Tag Archives: T.S. Eliot

Fields of nascent cogitation, fallow in the morning sun….

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Ffolkes,

Feedle farble fristible farum! Or, as we’ve been known to say downtown, with no small degree of intensity, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! If that isn’t clear enough, I can get more graphic, in a heartbeat….. Sorry, ffolkes, but, nothing relieves built up stress quite as well as a good curse, and, after the four days just passed in my world, relieving stress is the paramount task at hand…. “How can this be?”, you may well ask, as the last time y’all heard from me I was headed off to the indulgently hedonistic country of cruise ships, there to once again soothe my troubled spirit with the balm of overt consumerism, as is my wont….

That was then, this is now….. I should have noted at the outset of the trip, the very first item of note on the trip list failed to meet expectations, indicating a certain lack of cooperation on the part of the universe in falling in with my plans for a nice little four-day getaway….. a failure soon followed by a massive outpouring of chaotic events, along with some covert cosmic interference, with Murphy starring in the leading role, that of the consummate asshole…. Suffice to say at this point, the entire trip was one disappointment and problematic issue after another, compounded at the last by my body’s own frailty, to the tune of a $2000 medical emergency on the final night of the cruise…. and a lovely time was had by all…. NOT!

For the moment, that is all I’ll say on that subject; I am saving the details, and the major part of the angst, to put into letters yet-to-be-written, one to the cruise ship company, and one to my medical insurance company, outlining the series of events that brought home to me the futility of all of Mankind’s hopes and dreams, when the universe has other plans for us…. For four days, one thing after another went badly, to be followed almost immediately by something else going wrong…. which would be immediately prior to spilling something on myself in an embarrassing place, even if it was only something as simple as my own body fluids going astray…. Most excruciatingly upsetting, to be sure!….

I’m really glad to be home, and sleeping, as much as I ever do anymore, in my own bed, with my little computer here to absorb my overwrought feelings, and help me to transform them into some kind of acceptance, thereby regaining some of my hard-won serenity of spirit…. At the least, here at home, there is some chance of success in that venture…. For four days I’ve had every attempt at successful living thrown back in my face, burning hot…..

Okay, all done whining…. I’m sure y’all are somewhat less than riveted by my travails, so I’ll get on with something more entertaining, I hope, as soon as I can wrap up this intro section…. which, I see by the drivel above, has reached a minimum legal limit…. As such, I can actually just stop here…. so, I will….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It matters not how long you live, but how well.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 829
_____________________________

Any ranting that I do today will be related to the above subject, in order to keep the details fresh in what is left of my mind…. Plus, I haven’t kept up with what is happening out in the Big Blue Room, which tends to keep me from picking a current event to rag upon, more’s the pity….. That does mean a bonus for y’all, as I’ll naturally fall back into the default position here at ECR when this happens….

Yes, you know what it means, ffolkes, another old-school pearl, a group of small but tasty pearls, all in a certain direction, or implying a certain theme…. Sure, those themes may not be immediately apparent, even to the most discriminating of Gentle Readers, but, more often, they simply bash one over the brows, driving home the desired point with all the delicacy of a professional wrestler….

I am, as is already obvious, more than just a little verbose this morning, having not written ANYTHING for over four days…. but, I don’t think that will hurt this section, since I’m going to segue right into the remainder of this section’s contents by using the old magical phrase, “slick as Natty Bumpo’s Chevrolet sedan!”…. Or, as we like to say here on ECR… let’s dive…. Ooh, ooh, let’s go really old school, too, with poetry brackets and everything all mellow….

I knew, by the smoke that so gracefully curl’d
Above the green elms, that a cottage was near;
And I said, “If there ‘s peace to be found in the world,
A heart that was humble might hope for it here.”

— Thomas Moore (1779-1852) — Ballad Stanzas

“I readily relapse into my reflections on the uselessness of our education.  Its aim has been to make us not good and wise, but learned; and in this it has succeeded. It has not taught us to follow and embrace virtue and wisdom, but has imprinted their derivations and etymologies on our minds. We are able
to decline ‘virtue’ even if we are unable to love it; if we do not know what wisdom is in fact and by experience, we are familiar with it as a jargon learned by heart.” — Michael de Montaigne, Essays

In the vacant places, we will build with new bricks.” — T.S. Eliot

“As long as we’re going insane, we might as well go the whole way. A mere shred of sanity is of no value.” — Smart Bee

“Be not ashamed of thy virtues; honor’s a good brooch to wear in a man’s hat at all times.” — Ben Johnson

“We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch
Beware the jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious bandersnatch

— _Jabberwocky_, by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)
_____________________________

As with many of the classical offerings I include, this needs no adornment from my direction…. just enjoy….

A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its lovliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkn’d ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.

~~John Keats ~~

_____________________________

Having stated above there would be no rant today, I feel obligated to keep it light… Plus, I’m still not quite feeling as well as I’d like, and need to finish this up, so I can get on with the rest of the day…. So, we again dip into the archives, for a pearl the was fresh the day it was posted, which was in May of this year…. enjoy!….

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

This last pearl for today will be fresh, or as fresh as I can make it from old, unused pearls, that have been lounging around in my stash for some years now…. It should be okay, it’s all straight out of Smart Bee, back when I could trust it to run…. The point of today’s old-school effort will be as obvious as I can make it, but, I’m not giving that a lot of credence, and neither should you…. I would suggest you take notes, as it could be to your advantage later on….

“I have the simplest tastes.  I am always satisfied with the best.” — Oscar Wilde

“One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns he must die and accepts his sentence undismayed. ” — Robert Heinlein

“Principles have no real force except when one is well fed.” — Mark Twain

40. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a stroke of luck. — Instructions for life

“Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by fools than fools by wise men; for that wise men avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not imitate the good examples of wise men.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Marcus Cato

All things good to know are difficult to learn. — Greek Proverb

“Was mir nicht umbringt macht mir streng!”  {What does not kill me, makes me strong!”} — Friederich Nietzsche
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Okay, ffolkes, I’ve done what I can do, and don’t have any more in me, so I’m going to send this out to the email group, and get it posted before heading back to bed…. Whoops, better proof….  Not bad for a first effort after a lay-off; I’m going to press my luck, and let if fly with no further ado…. 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

Give us a piteous whimper, Number Six….

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Ffolkes,

    Today, like any other day, has yet to show its true potential, though even now, the feeling of pregnant possibility is almost palpable. It’s hard to describe, actually, this feeling of electric, buzzing anticipation of…. what?  The very unknown qualities of the future, far-distant or immediate, add a certain tingle of both fear, and burgeoning joy, to the mix of emotions that swirl as we ponder the day’s dawning….

    For some, this jittery, bouncy feeling is too much of a morning, so, they bury their nose in a paper, sip their coffee, and try not to think about what might happen… But, for others, such as meself…. well, let’s just say that there’s no better start to the day than to feel as if it will be filled with challenges, with problems, with solutions, and with both joy, and pain…. Not a bad day, for a human… It’s like Lazarus used to say….

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough For Love

    I can do all of the above, except program a computer (I can learn, though, and am in the process of doing so, slowly….), and balance my checking account…. Well, actually, not true… I have had it balanced, once or twice in the dim, dark past; now, I just let the bank do it, and keep track of it online… So, this means I can consider myself a human, by these standards, which I consider to be an accurate summation, and much the same as the conclusions I had already come to in my life. Of course, reading Heinlein’s work since the age of 11 hasn’t hurt a bit in developing those beliefs and standards….

    Nor did it hurt to be raised by a Master Sergeant…. I always call my dad that, but, I wouldn’t want to give the impression that was ALL he was… He lived for 72 years, but spent only 20 of that in the army, so, there was more to him than that…. But, in my mind, the fact that, after those 20 years of service, he ended up at that rank as his permanent billet, (though he was promoted after retiring; that is standard. By the time of his death, he had been promoted to major….), is an indication of what kind of man he was…. It is a well-known, and accepted, fact that in the army, Master Sergeants are the ones who actually run things…. smart officers leave the bulk of their duty to the sergeants, merely giving good orders, and staying out of their way….

    But, my father was more than merely a Master Sergeant; it’s just a convenient handle to describe him, and to give an idea of what sort of guy he was…. Any who, I’ve wandered around again, without much purpose, and seem to have ended up in a place where I can’t find an easy way out, and into the Pearl… Not unusual, I suppose, merely bothersome…. Oh well, I think I’ll use emergency procedure # 1, which is in its place at the head of the entire group of techniques for saving my ass because it always works… It’s called the Bail-Out, for good reason: it just stops, and…..
_____________________________

    And, you never hear from me again on whatever subject was at hand…. Pretty cool, eh? It ALWAYS works…. So, having been dumped here in the first section, clueless as to something to write (No, nothing new in that, I know, but a PITA, nonetheless….). I guess I’ll go old-school, like I had any intention of doing anything else….  😆

“An older student came to Otis and said, “I have been to see a great number of teachers and I have given up a great number of pleasures. I have fasted, been celibate and stayed awake nights seeking enlightenment. I have given up everything I was asked to give up and I have suffered, but I have not been enlightened. What should I do?” Otis replied, “Give up suffering.” — Camden Benares, “Zen Without Zen Masters”

“When the rich make war it’s the poor that die.” — Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), “Le Diable et le bon Dieu”, 1951

“His seat back is not in the full upright and locked position.” — Smart Bee

“Food, sleep, fear, propagation; each is the common property of men with brutes. Virtue is really their additional distinction; devoid of virtue, they are equal with brutes.” — The Hitopadesa (600?-1100? A.D.)

“All but the hard hearted man must be torn with pity for this pathetic dilemma of the rich man, who has to keep the poor man just stout enough to do the work and just thin enough to have to do it.” — G. K. Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers, 1917

“There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.” — Maya Angelou

“Never commit yourself to a cheese without having first examined it.” — T. S. Eliot
_____________________________

    Poetry such as this needs no adornment from me…..

