As is clear, ranting has become almost second nature to me, as I seem to be able to relate almost anything to what is going on in reality, with particular emphasis on showing all who read this blog just how slimy, how dishonest, and how sociopathic the so-called “leaders’ of society really are, in their true selves…. In sooth, it has become almost too easy, as the slimy bastards don’t seem to care any more if they are exposed…. They seem to feel so secure in their power (with good reason, I may add….) they are no longer as concerned about keeping all of what they do behind the scenes…. I mean, how much grief has this president been given for starting yet another illegal war? None….

I’m not going to rant here; I’ve promised I’d keep myself from doing that in the intro, and I do try to keep my promises…. It’s tough, though, as they parade their insanity in front of me every day, with what now seems to be alarming candor, for they know now they will not be held accountable for any of what they do…. They’ve already trained the public to accept anything they say as truth, in spite of the reams of proof to the contrary….. It’s as if the American public no longer WANTS to know the truth, because it’s too disturbing to their peace of mind to think about it…..

Ah well, and me? I’m still preaching to the choir…. it’s frustrating, but, hey, since I refuse to stop, or shut up, it will keep on coming, whether anyone likes it, or not…. At least I will be able to sleep with a clear conscience, and will still be able to look myself in the mirror in the morning….. To me, that’s worth any sort of crap anyone wishes to throw…. and, they should know that any crap flying my way is quite liable to reverse its direction of flight, and end up right back in their own laps…. or faces….

On that note, I should probably use my new technique, and get us out of here, to find something more entertaining to do….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Only those who leisurely approach that which the masses are busy about can be busy about that which the masses take leisurely.” — Lao Tzu

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

Below you will find a number of links to articles found in the UK Guardian yesterday, 9/29/2014 (but for one, from 9/23/2014). I picked articles that provide some weight to add to the evidence I have presented in support of my assertion, to wit: There is a LOT wrong with today’s culture/society, so much so, it is no longer necessary to rant…. All I need to do is give you the links, where you may read more about how bloody INSANE the world has become…. Even the most positive news herein related is WEIRD (see the story re: the folks in Kansas, at the Westboro Baptist Church, and their neighbors….). The rest are simply redolent with stupidity, at its worst…..

The saddest part…. look at the last part below, before the pearls begin…. It’s a list, of the five most viewed stories for the day…. which shows just how insane are those doing the reading….. I’d say it’s a toss-up as to which group is the most insane…. Those being reported upon, those doing the reporting, or those reading the reports….. all three groups exhibit a similarity of, well…. insanity, or worse, that does not bode well for the long-term continuance of our presence on this plane of existence, much less providing much hope, even for the immediate future….. SIGH…. Here, take a look, read it (c’mon, don’t be a sissy! It will only take, what, five minutes, to get the drift of all of it….) (If it takes longer, you need more online bandwidth….)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/29/obama-guantanamo-bay-force-feeding-hearing-secret

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/29/yes-means-yes-california-sexual-consent

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/29/us-air-strikes-isis-syria

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/28/ferguson-unrest-police-officer-injured-in-shooting-as-violence-flares-again

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/23/westboro-baptist-church-equality-house-kansas-truce

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/29/sunday-mirror-must-answer-mp-sexting-nicky-morgan

I counted at least five links to various stories on the Clooney nuptials…. More articles on that than on ANY other subject….

The five most viewed stories for 9/29/14 on the Guardian, in order: 1)  Donald Trump getting pranked on Twitter. 2) Sunday Mirror to answer for sexting entrapment of MP. 3) One of the Clooney wedding stories, re: websites & FB. 4) “Why American politics doesn’t work” by some British TV writer 5) Sunday Mirror editor defends entrapment of MP as in public interest.

This information was taken from a web site that is fairly trustworthy, in terms of what it puts out there…. It IS, of course, a media outlet, and has its own flaws, but, for the most part, even the governments respect the ethics this organization uses in its quest for the truth…. Those governments don’t LIKE them much, but, they respect them for their ethics, more so than most of the available outlets, such as the aforementioned Mirror, and the former Sun, both of which will do just about anything to get a story, even to the point of creating them….

