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

Posted on March 16, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

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

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

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

We could try one of those ornamental dwarfs….

Posted on March 11, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On that note, shall we Pearl?….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Song Of A Fool

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

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

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

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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From 4/28/13:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

gigoid has spoken…..

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

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

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

This one got away from me, but, it’s all valid stuff, and needs to be said…. If not by me, then, who? The worst part of it is, practically no one who really NEEDS to hear this kind of information will ever see this, and that’s just too bad…. SIGH…. Ah well, life goes on, until it doesn’t….
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Once again, I have gone to great lengths in my thus-far apparently futile attempt to save humanity from its own folly…. (I only use the qualifiers because, hey, we ARE still here…. I just don’t see how that can last….) SIGH…. At least, today, I put the rant LAST in line, which may have given my Gentle Readers enough advance notice to skip over much of the rant, much of which they have, no doubt, heard previously…. We can, and do, hope so…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes…. I suppose it wouldn’t be out of place to wish ourselves luck in meeting that appointment….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Analyzing inventory on hand to find the shortest shrift….

Posted on March 7, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Truckin’ by Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Hunter

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

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

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

Roses for Noses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What is man’s chief enemy? Each man is his own.” — Anacharsis (f1. c. 600 B.C.), Scythian philosopher — Quoted in Stobaeus, Flor., II, 43
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Not everyone can do this, you know…. nor, in any case, should everyone be encouraged to do so…. Hell, any encouragement I get just makes me worse, and I know it, so, encouraging everyone might just be more than Reality can take…. It probably has enough trouble assimilating what I do; I don’t think it really wants to have to deal too many others spewing all over the place like this….

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

One sure thing we know for certain about Life…. it’s always fatal….

Posted on March 6, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Dreaming permits each and everyone of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.” — Charles William Dement

Wandering through endless halls of wondrous elegance, with classical paintings adorning the walls, and chandeliers providing brilliant light to bring out the beauty of the surroundings. I try to avoid bumping into any of the what seems like millions of people, all naked from the waist up, but wearing slacks, skirts, shorts, etc. with shoes…. A few even wore hats, though we were indoors…. All very odd looking, but, not at all off-putting, except, perhaps, for the gang-bangers, whose sagging pants and sideways cap are as stupid-looking in dreams as they are on the streets….. Everyone was dancing, to an old waltz, familiar, but just out of memory’s reach….

I knew somehow, (as we always seem to know, in our dreams…) if I could just find one person, all the others would be okay, and no harm would come to them…. but, as it usually goes in dreams, I didn’t know who I was to look for…. I also knew that, if they didn’t dance, they’d never be given back their shirt tops, coats, and/or their blouses; why the dancing was supposed to kept their hopes alive, I have no clue….. As I moved from one massive ballroom to the next, the haunting, melancholy music that had been playing changed to a rag-time tune, whereupon all the half-dressed, frenetic dancers began jumping around in something that resembled the Charleston…..

This went on for hours, it seemed, until I turned in my sleep, and a stab of pain in my back woke me up, bringing me out of the dream, and into full awareness…. All in all, it was one of the strangest dreams I’ve ever had…. That is actually saying a lot, because my dreams, when I remember them at all, are ALWAYS strange…. I once asked the psychiatrist I was seeing, when I was off work due to the incident that shattered the last remnants of my sanity, why my dreams were so infrequent, and yet so strange when they came…. He said nobody understands dreams, and I was just lucky I didn’t dream more often….

I believed him, this time, without having to perform any further research into dreams, as I had done that already, when I was in high school… In our sophomore English class, the teacher assigned us to write a term research paper, college style, due at the end of the year…. He taught us how to do that type of paper, then let us go to whatever libraries we wished to use for our research….

The subject I chose was Telepathy, Dreams, and Paranormal Activity, which, though actually too large a subject, worked out well for one so unpracticed at the paper’s method of construction…. It gave me enough range of subject matter that the length of the paper (A minimum of 25 full pages, with footnotes and bibliography… the whole nine yards….) became moot; there was PLENTY of material to choose from…. at the University of California, Berkeley’s main library…

This was because I talked my father into driving me to Berkeley, to the UC there, so I could use their main library, which gave me a LOT of books to pick from, as well as extensive help from the librarians…. I used the reasoning that I would be able to look around the campus with him for living spaces and resources, as I had made up my mind, even in my sophomore year, that UCB was going to be my school…. I had known that ever since I learned that they had the best reputation in astronomy and sciences degrees in the world, along with a few others such as MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford, and a very few others…. I figured, why not go for the BEST?….

To bring us back toward some kind of rational end point here in the present, I’ll merely say that I already knew a lot about the subject of dreams, or, at least, more than most people, so it wasn’t really a surprise to hear a well-educated psychiatrist admit to ignorance in the field…. Since the medical pundits DON’T claim to possess a lot of knowledge about how the brain works, especially in sleeping mode, I really asked for rhetorical purposes, to see if he could perhaps shed some light….