Love Is A Parallax

‘Perspective betrays with its dichotomy:
train tracks always meet, not here, but only
   in the impossible mind’s eye;
horizons beat a retreat as we embark
on sophist seas to overtake that mark
   where wave pretends to drench real sky.’

‘Well then, if we agree, it is not odd
that one man’s devil is another’s god
   or that the solar spectrum is
a multitude of shaded grays; suspense
on the quicksands of ambivalence
   is our life’s whole nemesis.

So we could rave on, darling, you and I,
until the stars tick out a lullaby
   about each cosmic pro and con;
nothing changes, for all the blazing of
our drastic jargon, but clock hands that move
   implacably from twelve to one.

We raise our arguments like sitting ducks
to knock them down with logic or with luck
   and contradict ourselves for fun;
the waitress holds our coats and we put on
the raw wind like a scarf; love is a faun
   who insists his playmates run.

Now you, my intellectual leprechaun,
would have me swallow the entire sun
   like an enormous oyster, down
the ocean in one gulp: you say a mark
of comet hara-kiri through the dark
   should inflame the sleeping town.

So kiss: the drunks upon the curb and dames
in dubious doorways forget their monday names,
   caper with candles in their heads;
the leaves applaud, and santa claus flies in
scattering candy from a zeppelin,
   playing his prodigal charades.

The moon leans down to took; the tilting fish
in the rare river wink and laugh; we lavish
   blessings right and left and cry
hello, and then hello again in deaf
churchyard ears until the starlit stiff
   graves all carol in reply.

Now kiss again: till our strict father leans
to call for curtain on our thousand scenes;
   brazen actors mock at him,
multiply pink harlequins and sing
in gay ventriloquy from wing to wing
   while footlights flare and houselights dim.

Tell now, we taunt where black or white begins
and separate the flutes from violins:
   the algebra of absolutes
explodes in a kaleidoscope of shapes
that jar, while each polemic jackanapes
   joins his enemies’ recruits.

The paradox is that ‘the play’s the thing’:
though prima donna pouts and critic stings,
   there burns throughout the line of words,
the cultivated act, a fierce brief fusion
which dreamers call real, and realists, illusion:
   an insight like the flight of birds:

Arrows that lacerate the sky, while knowing
the secret of their ecstasy’s in going;
   some day, moving, one will drop,
and, dropping, die, to trace a wound that heals
only to reopen as flesh congeals:
   cycling phoenix never stops.

So we shall walk barefoot on walnut shells
of withered worlds, and stamp out puny hells
   and heavens till the spirits squeak
surrender: to build our bed as high as jack’s
bold beanstalk; lie and love till sharp scythe hacks
   away our rationed days and weeks.

Then jet the blue tent topple, stars rain down,
and god or void appall us till we drown
   in our own tears: today we start
to pay the piper with each breath, yet love
knows not of death nor calculus above
   the simple sum of heart plus heart.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

    I haven’t ranted today, and I rather think I’ll not do so at all, being, as I am, in a state of mind NOT conducive to the proper critical assault of some deserving asshole in the public venue…. although, I’m certain, there is SOMEONE in the news today who deserves an insult or two as payback for their asininity…… Hell, I could easily take two or three minutes, peruse the news headlines, and come up with the name of one or two appropriate candidates…. I’m just too lazy this morning to do so….

    I’m gonna go for another old-school pearl, as you probably knew I would, once you saw the word ‘lazy’…. Let’s see what The Notebooks of Lazarus Long have for us along the lines of some ironic, or possibly sardonic, observations on that historically ubiquitous obstacle to the progress of mankind, Religion, or as we like to call it here, the Priestly Hierarchies…. All of these are from Robert Heinlein, via Lazarus, with just a bit of help from Smart Bee….

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.”

“One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.  “

“Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.”

“The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.”

“God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends.” This may not be true, but it sounds good — and is no sillier than any other theology.”

“God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent — it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills.”

“Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.” — Smart Bee

    Well, there you have it, ffolkes…. My own personal invitation to Hell, if the Christians have their way….   😉
_____________________________

    Okay, so, they can’t all be brilliant…. Now, if only I could get ONE of them to approach that, I’d be happy…. Let’s see where on the scale this one falls….

    Okay, well, I’m impressed… I was barely paying attention, and this came out pretty good…. I’ll have to try this more often, if I can figure out whatever the hell it is that I did differently…. See ya, ffolkes…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Bolstered by the innuendo, he preened….

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Ffolkes,

Since the fear of the blank page that formerly caused me so much frustration is no longer a problem, I seem to have evolved a different type of issue in the introduction, to wit: long-winded ranting, before I’m even awake, or have had sufficient coffee to allow me to organize my thoughts with some elegance, rather than just emotionally-driven indictments of the BRC, the Priestly Hierarchies, and their myrmidons, the military/police wannabees….

I call them wannabees because the ones to whom I refer have a tendency to be those men and/or women who enter those groups in order to feel powerful, to exercise authority over others, which is a sublimation of their own feelings of inadequacy; becoming policemen, they believe,  allows them to let out their inner bully with societal approval. As a general rule, the self-image these folks have is poor, and they need the job to feel like they are a real tough guy, never realizing that real tough guys don’t NEED a position to feel self-confident…

The ranting I’ve been letting myself perform in the intros of late has been somewhat general, purposely. When I’m just railing away at the idiocy that I see being acted out in the public arena, I don’t usually try to bring in a lot of detailed evidence, relying on the evidence that is shown each day in the news, and can be easily found by anyone willing to keep an open mind. In that sense, what I see in the news is available for all to see, so I don’t feel I need to provide anything else to support my claims…. and I get very few challenges (I don’t know if that’s because everyone agrees, or nobody is seeing it, and it doesn’t matter, ultimately…. same result…).

Where this is going is not clear; I’m merely trying to get a handle on what has been happening in the mornings, so I can at least TRY to put some elegance, or a bit of pizazz into it….. (Wow… “pizazz” didn’t trip the spell checker!….). I don’t mind the ranting; it does give me a chance to go more old school in the three sections, which is good from my standpoint…. There is much less effort involved for me to put together a good random, harlequin pearl, than there is in using my reasoning powers to create a ranting pearl…. In the former case, Smart Bee does the hard part, and I just have to keep a sharp eye on the choices made; in the latter case, I must actually activate neurons, use deduction and intuition, and generally work a lot harder for the same net result….

Maybe that is why I’ve been ranting here, in the intro, to get the hard part out of the way first, allowing me to cruise downhill for the remainder of the day’s effort…. To believe that, however, I would have to attribute a greater degree of intelligence to my subconscious than it has heretofore shown; its usual efforts to manipulate my conscious mind aren’t very subtle, or complex, nor particularly effective, as a rule.

The sub-, or unconscious part of our minds is not fully understood, but, I’ve found mine to be stubborn, a bit selfish, and overly opinionated, but, with strong virtues that determine a lot of what it wants me to do…. Sadly, it doesn’t have a good grasp of reality, and will often make demands that cannot be met in the real world, causing a lot of angst if it doesn’t get its way….

Or, this all could be a trick that my conscious mind has developed, to distract y’all from what actually transpires here in the beginning of these missives….. Nah! No way….. I wouldn’t do that to anyone I respect…. And, if I did, I wouldn’t tell you, so, you can be sure, this time at least, we’re still dealing with the real world on this, not my inner fantasies and/or delusions… I’m pretty sure, anyway…. I mean, my unconscious COULD be screwing with me, and, therefore, you, but, that would indicate even less control over this process than even I had imagined, bringing this entire process into the realm of Entropy, or, as it is more commonly known, Chaos, devourer of minds….

Or, as is most likely, I’m just short of coffee, and it will all be better in a little while…. I’d say, of those I’ve seen fit to bring forth, this is the most likely scenario , so we’ll go with it, and count ourselves as lucky to have found our way…. somewhere….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.” — Goethe
_____________________________

I receive an email each week from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or,  EFF, as it is known, an organization that is dedicated to keeping the Internet free… free of influence or control by the government, or anyone else who would try to limit the way that people can use its unlimited possibilities…. This, of course, fits in perfectly with my own view of the world, so I appreciate the job they are doing (which is excellent, BTW). In the latest email from them, a number of interesting articles were shown, each addressing a different issue, or another attempt by the PTB (Powers That Be) to shut down one or more of the ways people can find out just what our leaders are up to….

The article I’ve included below is a good one; it provides a clear picture of just how egregiously the NSA has abused its powers, and how far PAST the limits that were placed on its activities it has repeatedly gone, right from the first….. I could easily rant about this one, for days, but, it has ticked me off so much, I am incoherent with rage…. That much is obvious…. I only provide euphemisms for vulgarity (‘ticked’ instead of ‘pissed’…) when I am so mad, I have to deliberately tone down my language, or I become downright viciously vituperative…. It’s too early in the day for that much emotional output, so, I control it with severe pomposity….

I will point out, however, one part of the article, which seems, to me, to give a pretty good idea of just how little the people who get into office respect the public…. The NSA began EXCEEDING the limits placed on them by the Patriot Act on the very first day it was passed; that much is clear from the records they have released. Their own court, which supposedly oversees the actions they are taking, has stated that the agency cannot be trusted to observe the limits they are given, as they have repeatedly ignored those limitations, and continue doing so to this day…. Even the fact that the court TOLD them not to perform certain actions, they went ahead and did them anyway, just because they wanted to, and had the technology to do it….
See for yourself…

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/09/gems-mined-nsa-docs-released-today

“The United States has entered an anti-intellectual phase in its history, perhaps most clearly seen in our virtually thought-free political life.” — David Baltimore

I’ll be nice, and leave this here…. I AM trying to cut down on my ranting a bit; I was getting a bit overboard with it…. But, the damn fools just keep doing things that are outrageous, and I can’t help but react…. I’ve about given up hope of ever seeing enough change to save our collective asses from extinction, but, I continue to watch the show, and comment on the more obvious stuff going on right in front of us…. Not with any hope of seeing it change, but in hope of sharing the misery, since it loves company….