Let’s let Smart Bee finish off these thoughts for today, with some appropriate comments regarding the state of the world at large…..

“An Oak Park, Illinois, ordinance forbids frying more than one hundred doughnuts in a single day.” — Smart Bee

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

hardcore signature virus: “As a juror in a Trial by Jury, you have the right, power and duty to acquit the defendant if you judge the law itself to be unjust.” — John McPherson, mcpherso@macvax.ucsd.edu

“If you surveyed a hundred typical middle-aged Americans, I bet you’d find that only two of them could tell you their blood types, but every last one of them would know the theme song from the ‘Beverly Hillbillies’.” — Dave Barry

“How many things, both just and unjust, are sanctioned by custom!” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Heautontimoroumenos, Act iv, Sc. 7, 11, (839.)

“There is nothing so small that it can’t be blown out of proportion.” — Ruckert’s Law

Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

~~ Alexander Pope  ~~
(1688-1744)
— The Dying Christian to his Soul —

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The movie in today’s embedded video player is part one of three; links to part 2 and 3 may be found by following the link you see just above the player. Alternately, allowing part 1 to run to the end, in full screen mode, will bring the two other parts on screen, as options to choose for another playing, along with other similar choices for other Wimsey movies, all of which were based on, and, accurately adhered, to the plots of the books by Dorothy L. Sayers, a scholar of the mid-twentieth century, a graduate of, I believe, Oxford University….

Hmm, maybe I should geek that…. I will…. meantime, y’all enjoy the program…. Too late, I did the geek; Mrs. Sayers DID attend Oxford, ‘taking a first’, in medieval histories, when she ‘walked down’ for Somerville College; moreover, at the time of her birth, her father was a minister there, so she was actually born at Oxford, in the Headmaster’s House of Christ Church Cathedral…. (I also geek-fixed her name, above, so you can click on it, to be taken to the Wikipedia article on her…..)

This book was the next to last in the Wimsey series, (though two additional volumes were written after her death, from notes she was working on when she passed away….), with one other to follow, called Busman’s Honeymoon, an account of the marriage and first days of the Wimsey/Vane romance’s conclusive events, with, naturally, a corpse in the honeymoon cottage to liven the occasion… This movie, and book, though a more complex, intense piece, has only one death, at the very beginning, before the main events take place…. I hope you enjoy it, it’s a grand movie, altogether, excellently acted in spots, and wonderfully true to the character of the time…. the perfect period piece…..

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Well, it seems odd, but, apparently, this sort of thing happens even to the best of us….. Here is one from my favorite poet…. to whom I turn any time I feel like something to fill me up…..

I know I ranted above, sort of, but, this rant from the past fits in so well with today’s inadvertent theme, it has to be included, or I’ll feel wrong, all day…. If you’re too tired, just go on to the closing…. if you’re a regular, you’ve probably seen it before, anyway…. If not, well, it’s always a good idea to see what there is in it; it COULD produce an epiphany…. one never knows, do one?….

From 1/2/13:

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” — Oscar Wilde

One may always trust Oscar Wilde to be both elegantly witty and intelligently insightful, though, to be sure, many of his most closely held views were somewhat divergent with what was commonly held to be true, philosophically. This divergence was, I believe, mostly deliberate on his part, as he tended to mock that which he did not respect, and he never had much respect for…. well, anything to do with human nature vs. reason and rationality. He mistrusted most people to act morally, and was unafraid of saying so; this, of course, made him both famous, and infamous….. His infamy, I’m sure, ultimately was his undoing, much to society’s loss; as is said so often about our brightest minds, “only the good die young….”

I often wonder, (well, maybe not so often, as much as I’m wondering now…) what the world today would be like, if somehow, some of those bright stars in history had lived to an age where their accomplishments, in relation to the advancement of human thought, and the betterment of the human condition, had a broader, and more lasting effect than their absence has left us. What if Keats had written poetry until he was 85? How many more inventions would have come to us from Nicolas Tesla, had he lived long enough for the rest of the scientific world to catch up to him, instead of hounding him to an early grave? How much more good music, and art, and literature would be available to all of us, if not for this tendency for the best of us to live as a burning meteor, flaming brightly through the sky, until burned out and lifeless?