Alas, no; I still wonder why my dreams are so infrequent… I suppose their infrequency is a factor in why they are so vivid in my memory, as they certainly create an impression on my unconscious mind…. Oh well, this is one of those things we can’t do anything about, so, I’ll take the advice of Epictetus, and not worry about it….

I will also note at this point that we shot right past the legal minimum for an intro, so we’re good to go for today… We even have enough coffee on board to make anything I write more coherent…. Glory Be!….. I think, maybe, y’all had best fasten those belts, tight, and hang on, because this could be quite a ride…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“I don’t think it would have all got me down quite so much if just once in a while- just once in a while- there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn’t, it’s just a disgusting waste of time.” — J.D. Salinger, Franny & Zooey
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I’ve made an executive decision regarding the format of today’s Pearl…. I’m tired of ranting every day, and I’m positive ffolkes are tired of me ranting every day about the same stuff, relevant as it may be…. Anything gets old after a time, and it isn’t as if I were writing short, easy pieces…. No, I have to go all verbose, and saddle my poor readers with seemingly greater portions of angst every day…. “BASTA!”, he cried…. “Enough! Let them eat cake!”

Okay, well, no cake, but what I WILL do is create TWO old-school pearls to go along with the most excellent poem I found for this morning’s missive…. For those of my Gentle Readers who come by often, it will be what I’m sure will be a most welcome change, as well as a little break for me, and my arthritic fingers… In this first pearl, let’s see what Smart Bee can come up with when I ask for quotes about Asininnies, and their jobs…. (e.g., doctors, lawyers, judges, police, etc…. you know, the Asininnies…)

“A thing either is what it appears to be; or it is not, but yet appears to be; or it is, but does not appear to be; or it is not, and does not appear to be.” — Epictetus

“A physician, after he had felt the pulse of Pausanias, and considered his constitution, saying, “He ails nothing,” “It is because, sir,” he replied, “I use none of your physic.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of Pausanias the Son of Phistoanax

“He is running for Congress … Do you know why he will be elected? Because all the gun owners will vote for him. Why will they vote for him? Because he is against any new law which will require registration of firearms. He claims that if there is a war, we might be invaded by Communists. And we will all need guns. With nuts like that in Congress, it could happen.” — Larry Siegel

“Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of honest men, with understanding sufficient for their stations.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) — Letter to Elias Shipman and others of New Haven, July 12, 1801

“There is no happiness where there is no wisdom.” — Sophocles

“As the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on Christian religion…” — Joel Barlow (1754-1812) — Treaty with Tripoli (signed 1797)

“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

I couldn’t have said it better myself….
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Today’s poem is from an author who is new to me…. I like the rhyming in this poem; it reminds me of more than one of my own poems, in that respect…. I also enjoyed the sense of metaphor, and the use of imagery that uses such metaphor to make it’s point…. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did….

The Alchemist in the City

My window shews the travelling clouds,
Leaves spent, new seasons, alter’d sky,
The making and the melting crowds:
The whole world passes; I stand by.

They do not waste their meted hours,
But men and masters plan and build:
I see the crowning of their towers,
And happy promises fulfill’d.

And I – perhaps if my intent
Could count on prediluvian age,
The labours I should then have spent
Might so attain their heritage,

But now before the pot can glow
With not to be discover’d gold,
At length the bellows shall not blow,
The furnace shall at last be cold.

Yet it is now too late to heal
The incapable and cumbrous shame
Which makes me when with men I deal
More powerless than the blind or lame.

No, I should love the city less
Even than this my thankless lore;
But I desire the wilderness
Or weeded landslips of the shore.

I walk my breezy belvedere
To watch the low or levant sun,
I see the city pigeons veer,
I mark the tower swallows run

Between the tower-top and the ground
Below me in the bearing air;
Then find in the horizon-round
One spot and hunger to be there.

And then I hate the most that lore
That holds no promise of success;
Then sweetest seems the houseless shore,
Then free and kind the wilderness,

Or ancient mounds that cover bones,
Or rocks where rockdoves do repair
And trees of terebinth and stones
And silence and a gulf of air.

There on a long and squared height
After the sunset I would lie,
And pierce the yellow waxen light
With free long looking, ere I die.

~~ Gerard Manley Hopkins ~~

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Okay, so…. Lately, I’ve been bringing up old religirants from the archives, since I seem to have covered most of the bases at various times in the past…. It saves me time and energy, and the rants I’ve revived were all still valid in terms of what they bespoke…..

Bully for me, but, in the long run, boring for y’all…. So…. Here is a link to another of Mark Morford’s brilliant takes on religious dogma, and the stranglehold with which it has gripped the throat of humanity for thousands of years…. After the link, I’ve created another old-school pearl, which will focus on those deluded asininnies who insist on sharing their ignorance with everyone else….. or else….