Ah, well…. I saw another article yesterday that confirmed that the unnatural levels of CO2 in the air have been conclusively found to be the result of the insane actions of our species, wherein we have been pumping, literally,  millions of TONS of CO2 into the atmosphere, EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY FOR THE LAST 60 YEARS!   This is not new news, but rather a confirmation of an idea that has been around for some time, one that is continuously challenged by the ignorant, when it isn’t being denied outright. This is merely the latest in a long series of reports in this vein, but, it takes away weight from an argument that should have had no basis in reality in the first place; only the stubborn denial of those ignorant fools who don’t WANT to believe it has kept it from being acknowledged as fact before now….

SIGH…. Face it, ffolkes, the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and nobody is giving us any viable alternatives to killing ourselves…. and the only real hope of staying alive would entail becoming as ignorant and violent as those who brought us to this point, in order to eliminate them from the picture…. As Nietzsche said, if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze long into you…..

“All mimsy were the borogoves.” — Lewis Carroll
_____________________________

We shall never cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

 — T. S. Eliot

Seeing is Conducive to Belief

Folly sits so comfortably upon my fevered brow
one would easily believe that I would know how
to look at Life with a jaded, weary eye
seeing enough, and more, to know Why.

Such seems the case, as I will it to be,
an open book of a face, it looks so like me;
what’s known to be so, needs no close attention
familiar sights require no minding, nor mention.

The eye is drawn at once to the stark and new,
and sent back to sleep by successful review.
Once we find evidence we feel we understand,
curiosity languishes, dismissed at command.

Ancient sages knew the insidious value of illusion,
preachers and pundits know the power of confusion.
Each pair of eyes contains its own point of reference,
each mind sets its own standards of preference.

Seeing is believing, for those who live in thrall,
accepting what is perceived is all they ever recall.
Unknown to them, reality follows another set of rules,
Deeper, more dangerous, and no place for fools.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Yay! I’ve finally reached the third section of today’s Pearl, and, having completed all the required regulatory entries, (a rant, one of my poems to avoid accusations of piracy, all with some sarcasm woven in), it is now legal for me to proceed to put together an old-school pearl for your delectation, and mine…. Without further ado….

“In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.” — Coleridge

“Welcome to the Democratic Party, here’s your blindfold.” — Smart Bee

“Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“Welcome to the Republican Party, here’s your cattle-prod.” — gigoid

“I deserve respect for the things I did not do.” — Vice President Dan Quayle

“Beautify America – Deport Congress!” — Smart Bee

“The basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free.” — H.L. Mencken
_____________________________

I hadn’t intended to go political in that last section, but Smart Bee kept throwing those quotes at me, so, I went with the flow…. which turned out quite well, I think…. It does have the elegance and chic that comes from being DONE, so, I’m letting it fly, as is…. Now, let’s see if it all hangs together, or if we’ll need some caulking…

Not bad… a couple of tweaks, and we’re good to go…. For once, I’ll accept that without any further blathering, and just say…. 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

Saving pennies for post-apocalyptic discount sales….

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Ffolkes,

Thankfully, the massive outbreak of pain I experienced yesterday is but a memory today…. so far. I’ve become accustomed to having my assessments of this condition undergo rapid changes, almost as if Murphy were involved. Whenever I make the mistake of commenting on its absence, it will rush back to assure me it isn’t gone altogether, but was merely hiding from me, in order to make itself more…. noticeable? Shit, what a crock! I’m not buying that, with or without credit cards….. Besides, it doesn’t matter much what I say or do, it seems to pick its own time and place to attack, always the most inconvenient it can find, of course….

I’m not sure how much y’all have had pain in your life; we all have it to some degree. My own experience with it as a constant companion tells me, it has a number of faces and body types, each of which affects our own in different ways. The “why” of that escapes me, but, since it’s one of those things that we cannot change or affect in any way, it’s useless to worry about it. Suffice it to say the different appearances it may adopt make it possible to at least describe how they may differ, and how they can be dealt with, if at all…

The kind of pain I had yesterday is such that can’t really be affected much, without resorting to drugs that turn me into a zombie…. My doctor tried me on methadone once, which, it turns out, is a pretty powerful drug…. One ten mg. dose, and I would have needed no makeup, or acting ability, in order to play the part of one of the newly-popular undead…. I couldn’t smile, or frown, or formulate any emotional response beyond a simple “oh?”…. I had no connection to my will, and found myself sitting in my chair at work, staring at the monitor, drooling, and wondering if I would ever be able to move again…. There was no pain, but there was also no life, so, I decided that a small amount of pain was preferable to being essentially dead….

Most of the time, my pain recedes into the background; the hydrocodone I take to control it has worked fairly well, so far, at putting up a wall between the pain, and my conscious mind’s awareness of that pain. As long as I can keep from increasing the number of pills I use to get that effect, I am fairly well set to live life relatively normally, if I’m careful not to overdo my physical demands on my body. If I do make that mistake, and “tweak” my back, or hips, then the pain goes to a level that the pills can’t handle, and I have to take an extra dose or two,  get myself prone in order to remove gravity from the equation, and hope that over time, the pain will lessen….

Thus far, it always does grow less, so, as long as that is true, then I can look forward to a fairly normal existence…. Once the pain reaches another level or two higher than it is now, I’ll have to make a decision, as to whether or not to start taking stronger medications, such as the methadone, or oxy-contin, or morphine…. all of which are highly addictive, and ultimately lead to a state that I really don’t want to contemplate as one I may have to enter. Life is tough enough right now, without adding in more complications due to drugs; I already feel like I’m a walking pharmacy when I travel, with the minimum of eight different drugs I am taking each day, at various times…..

Okay, I think I’m done with the bitch-fest for now. The pain has receded to a manageable level, and it promises to be a nice day, weather-wise; what more can an old man ask for from life? Not much, I’ll tell ya, because, more than just that can be hard to pin down; wishing for more is generally a waste of everybody’s time and energy, since the universe pretty much ignores anything we may want, and goes about its business without considering our needs or desires at all. Just as well, I suppose, or we humans might get a sense of entitlement, and think we’re the lords of creation, or something….

Oh, we do? Well, that’s pretty stupid, isn’t it? Oh well, people are strange, of that there is no doubt….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“I can’t think about that.  It doesn’t go with HEDGES in the shape of LITTLE LULU — or ROBOTS making BRICKS…” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

“A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.” — Alfred Alder

So, I was going to forgo a rant today, giving my back, and your brains, a bit of a break, but, when I went to peruse the news, I saw the latest discussion of what is happening in the House of Idiots in Washington, D.C., regarding the budget resolutions being discussed, wherein the possibility of a government shutdown is threatened, if the Retardicans and Demobutts can’t come to some kind of compromise.

(What a wonderful dream! No government to worry about… can we get that in writing, please, in perpetua, or whatever the legal term for “forever” is?)

It seems the Retardicans are still upset about Obamacare, and the notion of helping the middle class, as well as the lower classes (gasp!), to obtain medical insurance coverage at a reasonable cost. This idea, of being fair and ethical, seems to have struck them in the wrong place, and they have been whining and complaining ever since it became law, frantically searching for ways to undermine the whole program, with the ultimate goal being to stop it altogether….

The entire issue, of course, is just smoke, to cover up the simple racism that these assholes won’t cop to…. It is STILL stuck in their craw, after over five years, that they somehow allowed a BLACK MAN to get elected to the highest public office. They have looked for, and desperately latched onto, every possible way they could find to block every piece of legislation the White House has espoused, no matter how much such legislation would help the public, ever since Obama was first elected.

The publicly stated goal of the Retardican Party in 2008, right after the election, was to make Obama a one-term President; having failed at that, their new goal became the eradication of ANY laws, or any beneficial reforms, that were accomplished during his administration…. Hence, the campaign against healthcare reform, which, ultimately, is not in their, or the country’s best interests, but, hey, who needs common sense?….

I’m almost too disgusted with the entire bunch of them, Retardicans and Demobutts both, to even continue this rant….The right wing continues to shoot itself, and the public, in the foot with their intransigent inflexibility, and their unreasoning paranoia about the POTUS, while the left side continues to wander around with a vacant expression, letting whatever the administration says or does go without question or review, as if somehow a man who was politician enough to get elected to the Senate, then the Presidency, all of a sudden became the world’s most truthful man…. Sorry, folks, it just doesn’t follow….. such trust in ANYONE who is an elected official in this country is plain silly, and doesn’t show much real common sense….

I see NO ONE in the public venue whom I would trust to make decisions for me, on ANY subject, much less those that can affect my life, and the quality of same…. Sorry, I just don’t see ANYONE who seems to be honestly interested in anything beyond their own agenda, and those agendas have nothing to do with mine, or what I see as beneficial for everyone…. They just don’t…..

I also, unfortunately, don’t have any viable solutions, which is why my rants often are short…. I mean, I do know what would help, and that is for everyone in the world who does have common sense to get together, join forces, and tell the assholes to stop…. But, they have guns, which they are practiced in using to get their way, whereas, most of US aren’t willing to contest matters on that level, so, that probably isn’t ever going to happen…. Not until more of our side are willing to use force to get our way, just as they have always done….

Since I don’t see it happening, we may as well just kiss our asses goodbye, because the eventual outcome of such idiocy is death, and I don’t mean individually, but rather, as a species…. Stupid is as stupid does, as somebody once said, and when I look around the world these days, stupid is pretty much all I see…..

Hell is the place of those who have denied;
They find there what they planted and what dug,
A Lake of Spaces, and a Wood of Nothing,
And wander there and drift, and never cease
Wailing for substance.

