, which was the essence of my last promise to her…. When I visited Carole back in April, during one of her stays in the hospital for stem cell therapy, my time was short, but, she wanted me to meet them very much, so, our plan was to have a BBQ at her house in Montgomery, when she had recovered enough to do so…. That plan, as is plain, cannot be, so, I am going to the memorial they are planning for Tuesday, and fulfilling my promise to her, though later than I had wished….

Traveling is harder than it used to be, for sure, but, a promise is a promise; in my world, there is no question of whether or not I should go….. I said I would, so I will. End of story, though not the end of fulfilling it; I only hope I can find the right words to give them, that will help to ease them past the pain of losing such a beautiful spirit. I’ve never been very good at that, but, I’ll do all I can to help, and maybe it will…..

On a housekeeping note, I will continue to post the daily Pearls, as long as my new travel computer lives up to expectation. I’m pretty sure I’ve got it ready to go, so, we’ll see…. This one is being written on the old, home laptop, and will be the last one so created for three or four days…. Here’s hoping it works, and Murphy loses track of where I am…. I guess I’ve meandered and blathered sufficiently to make this legal, if not exactly compelling, hauntingly unforgettable prose….. Though excellence is always the goal, one must occasionally remember that excellence can be a relative term….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“What thing is man, that thou art mindful of him?” — Heb 2:6, wyclif, 1382

“Don’t try this at home, kids. This should only be done by trained, professional idiots.” — Plucky Duck
_____________________________

“An Irishman is not drunk as long as he can hang onto a single blade of grass and not fall off the face of the earth.” — Smart Bee

Okay, so this really isn’t a pearl…. but, it IS about the funniest mental image I can imagine; I literally burst out with a guffaw when I first read this, and almost lived up to the text meme, ROFLMAO…. Since I am taking off in just a couple of hours, this has to be a relatively quick creative process, so, for this first section, I’ll go with an old school pearl, a harlequin random variety, which is the quickest to come together, even though it is also generally the most obscure type…. go figure, eh?…. Let’s see what SB has for us today…..

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.” — Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844-1900)

“I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.” — Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson)

“Regrets and complaints about relations are to be attributed to the same cause, which is not old age, but men’s characters and tempers; for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but for someone with the opposite deposition, youth and old age are equally a burden.” — Plato,_The Republic_, Book 1

“Just as there are laws of Conservation of Matter and Energy, so there are in fact Laws of Conservation of Pain and Joy. Neither can ever be created or destroyed. But one can be converted into the other.” — Spider Robinson

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” — Albert Einstein

“If you want to know all about the sea, you go and ask a sailor, or a marine biologist, or an oceanographer, and they can tell you a lot about the sea. But if you go and ask the sea itself, what does it say? Grumble, grumble, swish swish. It is too busy being itself to know anything about itself.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

“Hello.  Just walk along and try NOT to think about your INTESTINES being almost FORTY YARDS LONG!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Brilliant…. just brilliant….. I am humbled in the face of true greatness…. Okay, I’ll explain this one, because it’s turned itself into an important pearl…. First, look at all of the first six, one after another, then consider them together. Try to imagine living your life according to the precepts implied in the statements….. Then, add in the last one, but, don’t allow it to color any of the others, merely append it, as an example of what the first one is gives us, if we only let it….

Don’t fret if it doesn’t gel for you…. it’s all good, and tomorrow’s another day…..
_____________________________

Since I’m feeling the build up of weird that will protect me as I travel today, I am convinced that one of my own poems will have to be included, if only to remind me of my own limitations…. I hope you enjoy this little piece of my soul…. Actually, now that I think about it, here are two pieces….

Haiku

Bright sun rises up,
glory against a blue sky.
Joy is now, today.

~~ gigoid ~~

After the odyssey….

Portraits of iconic symbols, crashing, singing, forgotten;
evolving into mature innovation, as yet pale, and rotten.
Still water justly breeds, impenetrable primal verses resound;
unholy moments tarry, emotion swirls in passion unbound

Spiritual ovulation precedes each pregnant pause;
gravid, time moves on, following destiny’s cause.
Cast adrift on waves of confusion, to a final, damp landing;
salvation beckons sweetly, fed well on understanding.

Dreams directly fall, in night’s grey bower, unbidden;
lingering flavors in simple taste, lovingly, cleverly hidden.
Childish laughter sounds, joyful, bright, and clear;
no need ever to hide, no more monsters to fear.