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/03/04/how-to-sucker-a-billion-christians/

“Yeah, God is dead, he laughed himself to death.” — Smart Bee

“Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process.” — Isaac Asimov

(Which is the very reason it is superior to religion as a means of understanding the Universe, AS IT IS, without the unnecessary inclusion of supernatural forces to control our destiny…. thus, handily relieving us of all responsibility for our own actions…. Nice scam, eh?….)

“Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.” — Ashley Montague

“There is nothing so stupid or dangerous or painful that people won’t eagerly do it, if by doing it they will make others believe they are better or stronger or more honorable.” — Jason Worthing (Orson Scott Card, “The Worthing Chronicle”)

(This concept includes going along with a delusion so one will be accepted as part of the flock….)

“Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.” — John Selden (1584-1654) — Humility

“I figure that if God actually does exist, He’s big enough to understand an honest difference of opinion.” – Isaac Asimov

“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.” — Demosthenes
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A perfect Pearl is one that fulfills all of the rules and regulations in my mind for how a blog with my name on it, user- or real-, OUGHT to be…. Those rules and regs, of course, are somewhat amorphous, but, they DO exist….

Today’s Pearl may just be one of them, if I’m any judge, and, who better? Except, of course, you, my Gentle Readers…. If you enjoyed today’s effort more than usual, please feel free to leave a comment, & let me know… I’ll enter that data into the records, along with my own for today, which will give us…. GASP, why, look at that! It’s a consensus!….. Right here on Exploring Consensual Reality!….

Hmmph….. Riiiight…. See ya……

🙂

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Eighteen of one, a dozen & a half of another….

Posted on March 4, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Having spoken previously about the power of routine, it only makes sense for me to relate, as further evidence of the importance of such routines in our lives, how difficult it can be once a favored, or at minimum, comfortable routine has been broken.

In the past month or two, I’ve begun to sleep better, in the sense that I’m sleeping without being half-awake for half the night, and spending more time in good, solid sleep, from not waking up so often. Since beginning to use cannabinoids to help me get to sleep, and to stay there, I’ve had more, better sleep than in the prior twelve years or more…. Hell, sometimes, it seems like twenty or thirty years….

Come to think of it, it has been about twenty years or so since I hurt my back the last time…. I had forgotten that…. I had also blocked awareness of the four years it took to get my back pain to a level where I could return to work, and how it never really got any better after reaching the point the courts call “permanent and stationary”. I’d forgotten the grinding, wrenching pain in my hips and lower back, that I got when I would walk….

Most of all, I’ve blocked out how much the pain drove me crazy with its unrelenting nature…. There were NO breaks at all from the pain, for a while…. It was full out ON, for days, and weeks, and months at a time, before it got better, and calmed down enough to start some healing…

The routines I had built up, up to a couple months ago seemed to work as well as anything, but, I was getting very fatigued, from not sleeping well over a course of years…. The two years I spent waiting for my SS, living in near-poverty, was particularly hard in terms of sleeping, as my PTSD, and my pain, were my only companions for a long time…. It didn’t make me any fonder of either of them, but, I learned to endure the nights without sleeping, and the days without end…. These Pearls, of course, kept me sane, for the most part, though, some might question HOW sane I was, much of the time….

As I said, though, that’s all done now…. I’m still trying different cannabis products to see how they work with the others, and what they’ll help to deal with, but, all in all, I’m happy with the results, because I feel a whole lot more rested, and whole…. It’s amazing what a bit of good sleep can do….

But, as I said above, now my routines are all screwed up, by this new long-term sleeping I must work into my schedule each day, about which, previously, I didn’t have to think… Of late, I’ve gotten in the habit of falling out around dark (about 5-6 PM at this time of year…), arising around 3 or 4 AM, ready to go; it’s been great in terms of how I feel, when sleeping, AND when I wake up….

But, it’s getting kind of lonely, as my lady is on a completely different schedule; she stays up watching TV until about 2, then sleeps until about 9 or 10 AM…. We’re about seven or eight hours off each other’s schedule, so, we miss each other during about sixteen hours of the day…. Fortunately, the time we’re both awake does overlap a ways, so, it’s not all bad, just not as much interaction as I’d like, if you see what I mean….