— William Butler Yeats, Responsibilities and Other Poems (1916).The Hour-Glass
_____________________________

I know it is a dream, even a pipe dream, but, if there is any poet in the world I try to emulate, it is T.S. Eliot…. His poetry, to me, is like the music of the spheres, sounding forever through the darkness, bringing beauty, light, and peace, where it is most needed, and little known…..

Sweeney Among The Nightingales

Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe.

The circles of the stormy moon
Slide westward toward the River Plate,
Death and the Raven drift above
And Sweeney guards the horned gate.

Gloomy Orion and the Dog
 Are veiled; and hushed the shrunken seas;
The person in the Spanish cape
Tries to sit on Sweeney’s knees

Slips and pulls the table cloth
Overturns a coffee-cup,
Reorganized upon the floor
She yawns and draws a stocking up;

The silent man in mocha brown
Sprawls at the window-sill and gapes;
The waiter brings in oranges
Bananas figs and hothouse grapes;

The silent vertebrate in brown
Contracts and concentrates, withdraws;
Rachel née Rabinovitch
Tears at the grapes with murderous paws;

She and the lady in the cape
Are suspect, thought to be in league;
Therefore the man with heavy eyes
Declines the gambit, shows fatigue,

Leaves the room and reappears
Outside the window, leaning in,
Branches of wisteria
Circumscribe a golden grin;

The host with someone indistinct
Converses at the door apart,
The nightingales are singing near
The Convent of the Sacred Heart,

And sang within the bloody wood
When Agamemnon cried aloud,
And let their liquid droppings fall
To stain the stiff dishonoured shroud.

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

_____________________________

Okay, so, having no clue as to how to finish this one, I’m going with a weird version of old-school…. I’m not even sure whether it’s legally a pearl, but, I DID find it in an oyster bed, so….

:bozotic: /boh-zoh’tik/ or /boh-zo’tik/ adj.  [from the name of a TV clown even more losing than Ronald McDonald] Resembling or having the quality of a bozo; that is, clownish, ludicrously wrong, unintentionally humorous.  Compare {wonky}, {demented}.  Note that the noun `bozo’ occurs in slang, but the mainstream adjectival form would be `bozo-like’ or (in New England) `bozoish’. — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423

(While all the above is mostly true, it lacks complete information… In 1966, I, gigoid, first wrote down, in one of my first journals, my Theory of Bozoid Tendencies, a psychological/philosophical treatise that gave some of the thoughts behind the assertions made in the Theory, and which can be seen as a prelude to Peruaosophy, the Philosophy of Pearls, which came to me ten or twelve years later, after more observation of humans, more cogitation about their behaviors, and repeated analysis thereof…..

The theory basically states, “Every human has an innate knowledge of, and ability to, garner the complete attention of other people by the commission of a really stupid (or, “bozoid”) act, in a public venue, and, in fact, tend to CHOOSE to do so on a regular basis.” This, of course, was based on my observations of humanity up to that time, and colored by the odd assortment of literature I had consumed…. but, it works, and has been clinically proven… In addition, the term “bozoid” was more commonly known and used, than were “bozotic”, or “bozoish”,  West of the Mississippi River, especially in Northern California, around UC Berkeley (“Berzerkeley…), since the early 1970’s…..)

(“It irks me when people use the character’s name in a demeaning way.” — Larry Harmon, AKA ‘Bozo the Clown’ — after his stage name was used for political purposes by Bob Dole, 1996)

Okay, it seems this pearl has jumped the tracks, and won’t be coming back toward reality anytime soon, so I’ll have to apply emergency technique number twenty-nine, which simply involves denial of current reality in favor of the one we now will enter, just as if we meant to be here, now….

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

So, I’m bored, but, SB can usually help…. Here is a pearl, whose parameters are…. well, your guess is as good as mine, right? Right…. Don’t worry, they’re all tax-deductible….

“Shall I show you the muscular training of a philosopher? “What muscles are those?”–A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised; careful resolutions; unerring decisions.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Wherein consists the Essence of Good, — Discourses, Book ii, Chap. viii

“Reality is only as the mind perceives it, where yesterday will never arrive and tomorrow has long since gone.” — Smart Bee

The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Defense of Humilities, The Defendant, 1901

“In the midst of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus

“If This Is Hell – Where Are the Lawyers???” — Smart Bee

“Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.” — Jerry Garcia (1942-1995), Musician, the Grateful Dead — Rolling Stone magazine, (November 30, 1989)

Dharma: “What is the greatest mystery of all?”
Yudishthira: “That each day, death walks the earth, and we continue to live as though we were immortal.”

— The Bhagavad Gita
_____________________________

My goodness, but that was an ordeal!…. I had no idea when I got up what an epic effort I’d be making this morning. I’ll be right back, after I see what sort of damage I’ve done…..

Incalculable, in current market conditions…. which proves, at last, I am certifiable. Nonetheless, it’s done, and I’m still upright, so, we’ll call it a win, thus giving denial of reality one more score…. Until next time….

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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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
_____________________________

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 ~~

_____________________________

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

Don’t fret, it’s only a faux-artichoke impression…..

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Ffolkes,

Today is, of course, a day of infamy in this country, and though I’ve never really explored the events of that day in depth, I have expressed my thoughts to a small degree in previous posts on this blog. I suppose one could say that my view of the events is rather different than the normal run of reactions, since I firmly believe that, though it may or may not have been ordered by one of the shrubs (probably the senior, in defense of the junior, who was in serious trouble at the time of the attack, belabored by accusations of election fixing and general political malfeasance), was certainly used by them and their cronies to not only cement junior’s position, but to fan the flames of paranoid fear among the populace, in order to continue the assault on the Bill or Rights that has been raging for years….

I realize the intro section is not the place to rant, on ANY subject, but, the day’s significance to the public cannot be denied, and who am I to refrain from using it just like any other journalist or writer, to fuel my own production with emotionally charged material, taking advantage of the hullabaloo to add my voice to the cacophony that will assail our ears today? No, indeed, I’m as unprincipled as the best of them when it comes to using whatever is at hand to write about; I’m not so sanguine as to think what I have to say will sway any opinions, or cause any new conniptions amongst the elite, but, it does keep me off the streets, for the most part….

However, I have to say this…. Most folks, and even ffolkes, in this country, see the attacks that took place on 9/11/11 as military, or at minimum, terrorist attacks on the US, aimed at the people who live here, and seen as a battle in a war that is going on between us and much of the Muslim world….. I, however, see it as merely another example of the extremity of the human spirit, wherein insane, religious fanatics were manipulated by members of the BRC, (specifically one who was formerly head of the world’s most infamous spy agency), into performing what was actually a brilliant tactical maneuver (when viewed dispassionately, the attacks MUST be considered brilliant strategy, as the military objectives were reached with minimal expenditure of effort on the part of the executing team, utilizing materials at hand to cause major property damage, and significant casualties, even if those casualties were civilian, and not military….), all of which was carried out on the world’s stage for maximum effect.

Most of the people who reacted so strongly in the wake of the events of 9/11 did so without ever considering the larger picture. They only looked at what happened from the standpoint of being victimized, and, in the final analysis, are even more ignorant, and more easily manipulated now, than they were on that day. I am speaking of the public’s reaction; I don’t think that much of what we heard from the BRC has any real meaning, as any surprise they showed was pure method acting, and all of their rote responses were straight from the script they were provided when they became working members of the cultural elite.

Yes, ffolkes, I believe the whole thing was a conspiracy, and though I cannot point any fingers at specific culprits, I can certainly identify the main group of them…. Since everything I write here is being scrutinized by the myrmidons employed by the NSA to protect the BRC’s investment in political and societal manipulation, I hesitate to actually name names; once I do that, they have ample reason to come and take me away, to see whether I am holding any real, solid, on-paper evidence, or if I am only relating the ideas my intelligence and reasoning have deduced from the visible evidence. If the latter, I’m no real danger to them; they pretty much have complete control of the routes of perception for most of society, and can shut me down anytime, should they wish to do so.

If, however, I have real evidence, such as that made public by Eric Snowden, the first patriotic martyr of the twenty-first century, who has essentially given up on ever having a life, for telling the truth about the NSA, and providing solid, provable evidence for the public to see, then I am, as he is, a real danger to them, and they WILL do all they can to shut me down, as they have attempted to do to him…. He MAY still be alive (I have no evidence of that one way or another, and don’t exactly trust the news to tell the whole tale….), but, his life is all-but-over, for the political beast never forgets, and never forgives, especially when guilty of what they are accused of doing.

So, if the Pearls of Daily Wisdom ever fail to get posted, and there is no word from me as to why not, y’all will know they’ve come to “discuss” my theories with me, with the full intent of convincing me to shut the hell up…. If they continue to ignore me, you will continue to hear my ideas about the Beloved Ruling Class, and their campaign to take away all the liberties, to which we are presumably entitled, by the sacrifices made by the founders of this country.

Now that I’ve completely screwed up the order of events here, we’ll go on to the rest of today’s effort, little as it may turn out to be…. Shall we Pearl?….

Be what you is, ’cause if you is what you ain’t, then you ain’t what you is.” — Satchel Paige

“We would like to apologize for the way in which politicians are represented in this programme.  It was never our intention to imply that politicians are weak-kneed, political time-servers who are more concerned with their personal vendettas and private power struggles than the problems of government, nor to suggest at any point that they sacrifice their credibility by denying free debate on vital matters in the mistaken impression that party unity comes before the well-being of the people they supposedly represent, nor to imply at any stage that they are squabbling little toadies without an ounce of concern for the vital social problems of today.  Nor indeed do we intend that viewers should consider them as crabby ulcerous little self-seeking vermin with furry legs and an excessive addiction to a alcohol and certain explicit sexual practices which some people might find offensive.  We are sorry if this impression has come across.” — Monty Python
____________________________

When I began to gather the pearls for this old-school version, I intended for it to point out more about the subjects discussed in the introductory rant…. During that process, it turned on me, into the shape and style you see below…. Though it doesn’t exactly match what I’ve said above, it does have a lot to say about the society in which we live, and some of the ideas that can help us to better understand it, and our own position within that structure….. I think….