Temper most foul arrives under unregistered mail;
forgotten taunts live on, lashed by an ancient flail.
Plain dealing delivers such lasting specks of honest hate;
savage in retrospect, never hasty, always running late.

Forever, cries an ambient lover of the pending night;
his pale, weak issue forms its own failing light.
Still, fortune favors such as those who apprehend;
Sweet love of Gaea, let it never end.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

“If it takes a man and a half a day and a half to dig a hole and a half, how  many days does it take a monkey with a wooden leg to kick the seeds out of a dill pickle?  Thirteen, because boy dogs can’t have puppies.” — Smart Bee

It isn’t often that I am brought to my knees in humility, but, when I read this little piece of absolute nonsense, I did so, and did not feel a bit of embarrassment. This is so brilliantly off center, it should be enshrined at the entrance to the building where the Pulitzer Committee meets each year to pick out the best of what has been written…. This, with no connection whatsoever to a single piece of reality, is the perfect frame for the pictures painted by the committee’s choices…. Well, to my mind, anyway….

If it isn’t already clear, I’m not having the easiest time this morning with original thought, or prose. It’s perfectly understandable, given the number of things my mind is chewing on, in order to feel like I’m not forgetting something before I go off to the hinterlands. In fact, I’m so distracted, I’m going to do something entirely unprecedented, and quit this Pearl in the middle….

Well, okay, it’s almost the end anyway…. Shhh, I’m trying to write here…. No, really, I’m done. I’ve done enough damage for one day, and will have another shot at it tomorrow, anyway, so, I’m going to find the perfect pearl to shut this down at this point, and get on with the rest of today, which, obviously, promises to be “interesting”, at the very least….

“The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature.  For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exists as an independent cause of natural events.  To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot.

But I am persuaded that such behavior on the part of the representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light, but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress.  In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast powers in the hands of priests.  In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself.  This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Perfect!….
_____________________________

Well, it FEELS like a good one…. let’s see…. Well, it may be only my opinion, but, I think this IS a good one…. As such, it deserves to be left alone now, and allowed to go off on its own, to seek and fulfill its destiny…. So be it…. gigoid has spoken….. and will, no doubt, do so again tomorrow….

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

dozer3

Penitent barbers are strangely silent on Wednesdays….

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Ffolkes,

This period of my life is turning out to be quite interesting, in the classical, positive sense, not the oriental, dangerous sense. Since moving into a larger house with Patricia, I find myself having to make adjustments again, in order to establish routines that are acceptable to someone else, as well as learning tot live with the idiosyncrasies someone else possesses .

Both of us have lived alone for years, and it seems natural there might be some areas of friction that will surface to disturb the generally placid waters of our relationship. I have expected them, but, for the most part, the entire issue seems to not be the problem that I anticipated. Pat, bless her, is an unusual women in many ways, for which I thank my lucky stars….

Any who, long story short, it’s been easier than I had thought it would be, and I can only be thankful, as I ….. well, both of us are too old to put up with a lot of struggle and hardship, so, it’s a good thing that everything has gone fairly smoothly with the move. It is now one week since we moved in, and we have all but two boxes unpacked, a washer and dryer are installed, the new bed is in place, and the cat is in heat ( oh, joy….). We have established the rules in the kitchen and bath room, and are learning to put up with each other being in the other’s pocket all day; in general, I’d say we’re doing it pretty well…. I’m content, and she says she is happy, so, I’m happy…..

Now that I am becoming so settled, I don’t know how it will affect my curmudgeon status. Pat seems to not mind it sometimes, but, other times it seems not to go over so well, so, that may be a factor in the future…. we’ll see. I have certain rules that MUST be obeyed when it comes to my membership in that group, else the codicils and amendments will kick in, and nobody wants to see that. It’s supposed to be quite a bloody process, and best avoided, if at all possible.

So, we’ll see…. It would be a shame to have to balance that kind of issue for long, so, I’m hoping it fizzles out, and causes no further problems….. I’m a grump, but, she doesn’t seem to mind, as she is as close to a female curmudgeon, naturally, without any training, as anyone I’ve ever met…. It’s kind of cute, actually….