It is a sad commentary for society to know that it is often the very brilliance of these people that brings about their downfall, at the hands of the ignorant, and the avaricious…. What is even sadder, to me, is that this demonstrates another part of human nature that is responsible for almost every issue in human history, and current society, that causes people to suffer pain, oppression, perpetual struggle, and will most certainly ultimately   lead to the extinction of our species, on this planet, at minimum, if not completely…..

That piece of our nature is the unfortunate characteristic, in a number of humans, to be able to put aside all conscience, and act solely in their own self interest. All of us, of course, possess this to some degree; it is an outgrowth of having a will to survive. To these few others, it is their primary modus operandi; they simply do not take other people, or their concerns, into account when deciding what they are going to do, and are not hampered by the consideration of any suffering they may cause other people, animals, or things.

As is patently obvious, to my mind, every elected official, every high level preacher, every corporate magnate, and a great many lawyers, are all of this ilk, and have, for nearly 230 years now, been quietly and efficiently plundering the pockets and rights of the American people (and those of every other country in the world, for that matter…. it is a HUMAN condition, not just American…. Ours are just some of the most obvious about it….), while simultaneously lying, cheating, and otherwise acting to secure their stranglehold on society.

Anyone who disagrees with this assessment, quite simply, isn’t paying enough attention to the world around them….. Sorry to be so blunt, but the facts are all laid out, right there, almost every day in the news media, if one knows how to look at the larger picture it presents, rather than the individual facets of that picture. Focusing on the little shit is just what those in power wish for people to do…. it keeps them busy not noticing other, more incriminating stuff they are carrying out, in the darkness where they mostly live….

“… change depends on individual acts of courage and commitment. Most such acts are private, invisible, and uncelebrated. But some find a place in the public spotlight; and their influence goes far beyond mere example.” — Arthur C. Clarke & Michael Kube-McDowell,  The Trigger, 1999

Each and every one of us, in the face of what we know about reality, is responsible in some way, and to some degree, for both the way things are, and the way they will be in the future. If you don’t believe that, well, discussion is, for you, probably useless, and little hope remains. For anyone with moderate insight, however, this is plain, clear truth, and we all need to accept it before any significant progress can be expected against those who are sociopathic, which I define, and hereby name, as homo suicidus, those who would kill us all…. But, it is imperative that we act soon, for the damage we have done, and continue to do to our world, is at a point where the effects are nearly irreversible, and even if we manage to wrest control from the beloved ruling class,it may be too late to save our lives….

“In regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion, or in flight, but in courage. He who wishes to walk in the most peaceful parts of life with any serenity must screw himself up to resolution. Let him front the object of his worst apprehension, and his stoutness will commonly make his fear groundless.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays_, Prudence

It is my hope, small and pale though it be, that we WILL speak up, that the rational among us will rise up, and take back the control of our destiny from the hands of those who would see us all die, rather than give up their own control. It will only happen when men of courage, as defined by Mr. Emerson, stand up to those who would render us all impotent, for their own benefit. The only hope that exists for the rest of us lies in enough of us showing this kind of courage, and overcoming the fear that keeps us in thrall…..

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

Myself, I don’t want to die ignominiously, gasping for breath, because I didn’t have the courage to speak up, and to fight back against the immoral, avaricious assholes who dominate society….. Instead, let’s create a whole new world, without a beloved ruling class, at all….. Who knows? We might just find out that anarchy works!….. Worth a try, I think….. And, if it doesn’t work, well, we can always try a technocracy, which we have yet to do in history….. With a bit of foresight and planning, it might just be what we need to survive our own foolishness… Maybe, Richard Brautigan had the truest prophetic vision, when he wrote “All watched over, by machines of loving grace….”

Well, it came out long again, but, that’s okay…. nobody ever got hurt from learning too much, did they? Unless, of course, they stopped learning at some point…. Any who, all I can do is all I can do, and I’ve done all I can for one day….. So be it, gigoid has spoken…. See y’all tomorrow, he said with a wry expression….