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

“He who has a WHY to live for can bear with almost any HOW.” — F. Nietzsche

“You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence;you were expected to make peace with mediocrity. Wherever you have turned, you have been told where you could go and what you could do ( and _how_  you could do it) and where you could live and whom you could marry. I know your countrymen do not agree with me about this, and I hear them saying, “You exaggerate.” — James Baldwin,_The Fire Next Time_, 1964

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

“All history shows that every man who has authority is led to abuse it; he does not stop until he comes up against limitations…Things must be so arranged that one authority checks another.” — Montesquieu

“Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history, mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadow about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us.” — P.J. O’Rourke, _Parliament of Whores_

“Muddy water let stand becomes clear.” — Lao Tzu
____________________________

For most of us, this poem needs no introduction…. It also fits in very nicely with today’s apparent theme….

The Hollow Men

Mistah Kurtz-he dead
            A penny for the Old Guy

I

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer-

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V

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

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

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

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

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

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~
____________________________

“If you can see a thing whole… it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives…But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful a life is, is to see it from the vantage point of death.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, Dispossessed

Ursula LeGuin is indubitably one of the world’s greatest living writers, of ANY kind of literature…. That may be my opinion, but, it is shared by many in the Science Fiction genre, and anyone else who has read her work. This is such a beautiful sentiment that I’m not going to degrade it with any of my own thoughts on the same subject…. There is nothing I could possibly write to make this better, or to enhance it in any way…. it stands alone….
____________________________

Well, it’s certainly a Pearl, so let’s see if it holds up to initial scrutiny….. Wow…. It’s nothing, if not epic, to be sure…. Hopefully, it isn’t so much it will drive ffolkes away when they see what they’re getting into….. Hope springs eternal, does it not? In any case, it’s done, and it ain’t bad, so, it will now suffer the fate of each of the last 810+ Pearls, and get posted forthwith…. See ya tomorrow….. Well, if I’m still free and able to type, anyway…. Ta then…..

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

Look! A classic herringbone felafel!….

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Ffolkes,

Sylvie passed the salt over by request, as the volatile symbiotic herb garden shouted out its monthly litany of complaints. The living room furniture chimed in with their own manifesto, which set off the garden tools. The resulting cacophony, quickly reaching supersonic levels, changed the automatic security codes…. automatically, as advertised. Since the entire herd of remaining recumbent bison dominated the evening news, we tried to re-start the pope-mobile, but, there was some blasphemy in the gas tank, and the steering device was covered with impiety. We took the public bus down to the local library, to fill out the appropriate questionnaires, but, all of the pens had gone dry. Since Bulgaria had called to say they weren’t interested in catering the wedding, we gave up, and called gigoid….

Hello? gigoid here…. Sometimes, it just has to come out, y’know? That stuff wanders around in there, getting in the way of the real stuff I want to write, insisting on getting equal air time, when I know for a fact that the beginning of these Pearls is the ONLY place they ever fit; even here, they are a stretch…. At the beginning of these missives, they can set the proper tone, encouraging readers to adopt an advantageous frame of mind, that will be of great assistance to them when trying to figure out just what the hell I’m talking about sometimes….. and, y’all can use all the help you can get with that task, I’m guessing…

So, there, don’t say I don’t care about my readers; it costs me a lot of mental energy to come up with gibberish of that quality; it isn’t as easy as it may seem from the outside. It is a delicate line to walk, to maintain just enough sense of reality in what is written to lead the eye and mind into the next image, while at the same time making certain that there is absolutely no point that actually touches on reality at all. In truth, it requires a bit of discipline, which, given the nature of what it says, seems out of place…. but, it won’t work without it. It isn’t the same as just babbling (which I also do well, as you may have noted in the past….), which is, to me, rather James Joyce-like in its modus operandi; it requires only that one is aware of their own inner dialogue, and can type fast….

True nonsense, though, is more difficult to create than most folks expect, which is just the kind of challenge that appeals to my distorted view of reality, so, occasionally, I like to start off the day with a good healthy portion of it, to keep the mental bowels moving smoothly, as it were (oops, sorry ’bout the mental image THAT may create….). Whether is seems so, or not, it’s like oatmeal…. Though it may not be the most attractive dish you’re served today, it may be the best for you….

Boy, I don’t know about y’all, but that statement frightens me more than just a little bit…. Moreover, it’s pulling my own covers a trifle further than intended…. However, it does alert me to the fact that we’ve reached a point where we can adroitly end this intro, which, given that I had completely lost my way, and forgotten I was in this section at all, is probably a good thing, or we’d have been stuck here all day…. Since I was also  able to use the word “adroit” in reference to myself (always a goal…), I’ll take the hint, and get on with the rest of today’s outburst….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“And make each day a critic on the last.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Criticism, Part iii, Line 12
_____________________________

“George Orwell was an optimist.” — Smart Bee

Of late, the news has been disturbing, to say the least, so much so that I’ve been reluctant to tackle any of the issues presented in any depth, lest my own PTSD kick in with a personal reaction to what I see happening out there in the BBR (for the uninitiated, that means Big Blue Room, the place on the other side of the door to the room where your computer lives…. It’s  a very big, and mostly blue room, looked at correctly…). A number of dangerous, even incendiary, situations are currently being discussed in the public venue, each of which is bad enough; considered together they form a devastatingly frightening outlook for the future.

The situation that is developing in Syria has all the elements needed to bring the world back to the brink of war, threatening to involve virtually every country on Earth. As the world’s population continues to climb, ever more rapidly, toward EIGHT BILLION people, the climate continues to change, presenting us with new evidence every day that we are, most likely, too late to stop our rush to oblivion. The political scene, here, and all over the world,  has deteriorated into a series of childish taunts and bickering, punctuated frequently with explosions and deaths, while political opponents are reduced to merely blocking the efforts of the other side as a standard rule of practice, public benefit notwithstanding….. And, to top it all off, we humans continue to debase a significant number of our own species, with a worldwide plague of Evil…. abductions by force and/or guile, wherein the women and children abducted are tortured, beaten, brainwashed, addicted to drugs, and forced into lives of sexual slavery.

There are so many issues to pick from, I can’t decide…. For your edification, and to provide some evidence of how bad things are getting, here are three recent articles from the news, pointing out the issues I have described, giving some background information for y’all to consider. None of the articles goes far enough, in my mind, as they never get to the point of critical thinking about causation, and, except for the last one, don’t touch on who is responsible for the outrages they describe. But, they offer more information than the average person will have, and are thus useful, at minimum….. Please read them, and keep in mind that we all need to be ready to jump in some direction, if only far enough to save our asses for a short while…..

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Drug-agents-plumb-vast-database-of-call-records-4782269.php

http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Population-growth-increases-climate-fear-4781833.php

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Who-s-a-victim-of-human-sex-trafficking-4782902.php

The last article is pretty good, and gives a good account of how murky  is the view the public has of the sex trade, and how the perpetrators use behavioral modifications of subtle power to control their victims, including drugs, or threats to family, making them seem as if they are willing participants, rather than trapped victims. In this way, the public’s idea of who is guilty is perverted, making them unwitting supporters of the entire debased process…..

Ah, hell…. This issue always makes me angry, and tends to kick in my PTSD….. I start foaming at the mouth, and vowing to go down to the local survivalist’s hangout, buy a gun, & start wasting pimps in my spare time ( I have a LOT of spare time….). I don’t want that today; I’m still recovering from the move this weekend, and have stuff to get done, for which I need all the energy I have stored up. If I take this time to start the day with an emotional rant, I won’t be of any use until noon, so, I’ll leave this where it is, and hope that I’ve stimulated others to some degree to at least think about these matters….

All three of these issues are only susceptible to solution if we ALL act together to solve them…. Any wagers on how soon THAT will happen? I didn’t think so…

“A man can only do what he can do.  But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.” — Albert Schweitzer
_____________________________

After nearly  ranting in the previous section, I feel like some Keats, to soothe my soul…. Fortuitously enough, I found this, which is a poetic description of the type of writer, and person, I’ve always tried to be…. Enjoy! It’s a really good one….

The Gadfly

1.
All gentle folks who owe a grudge
To any living thing
Open your ears and stay your t[r]udge
Whilst I in dudgeon sing.

2.
The Gadfly he hath stung me sore–
O may he ne’er sting you!
But we have many a horrid bore
He may sting black and blue.

3.
Has any here an old grey Mare
With three legs all her store,
O put it to her Buttocks bare
And straight she’ll run on four.

4.
Has any here a Lawyer suit
Of 1743,
Take Lawyer’s nose and put it to’t
And you the end will see.

5.
Is there a Man in Parliament
Dum[b-] founder’d in his speech,
O let his neighbour make a rent
And put one in his breech.

6.
O Lowther how much better thou
Hadst figur’d t’other day
When to the folks thou mad’st a bow
And hadst no more to say.

7.
If lucky Gadfly had but ta’en
His seat * * * * * * * * *
And put thee to a little pain
To save thee from a worse.

8.
Better than Southey it had been,
Better than Mr. D——-,
Better than Wordsworth too, I ween,
Better than Mr. V——-.

9.
Forgive me pray good people all
For deviating so —
In spirit sure I had a call —
And now I on will go.

10.
Has any here a daughter fair
Too fond of reading novels,
Too apt to fall in love with care
And charming Mister Lovels,

11.
O put a Gadfly to that thing
She keeps so white and pert —
I mean the finger for the ring,
And it will breed a wort.

12.
Has any here a pious spouse
Who seven times a day
Scolds as King David pray’d, to chouse
And have her holy way —

13.
O let a Gadfly’s little sting
Persuade her sacred tongue
That noises are a common thing,
But that her bell has rung.

14.
And as this is the summon bo
num of all conquering,
I leave ‘withouten wordes mo’
The Gadfly’s little sting.

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

“The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life,  Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression.” — Gary Larson

Though there have been times in my life when this was true, it is not currently the case, for which I am immensely grateful. As a way of expressing that gratitude, I am cutting today’s Pearl somewhat short, with a simple five-star fun piece…. Enjoy!…

“A shapely CATHOLIC SCHOOLGIRL is FIDGETING inside my costume..” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Ah! don’t say you agree with me.  When people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong.” — Oscar Wilde

“A Puritan is someone who is deathly afraid that someone, somewhere, is having fun.” — H. L. Mencken

“Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it.” — Dave Barry

“Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a congressperson can.” — Smart Bee

Perfect ending, don’t you think?….. Oh? Well, I do….. Especially if you reverse the fleas and the congressional folks in the sentence; it makes even more sense that way….
_____________________________

“My life is light, waiting for the death wind,
Like a feather on the back of my hand.”