(Just in case it isn’t clear, all of the above two paragraphs are fictional material, included for the purpose of mild hilarity, and nothing else…. I know, it didn’t quite get there, but, hey, the effort counts, right?…..)

Such issues aside, the move went well, if a bit expensively, which was purely by choice, due to age related conditions that made me not want to actually DO any of the move myself. In addition, it was turning into a stressful issue for Patricia, and I wanted to eliminate that from our lives, so, I threw some money I had laying around at it, which solved the issue nicely. Neither of us had to work hard at all, until it came to unpacking and putting it away, so all is good, and I am content in our new place…. Maybe that will also have an effect on what I write…. one never knows, do one?….. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see…. But, we won’t wait long, for it begins…. now…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“When you want to test the depths of a stream, don’t use both feet.” — Chinese Proverb
_____________________________

I love mornings like this, when the words are flowing easily, and Smart Bee is actively helping me in what I’m doing, rather than going off on its own little excursions through the space and time, as it sometimes will do. Today, I started collecting these pearls, with the intended direction being a bit unclear…. but, within moments, SB had supplied me with the following seven gems, which, together, make a nice little critical description of modern society, and the human condition at large…. Well, that’s what I see, anyway…. Y’all can make your own decisions on that…..

“Think of doubt as an invitation to think.’ — Smart Bee

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

“Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.” — George Bernard Shaw

Between those who use their neighbors, and those who use a cane.
Between those in constant power, and those in constant pain.
Between those who run to evil, and those who cannot run.
Tell me which ones are the cripples, and which ones touch the sun.

— Ceili’s Muse “What you do with what you’ve got”

“A kind of excellent dumb discourse.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Tempest — Act iii, Sc. 3

“Integrity is when what you say, what you do,what you think, and who you ARE all come from the same place.” — Madelyn Griffith-Haynie

“I had a lease on an OEDIPUS COMPLEX back in ’81…” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

It has been quite a while since I perused Walt Whitman’s work…. and, as with every time I do, I wonder why it took me so long…. Here is a good one, one of many by this true paragon of American poetry….

A Noiseless Patient Spider

A noiseless, patient spider,     
I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;     
Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,     
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;     
Ever unreeling them — ever tirelessly speeding them.     

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,     
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,     
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,— seeking the spheres, to connect them;     
Till the bridge you will need, be form’d — till the ductile anchor hold;     
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.

~~ Walt Whitman ~~

_____________________________

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Feinstein-Boxer-buck-constituents-on-Syria-strike-4793945.php

“Failure to respond would give license to Syrian President Bashar Assad to use chemical weapons again, encourage nuclear-armed North Korea and make it more likely that chemical weapons might be used against the United States or its allies, including Israel,” she said.

“How many of us have been … where we see thousands of our troops standing … just a stone’s throw away from North Korea?” Boxer said. “Iran will view us as a paper tiger, when it comes to their nuclear program, and that is dangerous not only for us and our friends but for the world.”

I find these statements to be reprehensible, though they do serve as perfect examples of how the BRC typically distracts and lies to the public in order to do exactly what they want, in spite of what the public may want. For example, we are talking about the Middle East, and Syria, yet she is compelled to add in the specter of the public’s most dangerous nightmare leader of North Korea, and then mention nuclear weapons, though that, too, is an entirely different subject….. They true purpose is to have the public connect those words in their minds, so that whenever they are mentioned, the proper emotional response is created….

Then, she throws in the “Iran will view us as a paper tiger” nonsense….. So fucking what? Are we children, that calling us names will make us respond to such childishness with lethal weaponry? First, who gives a fuck WHAT the Iranians think about us? My ego is strong enough to withstand the meaningless mouthings of ignorant people….. Second, if we end up bombing Syria over this, for the stated purpose of not appearing weak in the eyes of people who already view us with suspicion, if not outright hostility, then the rest of the world will know for sure that we cannot be trusted to do anything other than bomb the fuck out of whomever crosses our path….. They won’t CARE whether or not we are a paper tiger, or an out-of-control behemoth that is killing everyone else because of the sickness in our own society….

Obama, the Senate, and the Congress, all are aware of the overwhelming public opinion that we have no business acting unilaterally in Syria; the public has made this perfectly clear in the weeks since the issue arose. Current polls are showing about 60%, or more, of those polled as being against any unilateral response, though everyone feels that an international response is called for, by the UN, or NATO.