— T.S. Eliot

Silly of me, isn’t it? To think that I’m done so easily…. Oh, wait, look! I think I AM done! Let’s see….. Yep… I don’t think I can do any further damage to this one. Let’s fall of the cliff, shall we?….. Ta, then, luvs….

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

Maggie, I swear that penguin winked at me!….

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Ffolkes,
And then, I woke up….. wobbly. That’s wobbly, in the Doctor Who, Tardis-like sense, as regards Time and Space, not the old, rusty bicycle wheel type, that has only to do with one’s progress down the road….. In this sense, wobbly assumes new meaning, much deeper and more relevant to reality than its previous incarnation as a word of note. In this case, wobbly means….. well, wibbly-wobbly.

I know, it’s early for silliness, but, what else can one do when one awakens all giddy and bemused, from having slept to a decent hour, indicative of a number of positive life-events?…. I was so rested and relaxed, I was able to get in a full-body stretch, without falling into a paroxysm of back spasms and leg cramps, for the first time in recent memory, recent being defined as about five years….

Since the universe seems to be in such a positive alignment, I should probably take advantage of that, and see what kind of stuff I can do today to support that trend. Once I’ve spewed out this morning’s Pearl, I think I’ll take a bit of time to do some planning…. As I’ve gotten older, and older, and older, and…. sorry, got stuck….. any who, I find, as time passes, that the more time I spend planning, if I am thorough in my plans, the more efficiently I can get things done.

I don’t end up as often, somewhere on the other side of town, only to find that what I went to do is impossible, as the place I didn’t call isn’t open, or some other such foolishly impulsive activity that would add to my day’s frustration, especially if  I was already in pain. Engaging in a constant war keeps one on one’s toes, so to speak, and my war with gravity is as unrelenting as it is unavoidable…. C’est la vie, though, so I try not to whine about it; I’ve merely learned to think further ahead…..

Now that I’ve completely bored y’all, perhaps I should get on with today’s dive for oysters, in that ocean of data we know and love, called by even the most cynical, the world wide web of knowledge…. which is, when one stops to consider, merely an extension of our minds, suspended in a cloud of electrons held together by sub-nuclear forces of great delicacy, and a bit of glue here and there where the plastic breaks…. Perhaps I’ll find something inspiring, or uplifting…. chances are slim, but not impossible. Perhaps something  humorous; that always goes over well. Whatever it may be, it will be a surprise today, because I’m heading out with no real preconceived notions of where to go, or how to get there….

Of course, some might point out that this is not a particularly unusual event, in the case of this blog. And, they would be right in saying so, because it IS so. I can’t let that affect me, though, or I’d never work up the nerve to publish, knowing what I know about where all this stuff comes from, and where it’s been…. sometimes, it’s not very savory, or polite, or even clean…. But, a real pearl diver doesn’t let stuff like that get in the way of finding, and sharing, the best of what is down there to find, so I’m going to just stop blathering now, and get on with it….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“I’m an atheist, and I thank God for it.” — George Bernard Shaw

😆  Trust Mr. Shaw to get to the heart of a matter quickly, eh? I suppose I’m feeling brave today, to pick a subject like this right off the mark, but, this was the first idea of note to pass in front of my mind’s eye on my search, and I had to do as the little icon is doing (if you are viewing this on WordPress… if not, this line will make no sense to you… so go look at it online, for goodness sake!… ), and laugh out loud….

I’m NOT one, you know, not strictly speaking. An atheist, that is…. I suppose you could say I’m more agnostic than atheist, as there is very little hard evidence of any kind that corroborates either the idea of a single, white haired, benevolently vindictive old man up in the sky passing judgments on what everyone is doing and thinking, or of the idea of nothing like that ever happening. Since there isn’t, it’s a bit premature, and unscientific, to make up one’s mind without reservation….

I guess that is the most polite way of saying I don’t buy into any of the delusional material that makes up the dogma, history, and/or tenets of ANY of the major religions of the world. As far as I can see, they all are constructed for the sole purpose of improving the lot of the preachers, and little to do with actual religion, or metaphysical philosophy. When they do drift into trying to explain their delusional interpretations of such ideas, it tends to become either extremely fanciful, or hard-line ignorant. I’m sorry, I don’t tell them what to say, they just say it, and I am not responsible for the fact that NONE of it makes any sense, to me, anyway….

“Nature didn’t make us perfect so she did the next best thing. She made us blind to our faults.” — Grit

This is not to say I don’t appreciate what the churches have done to for humanity over the centuries…. Just think, we have them to thank for, oh, human sacrifice, goat sacrifice, lamb sacrifice, virgin sacrifice, and, oh yes, martyr sacrifice. We can always remember with fondness the crucifixions, and the mutilations, and the torture that those martyrs underwent, because they were all for the good of the church, and society, right? Then there were the religious wars, that continue to today’s world between the Muslims and the Christians, the Hindu and the Sikh, the Tamil, and the Balinese, between the Lutherans and the Methodists, the Catholics and the Protestants, and the Fundamentalists with everybody else alive…. In the immortal words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”…..

“Expertise is gained by investigating why a system doesn’t work.” — Smart Bee

In this sense, I can consider myself an expert, at least when it comes to figuring out why these systems of belief don’t work, and, essentially, never have worked the way they were intended to work by the prophets and philosophers who originally inspired the ideas behind the churches. I’m not entirely convinced that all of them were assholes and wicked perpetrators of scams and con games on the rest of humanity; a few of them weren’t, I’m sure. Jesus of Nazareth seems to have been a smart guy, all in all, though he was handicapped by  having to deal with a group of humans who had about a 5% literacy rate, and life was hard enough that any system of belief had to be kept simple, to allow the constituency enough time to do those things needed to survive, which, those days, took up a LOT of time….

Put most simply, they don’t work because they are wrong. The assumptions all these religious belief systems make, regarding the structure of Reality, is, plain and simple, incorrect, not in any way able to be either corroborated, or demonstrated in real time. No matter how often they claim the opposite, nothing of what they profess to believe has any demonstrable proof that it actually happened, or that it is substantially real at all. They will profess the absolute logic of their faith, and will repeat their lies directly into the face of anyone who dares challenge their delusional assertions, accusing the unbelievers of speaking under the influence of some mythical force of evil intent, rather than the actual tone, or rational content, or spirit of reason being demonstrated by such doubt.

Kindness, compassion, honor, integrity…. These, to me, are the most important characteristics of a human being. Virtue comes from how we act, not from what we believe. No system of belief automatically brings a state of virtue to those who choose to believe in it; only the act itself is important. How we treat others, how we approach life, and other forms of life, are much more valuable to the universe than any lip service to a deity that seems to worry more about being worshiped than taking care of his creations.

G.I.G.O. means ‘garbage in, garbage out’, and is a term, and a process with which I am very familiar, as might be construed by my user name. My study of the major, and many of the minor, religions in the world has led me to conclude that most, if not all, of them are operating under a false set of basic assumptions, and reality dictates that doing so can only produce results that are incompatible, in the long run, with the normal state of reality. This, in turn, can only lead to what we call in the scientific world, “bad things all around”, or, “Oh, shit, it blew up again!”….. Entropy WILL have its way, given half a chance, and starting one’s whole approach to living with a false set of assumptions, is awarding it free rein to send life out of our control….

And people still wonder why the world is so screwed up……

“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
__________________________________

After a rant like that, only one poet will do…..

Whispers of Immortality

Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
And breastless creatures under ground
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.

Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes!
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.

Donne, I suppose, was such another
Who found no substitute for sense;
To seize and clutch and penetrate,
Expert beyond experience,

He knew the anguish of the marrow
The ague of the skeleton;
No contact possible to flesh
Allayed the fever of the bone.

Grishkin is nice: her
Russian eye is underlined for emphasis;
Uncorseted, her friendly bust
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.

The couched Brazilian jaguar
Compels the scampering marmoset
With subtle effluence of cat;
Grishkin has a maisonette;

The sleek Brazilian jaguar
Does not in its arboreal gloom
Distill so rank a feline smell
As Grishkin in a drawing-room.

And even the Abstract Entities
Circumambulate her charm;
But our lot crawls between dry ribs
To keep our metaphysics warm.

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

__________________________________

Today has been somewhat traditional, in terms of format, so we’ll stick with that, and go old-school for today’s third offering…. These are fresh pearls, chosen just after writing this, so, it’s pot luck again…. enjoy….

“Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke.” — J. R. “Bob” Dobbs

“Only the mediocre are always at their best.” — Jean Giraudoux

“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” — Harry Emerson Fosdick

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” — Carl Sagan

“Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Now, that is an almost perfect group of pearls! But, I think there may be a couple more that would finish it off nicely…..

“In fact, one thing that I have noticed . . . is that all of these conspiracy theories depend on the perpetrators being endlessly clever. I think you’ll find the facts also work if you assume everyone is endlessly stupid.” — Brian E. Moore

When the dream came, I held my breath with my eyes closed.
I went insane, like a smoke ring day when the wind blows.

—  Neil Young

“By God, for a moment there, it all made sense…” — Smart Bee

Okay, so it took three…. But, you will note, please, it is a damn near perfect pearl, even with eight, instead of the classic seven…. I love it when a plan comes together….
__________________________________

I did it. I was up at such a good time, and slept so well, I wanted to make it all as fresh as I could…. so I did. Let’s see how it holds up…. Okay, well, that’s not half-bad. I’ll take it…. Wrap it up and send it over to my hotel, would you? Thanks….. That having been said, all is right in my world, and I’m off to go play in it….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

….even with his own hands!…

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Ffolkes,
And then I woke up….. which, considering the fact that I actually slept, is a good thing, even if it happened at 0300 again. I fell out last night when, all of a sudden, at 7 PM or so, heavy fatigue came crashing down on me, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. It was all I could do to clean up dinner and get coffee made, before I literally fell into bed, and to sleep in no time.

What a great feeling! Even though I’m up again so early, I feel good, and almost back on the Time Zone schedule I should be on. I’m alert, my pain level is reasonable, and all is right in my world…. Well, I wish Patricia felt better, but I think her cold is finally on the downhill side, and I’m thinking, and hoping, she’ll feel better today….

Without going in to detail, Murphy has presented me with my conundrum for the day, and it’s a doozy. One I’ll have to deal with without delay, and which will probably slow down all I want to do today. So much for not being broken….. At least, for y’all, it’s a bonus, because it means I won’t be rambling on forever with this intro, as I need to go do other stuff, and want to get this Pearl mostly done before the world and it’s demands intrude. In short…. Shall we Pearl?….

“In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify.” — Henry David Thoreau, Walden
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What do you think? Is it time for a rant, perhaps, a religirant? I think so…. They haven’t done anything particularly stupid in public of late; some of the fundamentalists must have broken down and started listening to their lawyers. They’ve been careful lately about saying stuff that not only infuriates the rest of the country, but are probably legally actionable as slander. But, they’ll still ask you to send money, so they can afford to carry on God’s work…..

“They say give your money to God, but they give you THEIR address.” — Smart Bee

On my recent trip to Texas, I went by a church by the highway, and did a complete and classic double-take when the name on the sign registered. I don’t know if it is the one that keeps getting itself in the news, but it said it was the Westboro Baptist Church, home of the world’s most clueless, hateful, and ignorant preacher. Well, the sign didn’t say the last part, that was mine, but it’s still true, if it is the church that has, for the last three or four years, made itself famous, and the target of every other Christian in the US, for dragging the good name of Christians in general through some pretty dark mud, and flinging the rest of the mud on everyone it can see…..

These folks, and the idiot who leads them into their idiocy, are perhaps the stupidest people on the planet, if a willingness to display that stupidity, time after time, on national TV, is any indication, all in spite of the constant and strident statements from the entire rest of the world that they are not just wrong, but stupidly wrong, in each and every one of their stated objectives. Wrong, that is, according to every other interpretation of the Bible’s words by every Christian scholar in the world, except themselves.

They just refuse to even look at what they are doing, and have no clue of how ridiculous they appear to everyone else in the world. In a way, it is really sad, except for their vicious vindictiveness, and the vulnerability of their victims, the people they label as blasphemers and devils, just for being different in some way. In their ignorant blundering around like bulls in a china shop, they hurt the feelings of people who are already suffering, and do so deliberately…. Not just stupid, the assholes, but cruelly so….

“Some men become proud and insolent because they ride a fine horse, wear a feather in their hat or are dressed in a fine suit of clothes. Who does not see the folly of this? If there be any glory in such things, the glory belongs to the horse, the bird and the tailor.” — St. Frances de Sales

This is their justification, their rationalization for their actions, which they KNOW to be wrong; no one breathing could possibly be THAT stupid as to not know their own cruelty. But, like all Christians do, to at least some degree, in order to maintain faith, they can rationalize anything, as long as it supports their belief in their own rightness…. This is a necessary attribute for anyone attempting to live in reality according to the rules dictated by a delusion, and, in fact, is most likely a purely human characteristic, common to the believers of ANY religion.

“Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.” — Martin Fraquhar Tupper

At this point in this discussion, I think this final quote can point the way out of such a distasteful subject. My hands already will need to be washed thoroughly after this stuff, so I may as well close it by saying this…. The people in the world who have decided to allow fear to dictate their entire approach to Life, have submerged their intelligence in the pursuit of an idea that has no real connection to the real world, in order to spare themselves the effort of dealing with life directly, using their own minds.

That being said, I can finally give them their precise due, and no longer consider them, at all…. which means I don’t have to waste my time talking about them either….. Bully good news for y’all, don’t you think?…. I’m going now, see, I’m already gone…..

“To perceive is to suffer.” — Aristotle, De Anima
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THE HIPPOPOTAMUS
 
The broad-backed hippopotamus
Rests on his belly in the mud;
Although he seems so firm to us
He is merely flesh and blood.  

Flesh-and-blood is weak and frail,
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the True Church can never fail
For it is based upon a rock.  

The hippo’s feeble steps may err
In compassing material ends,
While the True Church need never stir
To gather in its dividends.  

The ‘potamus can never reach
The mango on the mango-tree;
But fruits of pomegranate and peach
Refresh the Church from over sea.  

At mating time the hippo’s voice
Betrays inflexions hoarse and odd,
But every week we hear rejoice
The Church, at being one with God.  

The hippopotamus’s day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way–
The Church can sleep and feed at once.  

I saw the ‘potamus take wing
Ascending from the damp savannas,
And quiring angels round him sing
The praise of God, in loud hosannas.  

Blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean
And him shall heavenly arms enfold,
Among the saints he shall be seen
Performing on a harp of gold.  

He shall be washed as white as snow,
By all the martyr’d virgins kist,
While the True Church remains below
Wrapt in the old miasmal mist.

~~ T. S. Eliot ~~

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No ups, no extras, just the fax, ma’am…. Here is a pearl of the old school, ripped screaming from the archives, from somewhere; early twenty-first century, I think…. Yes, I’m lazy, but there are compelling reasons for it this morning, so, please, allow me my little diversions… I’m in a hurry…. thanks, and Enjoy!….

Hmm… I guess not so much of a hurry as I thought…. but, I think it will work for me, in a strange way, and that is normal, so…. Here is what I found at Pearl Central…. These short, early form Pearls were written at work, sent via email to about 350 people at Napa State Hospital, Monday through Friday, sometime in about 2007 or 08, I can’t be sure…. but, they’re pretty good, in my estimation, and if nothing else, fun for the entire family….

Just plain brutal….

Ffolkes,
Monday’s can be that way, even the best of them. I’m not certain, at least in my own case, just where the motivation to get up & get moving is coming from. Routine is powerful enough to take us in to work, but what then? Coffee only goes so far, then something stronger must come into play, or the week just goes all to  >@#%! (Supply your own curses)  It can be difficult to find a substitute; drugs are illegal, and so is theft. So what do we do? We rely on luck!…..

“Indifference is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don’t stand a chance against it.” — Joan Vinge

Life is short. Get it right.

Those who can, do. Those who can’t, write.
Those who can’t write go to the State Department (of Mental Health).

That’s the ticket….motivation means caring…..Recently on the radio, Hoyt touted a book, and challenged us to send in our own version of what it was about, to wit: describe your life in six words. I liked mine…

“Looked for love, found it everywhere”……six on the button, neh?

Y’all take care out there…..

No, really….

Ffolkes,
….the computer ate my pearl. This is already the third time I’ve rebooted this morning, and the last one ate my quotes; they were all picked out & on the clipboard, when the durn machine went wonky & wouldn’t see the network. Now I have to be creative….so, we will delve once more into the old bag of Trix….

Do not underestimate the power of the Force.

Duct Tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together. The only difference is that “May The Force be with you” sounds a lot nicer than “May you be covered in duct tape.”
— Carl Swanzig

— Bother! said Pooh,
and discorporated.

Believe it or not, there is a lesson here….left, of course, as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…. Y’all take care out there……

Grace notwithstanding…

Ffolkes,
You may or may not have perceived by now that I am, shall we say, not unfamiliar with strange. Whimsy can strike at any time, and though the resulting consequences are survivable, it often requires extra scrubbing to get clean. Today is Wednesday, but it feels like a Tuesday. Hence the following….

“I’m afraid I’m not personally qualified to confuse cats.” — Monty Python

How do I set my Laser Printer to “Stun”?

“The case has, in some respects, been not entirely devoid of interest.” — Sherlock Holmes

The strangest part is, all of these make perfect sense to me, both individually and together. It’s all in the wrist….. y’all take care out there….

Floppy risks….

Ffolkes,
…don’t fret, it’s just a typo. Amazing what one letter can change, eh? I kinda like the image this stimulates….floppy risks. Hmmm….well, where were we? Oh, here we are…..it’s Thursday but it feels just like a Thursday to me. As further proof of my familiarity with things strange, allow me to present more images to round out your mental image of Pooh The Bear (excerpted from “Pooh, the years before Christopher Robin” by Itolda
Lai)  Enjoy!….

Always speak the truth quietly, listen with an open mind when others speak, and remember the peace that may be found in silence.– unknown

— Bother! said Pooh,
as the French Nuclear Testing blew his head off.

— Bother! said Pooh,
as he was reborn as an amoeba.

— Bother! said Pooh,
as Piglet acquired all four Railway stations.

— Bother! said Pooh,
and proceeded to install OS/2 Warp.

— Bother! said Pooh,
Beavis and Butthead are barbecuing Barney!

— Bother! said Pooh,
as he gave Ted Kennedy another driving lesson.

— Bother! said Pooh,
as he switched between Animaniacs and Star Trek.

I always think it’s good to know things about iconic figures, don’t you?  Y’all take care out there…..

never say your true name….