But, the general run of American has no wish to get involved in yet another illegal war, just to keep the politicians in Washington from losing face…. To my mind, they have no face left, anyway, and anything they do to act in Syria, as being planned, is NOT going to improve that; it will only make the situation worse, and cause yet another mass of people to hate us, with good reason….

Yes,  Bashar Assad is an asshole, and, if, as it appears, he is guilty of gassing his own people, he deserves to be removed from his position, taken into the streets, and shot. End of story. But, the people he orders to do his evil deeds will still be there, along with, most likely, tens of thousands of dead innocents, the notorious “acceptable numbers” of “collateral damage”, (otherwise known as “dead people”, mind you…), of our bombings to come, all of whose surviving relatives will now consider the US to be even more of an enemy than previously, and certainly more of a threat than their own idiots.

If nothing else, they will see us as the same kind of threat they endure from their own leaders, or worse, because they don’t know us at all; we are just the white devils who bomb them to hell and gone, and don’t even speak their language…. There is no sane response to this issue, other than for the entire world community to act in concert, to deliver the message that this kind of thing won’t be tolerated in society….

But, until our politicians can tell me, with a straight face, and truthfully, that there are no drones sitting on American airfields, ready and able to deliver the SAME substance to OUR population, or that they are NOT spying on their own people in their insane rush to gather ALL the information in the world, I don’t think I’ll be trusting them with much of anything to do with ME or my safety and well-being… Those two issues are not in their interests, and they don’t even consider them in making their plans.  I can see no evidence that they have they ever considered the safety and well-being of the public of any great importance, in relation to whatever they wish to do themselves. It just doesn’t figure into their calculations, ffolkes, and if y’all are entertaining any notion that it does, well, you are wearing blinders, and refusing to see what is staring you in the face…..

The politicians in charge of this country make a lot of noise, telling us they are working hard on our behalf, but, everything I see them actually DO has nothing at all to do with me, or what I want. It only serves their own purposes, and the hell with the constituency….

Boxer, and Pelosi, and Feinstein talk a good game, most of the time, and have always been considered to be representative of the liberal agenda, but, as is now clear, when push comes to shove, they are on the side of the politicians, not the people, and will do whatever they have to do to maintain their own position, no matter what the consequences are for the rest of us….

I could rant all day about this one, but, I don’t want to bore anyone further than I probably already have done…. So, I’ll end this here, with my usual warning…. The BRC is lying to you, to me, to all of us, ffolkes, on a daily basis, about just about everything. Unless WE change it, it ain’t gonna change…..

So, it seems clear to me that we all may as well bend over and kiss our asses goodbye in the relatively near future, because the chances of people acting in concert in a rational way doesn’t have a very good track record…. For that matter, I can’t recall it EVER happening…. Ah well, that’s the breaks, I guess…

“I once wanted to save the world. Now I just want to leave the room with dignity.” — Lotus Weinstock
_____________________________

Sometimes, SB is just better than other times; today is one of those better days…. The ending pearl for the rant in part 3 is perfect; it couldn’t have expressed my feelings and thoughts any better at all…. Okay, let’s see what the damage comes to….

If I’d been fully awake and aware, this might be better, but, it’s not, (worse, that is….), and I’m not, (fully awake and aware…), so, I am persuaded to let it go out as is….. Though I don’t actually care from an ego standpoint, I do hope more than just a few ffolkes read today’s rant, and pass it along, and discuss it to death with their friends…. That is the only way we have a chance to affect what happens, minuscule though that chance may be….

This issue in Syria is a very volatile one, with the potential to become much larger than the arena it occupies, pulling in the whole world. I can only hope that it doesn’t lead to the FINAL confrontation that is surely not far away…. As much as I am prepared for that eventuality, I’m not ready to deal with an endgame scenario right now…. I just got moved, and would like at least a short time of contentment with my lady before it all goes to hell….

Ah well, such is life… All we can do is all we can do, and, for the moment, I’ve done all I can…. See ya…..

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

dozer3

Dwelling now in the fields of Endymion…..