Ffolkes,
It’s an odd morning, and coming from me, that’s saying something! Been following routine, but it feels not quite right somehow. Hmmm…..must be the shoes. They’re probably too tight  and are cutting off the blood flow to my head. Ah well, no big loss, some would say….. here are some humorous observations I found. Not the most inspiring humor, but funny nonetheless…..see ya Monday…..

Baby on board. Just means five more points.

The other planets are laughing at us.

I am serious.  And don’t call me Shirley.

They just pretend to pay us, so we just pretend to work.

You know you’re getting old when it takes too much effort to procrastinate.

Y’all take care out there……(like it or not, you must, because you can’t care for others if you don’t take care of yourself…basic logic, y’know.)

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Well, Stan and Ollie would be proud of me. It’s another fine mess I’ve created, and just think, only three days home, and I’m already in full psychotic mode! What fun the next few days will be! Be sure to tune in for the latest news from insanity’s fringes, ffolkes. I can feel a big one coming, and I hope y’all, and the rest of the world, is ready…. I’m not sure I am, but having no choice in the matter, I will be…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

A farce by any other name retains its innate irony….

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Ffolkes,
And then, I woke up….. at 0303, again. I’m not sure what it is about that particular moment in time that attracts my subconscious mind, but I seem to end up awakening at that time a lot more often that seems logical, or even coincidental…. must be some unknown piece of magic or something…. I’ve found, in the wisdom of my years, that sometimes the universe’s actions can only be explained by the presence of magic, which is fine with me, on all levels. It’s somewhat satisfying, in a way, to know that we can’t explain everything without using magic; it kind of makes the universe a little friendlier place, y’know?…. It doesn’t even matter if what I believe is true, that all of us are god, playing a game with ourselves to pass the time; magic seems to fit right in, even in a universe without an identifiable higher power…..

Wow, is that good, or what? That paragraph took exactly the amount of time to write as it takes to brew a pot of coffee, which is, no doubt, a fortunate thing for all of us. Since it’s ready, I’ll take advantage of the fact, and go make a cup, then explain…. be right back…… Well, damn. And shit. And fuck me sideways, Murphy is back in the house…. Yesterday, I was thinking he might have missed the memo about my return, as nothing particularly untoward, or even vexing, had occurred since I got back to town.

I should have known better; he was just waiting for the right moment….. I made sure to buy some half and half for my coffee this morning, as the little bit of it I had left in the fridge couldn’t be counted on to be good, having sat for two weeks, some of which was past its “use by” date. It was fine, though, but there wasn’t much of it, so I bought a half-pint here at the neighborhood store, until I can get to a bigger store for a half gallon. I even checked to make sure it wasn’t past its date as well…

Now I’m looking at a cup of spoiled coffee, with broken cream nodules all through it….. I swear, Murphy is back with a vengeance; he KNOWS how badly I react when my coffee is fucked with, so he went right for my jugular, at 0315 in the morning, with unerring accuracy….. Now I have to suffer until someplace opens, since this town lacks 24 hour conveniences to a large degree…. Oh, someplace might be open, but I don’t know where it is, and using a rental car (which I got yesterday to go see my grandson) to drive around long enough to find one seems a bit over the top, even for me and my jonesing….. In the words of some irritated queen of the past, fuck, fuck, fuck!….. I suppose it’s a good thing nobody is around for me to bite….

I suppose this means I’ll have to soldier on, without coffee, until the store opens at 6:30 or 7:00, which might even be later, today being Memorial Day and all…. I’ve often wondered about holidays; they challenge my sense of order. They are, basically, created by the government to stimulate the economy during times when it would normally be slow, to give businesses a chance to make some money at slow points in the financial year. In spite of this, many of the affected businesses close, to celebrate the holiday with the people who otherwise would make up their customer base. Makes no sense to me to have businesses closed on holidays…. Hell, the holiday was usually created FOR their benefit…. Oh well, I’ll just slide that over into the category with all the stuff that people do that makes no sense to me…. which I call the Mortimer file, for lack of a better name….

The Mortimer file is a very thick one, filled with an incredible number of activities promulgated by humans that just don’t fit anywhere into any system of logic, or stable philosophy. Stuff like…. oh, bank hours of operation. Rain on the ocean. Heaven and Hell. Eating foie gras, or any kind of organ meat, and pretending it tastes good. Zumba. Pilates. Madonna…. now THERE’s a big one! Why on earth do people pay any attention at all to her? Or, Lady Gaga, for goodness’ sake? Neither one can sing worth a shit, they dress really funny, and consistently say really stupid stuff, yet people buy anything with their name on it…. Now, THAT’s really stupid, and just doesn’t compute for me….

Oh well, I could go on forever with stuff from the M-file, but, it’s getting on toward dawn, and I’m still blathering on in the intro section, rambling and spouting off about not much at all. I guess I should get started on a Pearl…. I will, too, right after a session on the porcelain throne, which, I sure, it too much information…. Suffice to say…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Hateful to me as are the gates of hell, is he who, hiding one thing in his heart, utters another.” — Homer (c. 700 B.C.)

Deliberate untruth is, to my mind, the absolute worst thing of which humans are capable. Nothing is more hurtful to others, or more damaging to the spirit of the person who commits the act. It is a stain on the character of a man, to deliberate tell a falsehood, especially for gain. It is a bit more understandable, if no less wrong, to tell a lie, in order to protect one’s own feelings or reputation; to tell a lie in order to gain power over others, or to gain some kind of material advantage, is the worst thing a person can do to another, short of causing them physical harm, or even death. At least killing someone to get something is honest, if reprehensible in its own right…..

Truth is what makes us free, and strong, and insisting on it in all one’s dealings with others is not only a good policy, from a philosophical, moral, or ethical standpoint, but is the mark of a person who can be trusted, one who is worthy of our love, and consideration. The inability to be consistently truthful, or worse, the deliberate use of lies to achieve ends, is a sure sign of someone to avoid, at the least, if not one to be watched with caution, in order to prevent being victimized by their lack of morals. Having a large stick handy is a good idea when dealing with these individuals, or groups, for that matter…..

I’m not sure what prompted this little discussion, unless my unconscious is directing me to stop my own use of untruth in dealing with a certain situation. My thoughts of late, especially at night during those moments before sleeping when we tend to chew on stuff that is bothering us, have turned to my relationship with my doctor, in relation to the relationship I have with the HMO for which he works, as contrasted by the mask of invisibility I have worn for 43 years in public, of all venues except personal.

I know, that’s pretty obscure, but has relevance because my decision to either maintain or drop the mask will have far-reaching effects for me. What I wrote above is what I believe, so I’m afraid I will be compelled to start telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that is a dangerous thought, and proposition…. And, as you can tell by my obscure language, I’m not yet ready to tell that particular truth to the Internet; not out of fear, I don’t think, but out of a life-long habit of being conscious of security. My insistence on telling the truth doesn’t extend to being stupid about it in defense of my own well-being; we have to survive to be able to speak, whether truth, or lie…..

But, I have obviously (to me) decided to call my doctor’s bluff, and tell him the truth, since he is legally bound not to share it with anyone else. I don’t know if this will make it impossible to remain as his patient, as, up to now, he has been a good doctor to me, concerned with my welfare over the needs of the system. If he continues to reject the onus of responsibility, and make decisions about my medical care based on legal and policy strictures rather than any medical basis, I will have to seek someone who will put my health first….. And, the truth is the only way to do that, so….

“. . is to attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood. It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness. It cannot be.” — Frank Herbert, Dune

Okay, I won’t bore y’all any further, and that’s the truth, for now……

“Well done is better than well said.” — Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
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At the first turning of the second stair
I turned and saw below
The same shape twisted on the banister
…
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitful face of hope and of despair.
— TS Eliot

Again, I’m uncertain as to my own motivation for saving this, other than its obvious power of expression, and obvious excellence. My life doesn’t currently present any such negative connotations as implied in this snippet from Eliot, yet it speaks to me somehow…. I guess there are some things we are destined never to understand, especially about our selves….

I’d be bored, I think, if
I allowed “bored” in my life.
I never wanted to think,
I got tired of my own head. ~~ gigoid

I know it doesn’t rhyme, but it feels like one. But, I don’t have anything else right now, so I’ll go consult with Google and my whimsy, and see what happens…..

Rain

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can’t do a handstand–
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said–
I’m just not the same since there’s rain in my head.

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

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There’s nothing for it now, ffolkes, I’m going to have to go old school on you…. I’ll do my best to not make it too obscure, but, no matter what, it will be different, and interesting, for sure…. Enjoy….

“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.” — Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam, 1926

“Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.” — Samuel Johnson

“There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.” — Charles P. Steinmetz

“It has always seemed to me extreme presumptuousness on the part of those who want to make human ability the measure of what nature can and knows how to do, since, when one comes down to it, there is not one effect in nature, no matter how small, that even the most speculative minds can fully understand.” — Galileo Galilei

Are there not, dear Michal,
Two points in the adventure of the diver,–
One, when a beggar he prepares to plunge;
One, when a prince he rises with his pearl?
Festus, I plunge.

— Robert Browning (1812-1890) — Paracelsus, Part i

“It’s easier to curse the candle than light the darkness.” — Smart Bee

“Naive alien.  And if certain things stand in our way — Klingons for Kirk, reality for me — well, we just have to suck in our guts, set the phasers on Stun, and hope for the best.”” — Merle Kessler, IAN SHOALES’ PERFECT WORLD

There you go…. I keep telling you, it’s all in the wrist….
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“”To post or not to post, that is the question…Whether ’tis nobler on the ‘net to suffer, the flames from outrageous loonies or to press ‘F’ against a sea of slander and by opposing end them? To send KILL signal; to sleep(1); No more…” — 25 million Internet monkeys channeling Shakespeare….

I have to say, it’s been an interesting morning, all in all…. I’ve been up for almost five hours now, and have gotten a lot accomplished already, before most of the world, at least, this part of it, is even awake. I’ll take it….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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