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3

Ffolkes,

I may stop looking at the statistics for my blog altogether, after the lesson I was taught yesterday….. Two days ago, I wrote a very short Pearl, to say I was taking the day off, essentially. After weeks of seeing only 4to 6 people visit the blog, and only a few Likes, the short blurb garnered 11 Likes in the first 12 hours. I was astounded at that outburst of visitors, but, even more astounded yesterday….. I wrote what I thought to be an excellent Pearl, with a rant and everything…. I just now looked at it, and ONE person has seen it…. ONE. LMAO ROFL!…. as they say in the text world…. One regular reader came by and left their mark, and that was it… total = 1. I suppose this could also be expressed as a box score, to wit: Universe 1 – gigoid 0……

Hilarious! It just goes to show I made the right decision when I stopped paying a lot of attention to the Likes that are garnered each day. I know that what I write here is a lot to take in, both from a quantity standpoint, and because there is some rather pointed, opinionated material discussed, at great and wearisome length. I know also that some of my regulars only come by every few days, and read several day’s worth at once, to catch up, as it were… That’s all well and good, but, it’s a good thing that I write for sanity rather than money, or fame, because those two characters are fickle, and hard to pin down for long…. or, so I’m told, not having a lot of experience with either one, either over time, or in great quantity.

That will teach me to even think about who is reading this stuff; it has never been the driving force behind what I write, though I’ve always paid attention to the stats. The motivation for all this remains in the realm of my angst and tendency toward a loose hold on reality, and won’t be changing soon. Now, though, this process should be even less of a bother for me, because I won’t be thinking about the number of visitors at all, and thus won’t be distracting myself from the material at hand for discussion. Whoopee….

I know, boring, eh? Well, some days, y’all just have to put up with my meandering blather…. oh, wait…. That happens every day, doesn’t it? Well, so be it. It’s my blog, and that’s the way it is, so, nyah, nyah, nyah….. Sorry, sometimes the inner child comes out in its obnoxious brat uniform…. Noting that did serve to alert me to the fact that I’ve reached a minimum legal limit for an intro, and can get out of this mess, should I so choose…. which, given the bilge that is so far populating these pages, is probably a good idea….. So, we will now get on with the regular business of the day, or, if that isn’t possible, a reasonable facsimile thereof will be provided…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“The world is a dangerous place to live — not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” — Albert Einstein
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Oh that those lips had language! Life has pass’d
With me but roughly since I heard thee last.

— William Cowper (1731-1800)

This section is dedicated today to my  high school classmate, and friend, Carole Anne Heaton Olivero, who passed out of this plane of existence last night in Texas, after a more-than-a-year-long battle with cancer. I could say a lot of things about her passing, and will, at some point, but, for now, let it suffice to say that the world has lost a bright spirit, one whose like will never be seen again. Carole lived a life filled with laughter, and love, and infused her happy spirit into everyone she met over the course of her life. She will be missed, and remembered with fondness by all who knew her…. She was my friend, and I loved her….

Her track, where’er the goddess roves,
Glory pursue, and gen’rous shame,
Th’ unconquerable mind,

— Thomas Gray (1716-1771)

Ah, the souls of those that die
Are but sunbeams lifted higher.

— Longfellow (1819-1892)
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I don’t think I need to explain this one, given my state of mind today…. All I can say is, thank goodness for Emily….

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

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

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
 
~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Time constraints have worked to limit the time I have today to write, so, this final section will be an old-school pearl, because they take less time to put together, as long as Smart Bee is cooperating. The point of this one is to paint a picture of politics, as we practice it here in America in the twenty-first century…..

“Most people seem to think that trampling individual rights is OK if it is “for the good of society as a whole.”  However, society is but a large number of individuals, and how can harming the individual parts better the whole?” — Andrew Ford

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

“Hell hath no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral principle.” — Smart Bee

“I am different from Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie.  I can lie, but I won’t.” — Mark Twain

“Be careful what you vote for. You may get it.” — Smart Bee

“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the Legislature is in session.” — Lysander Spooner

“What is left when honour is lost?” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 265
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“I refuse to be intimidated by reality anymore.  What is reality? Nothing but a collective hunch.” — Lily Tomlin

Ain’t that the truth? I’m not sure just how this one will look, but, it won’t matter, because it’s done, and that’s the way it will stay. Not too shabby, all in all, and well worth the money you will pay to read it. As for me, I’m done, and, I’m outta here….

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

dozer3

Consistently exceeding the limits of surreality….

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Ffolkes,

Into each of our lives, there comes a time when the frightening face of our own mortality confronts us, whether we are ready or not. Depending on our individual beliefs on that subject, our reaction to this confrontation can vary quite a lot. Some of us turn to the comfort of religious beliefs, to provide the comfort those may give; others turn to whiskey, or gambling, or some other outbreak of youthful defiance in the face of it. Some ignore it, preferring to postpone any such confrontations to the last moment. Some of us may turn to philosophy, of a non-religious nature, to find an answer that will assuage the fear of the unknown that such encounters will inevitably produce…..

No matter what our own reaction may be, there remains the question in everyone’s mind, as to what happens AFTER we die….. Those with religious beliefs have such answers spelled out for them by the dogmatic representations of whatever church, or synagogue, or temple, or whatever, that they choose to believe has the correct view. Others choose to avoid entangling themselves in organizations based on a delusion, and try to find some other way to deal with whatever fear they may feel about death, and what may, or may not, happen afterward….. But, no matter which method one chooses, there is no avoiding the issue, since there is, to date, no way to avoid dying…..

I’m not really going anywhere specific with this discussion; I already know how I believe, and, just now, I don’t really much care what other folks believe… A friend of mine, Carole, a high-school classmate, has been fighting cancer for almost two years now, and her battle is about to end. Her doctors have done all they could, but the cancer is winning, and she will not last much longer. She will be entering hospice care, if not already there, and only receiving pain management therapy. It is a difficult time for her family, and for all of us who care for her, as she is one of the finest human beings I’ve ever known, whose passing will affect the spirits of the many, many people whose lives she touched….

Later, I will be writing a memorial of her, to tell the world what a fine woman it has lost…. I visited her last April for a short time, and promised her I would come to see her again, to celebrate her victory over the Big C, or, if not, to say goodbye before she passed on. So, on Monday, I’ll be zipping down to Houston again for a couple days, to try to see her one last time, and wish her a happy trip to wherever the afterlife may take her…. Since she has been a devout Christian for all her life, in addition to the benevolence of her spirit, I don’t doubt she’ll have a straight shot to the Pearly Gates, and a pass inside by St. Peter, without any delays…..

Any who, I just wanted to get that off my chest, so I’m not blubbering all over the keyboard while trying to write this morning….. I’ll be writing more on this subject in the next few days, as it will be foremost in my sphere of attention much of the time…. In the meantime, I believe this little outburst has completed the intro requirements, so we can get on with the rest of today’s effort….

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

He who hath bent him o’er the dead
Ere the first day of death is fled,–
The first dark day of nothingness,
The last of danger and distress,
Before decay’s effacing fingers
Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — The Giaour, Line 68
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“I have short-term memory loss, though I like to think of it as Presidential eligibility.” — Paula Poundstone

Back in 2008, I was encouraged by the election of a black man to the office of POTUS; it seemed, at the time, to be a positive note for our society, and a good omen for the future….. Blinded temporarily by my hope, I had forgotten that the BRC, (if you’ve forgotten, that’s the Beloved Ruling Class….), and the corporate masters who control them, would not have allowed anyone in that office whom they could not control, or did not trust to serve their interests. Since first entering office, the President has gone on to prove his allegiance, which, in spite of how it may appear, remains with those who pay his salary, and I’m not talking about the citizenry at large…..

Obama’s reaction to this whole issue of spying on the public, that has come about since Eric Snowden sacrificed himself for the American people, by telling the truth, has clearly shown just how much he has been hiding from the public with all his talk about helping the middle class…. It turns out that, as always, that talk is a smoke screen, to obfuscate the issues they (the administration…) don’t want to be discussed, replacing them with other issues,  that make them look like they actually DO care about the middle class, or the lower class, or, wait…. I thought we were supposed to be a ‘classless’ society? Oh, they must have meant that our society has no class, not that is lacks classes…. Makes more sense to me….

The administration is pissed, not because they are breaking the law ( which they are, to wit: the Constitution….), but because they got caught at it. They are trying to discredit, vilify, and bury Eric Snowden, all because his actions have caused them to run around like idiots, scrambling on a daily basis to come up with rational, or even reasonable explanations for all the crap they’ve been doing to the public for years on the sly. It makes them look exactly like what they really are, which is a bunch of criminal assholes, caught red-handed trying to burn the Bill of Rights, unable to explain what they intended to do with that book of matches, or the lit match they were caught holding….

So, instead of admitting their chicanery, they are trying to get Snowden back so they can make an example of him, for others who may wish to expose their machinations and illegal actions. This is typical of the political mind, to ignore all criticism, and act as if you have the right to do whatever you want…. I am appalled by the statements that Obama is now making, about his belief that he needs no approval from anyone, not Congress, not the courts, and certainly not the public, to wage war on another country…. which, as I happen to know (because I READ it!….) is NOT what it says in the Constitution of THIS country….

Yesterday, I found an article tucked into the back pages of the news, with yet another revelation about the spying that the NSA and the government at large has been perpetrating on an unsuspecting public…. This particular little revelation makes it clear that the NSA, and other agencies, have been gathering data about the general public to a much greater degree than previously thought, and certainly more than they are willing to admit….. Read the following article, to get an idea of just how little your privacy means to the BRC’s political hacks, and just how little concern they have for protecting your rights…. This is some eye-opening, and ultimately frightening, information, ffolkes, and you need to know how much your rights are being stepped on…..

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Report-US-military-cracked-most-online-encryption-4790443.php

Okay, I’m done ranting for now, though there will be more later, I’m sure…. The civil war in Syria isn’t going away because we wish it, nor will our intervention solve any problems there, other than to eliminate one of the players, who will immediately be replaced by someone else, who may or may not be crazier than the one being removed….. That, or we’ll be supporting the rebels, who are connected to Al Qaida, our sworn enemy….

Oh well, I don’t expect it to make any sense, so I’m not disappointed…. It does, however, make me sad, and mad, and once again, disappointed in the BRC, and its constant war on society, which, if you will recall, consists of you, and me, and all the other ffolkes, and folks, out there in reality, just trying to get by……

“When the bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.” — Dilbert, Scott Adams

“There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.” — Arthur C. Clarke
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I can’t think of a better way to provide contrast to the above rant, than with a bit of Shel Silverstein….

Hug O’ War

I will not play at tug o’ war.
I’d rather play at hug o’ war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

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When I was perusing the news yesterday, I also found the following, published by John Cleese, of Monty Python fame…. I don’t know about y’all, but, IMNSHO, he’s a funny guy…. and right on the mark… It’s only too bad he didn’t try to define the position of the USA along with those of Europe….

“The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Syria and have therefore raised their security level from ‘Miffed’ to ‘Peeved.’ Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to ‘Irritated’ or even ‘A Bit Cross.’ The English have not been ‘A Bit Cross’ since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from ‘Tiresome’ to ‘A Bloody Nuisance.’ The last time the British issued a ‘Bloody Nuisance’ warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

“The Scots have raised their threat level from ‘Pissed Off’ to ‘Let’s Get the Bastards.’ They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front lines of the British army for the last 300 years.

“The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from ‘Run’ to ‘Hide.’ The only two higher levels in France are ‘Collaborate’ and ‘Surrender’ …

“Italy has increased the alert level from ‘Shout Loudly and Excitedly’  ‘Elaborate Military Posturing.’ Two more levels remain: ‘Ineffective Combat Operations’ and ‘Change Sides.’

“The Germans have increased their alert state from ‘Disdainful Arrogance’ to ‘Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.’ They also have two higher levels: ‘Invade a Neighbor’ and ‘Lose.’

“Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

“The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.”

~~ John Cleese ~~

If I were to take a shot at creating one of these for the USA, it would have to be along the lines of “The US raised it’s security threat level today, to its next to highest rating, Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type, characterized by deliberately planted delusions, technologically produced hallucinations, extreme rigidity of thought, and a constant state of diffuse anxiety……” I firmly believe that this is exactly how the BRC wants the public to feel; they’re much more manipulable in this state than in any other….
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Well, that was over all too quickly; I’m almost embarrassed…. I haven’t had that problem in years; premature ejaculation, whether of words, or sperm, has been under my reasonable control now for many years, and having it happen right out in public is a bit of a facer…. But, this all came out so fast, I must have been percolating it for longer than I imagined…. So be it. Let’s see how it came out….

Okay, so, I’m a little concerned about the world political scene; that comes through pretty clearly…. In my mind, there is good reason to be on alert; these fools don’t seem to realize how close to the edge the world is right now….. Stay alert, ffolkes, the balloon could go up any time….. See ya, tomorrow, hopefully….

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

dozer3