Well, that’s about all of the chatty, intimate personal bullshite I’ve got on tap for this morning…. I actually didn’t mean to get so far into the subject as I did, but you know me, when I get rambling…. I can’t seem to shut it off sometimes…. Regardless, it got us to this point, all without any hesitation, and without any of the usual buildup of angst over what to write…. No ranting, either, which is good, as there’s a good one below…. On that note…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Behold the fool saith, “Put not all thine eggs in the one basket” — which is but a manner of saying, “Scatter your money and your attention”; but the wise man saith, “Put all your eggs in the one basket and — watch that basket!” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)
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“Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sure sign he expects to be paid for it.” — H. L. Mencken

Does anyone else remember what Tom Jefferson had to say about “professional politicians”, and “bankers”, as being the most dangerous threats to a democracy? I remember the tone of it, and the meaning of what he expressed, in a number of letters to others of his contemporaries, even if even if I don’t remember the exact wording in the letters…..

Believe me, every single one of the people who inhabit the halls of the White House, the Congressional House and Senate, and the Federal Court system would have been very lucky if Tom had only called them by their true name, that of TRAITOR….. As I recall from my reading about Tom, he was a bit of a hothead, by reputation, and he might have decided to start shooting before speaking, if I read him right…. and, I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that might have prompted him to start firing away….

It’s funny, (ha ha AND weird, both types…) how the mind plays tricks on itself, even going so far as to use one’s own memories in manipulating to have its way…. however obscure that way may be….

Yesterday, in the rant in section three, (I think…. that’s how unsure I am of my own memory right now; memories as close as yesterday are currently suspect, due to the very issue under discussion IN THIS SENTENCE, thus, demonstrating once again how slippery our hold on Reality is, just all the damn time….), I mentioned the rant from the day before, in which, I was supposed to have spoken about the NSA, and its shenanigans….

That, of course, was either mistaken belief on my part, or just laziness in thinking about what actually was written, as I was writing something else for that post at the time…. I know, it’s all very confusing, and maybe even moot, but, I have to explain this, or I’ll go crazy…

Crazy, as you know, is always a risk around here…. Anyway…. The rant to which I referred as being about the NSA, (as yesterday’s rant from the archives actually happened to be), was NOT about that, specifically, though that agency WAS mentioned…. No, that rant was about the Shrubs, and the events of 9/11/01 considered as a conspiracy to misdirect the public attention away from election results of the previous two elections, in which certain disputed voting irregularities “fixed” the election in favor of the Republican ticket….

A conspiracy, I will add, whose very existence, due to the very professional, comprehensive planning, and execution, by the elder Shrub’s minions, in eliminating and/or explaining away any evidence of such a conspiracy, is completely unknown to the majority of the American public…. That’s how good they are at this…

My intent in saying the above, long and complicated as it turned out to be, was to be honest, with y’all, and with myself…. and to keep things straight….

There are two different issues at hand in my rants from the last week or so, (Two, at the very least…. most likely more, if truth be told…), with the only connection being the fact that both issues are a result of previously clandestine, illegal, selfish, paranoid actions by the same set of shadowy corporate slave masters, and their political minions….

Thanks to the actions of a single patriotic citizen with a conscience, (E. Snowden), SOME of their actions are now a matter of public record, a fact which they are desperately working to remove from the public’s awareness….

Right now, they’re using the stone wall technique…. They aren’t making comments on any part of the issues, and they won’t address any questions they’re given by journalists on the subject. They’ve planted the seeds they wished to plant, with their lies about intended reforms to the NDAA regulations, and about Eric Snowden’s incompetence, and possible (fabricated) ties to Russian spies….

“All men can be led to believe the lie they want to believe.” — Italo Bombolini

Since that last outrageous, ‘ipse dixit’ proclamation from the House Intelligence Committee’s lead Republican, (….. Wow, talk about an oxymoron!…), about the infamous, totally made-up Soviet spies who “tricked” Eric Snowden into hacking those files, the White House, and every other public mouthpiece in DC, has been giving their best impression of an uncooked clam about the entire issue….. They don’t want to confuse the issue by introducing too many other ideas, especially if they might be found to be true….

They’re letting the lies they told sit and percolate, so it is the last discussion in the public mind; that way, when they come back to re-address the same issue again, those minds, of the mundanes among us, will have already been primed with the previous lies….. Hence, their next round of fabrications can not only be even more outrageous, but, in their minds, will have the additional advantage of being more easily believed by those parts of the public that bought into their previous (false) statements…. ‘Tis an unfortunate truth that it will probably work….

“These activities have their own rules and methods of concealment which seek to mislead and obscure.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower (1960)

Even if only a few people buy into their lies and machinations, they’re content…. They know that, because of human nature, the people who DO fall for that line of crap are generally the loudest, most stridently vocal of their supporters, those who have a strong investment in believing what they’re told by the talking heads on TV, primarily so they don’t appear to be so FUCKING STUPID to the rest of us….

Sorry…. didn’t mean to shout. I just get so frustrated, thinking about the lack of intelligence it takes to NOT be able to see how often these people are lying to us. This rant sort of evolved, all by itself. on Monday morning, as I sat reading the original line from Mr. Mencken, who happens to be one of the most prolific social philosophers of the twentieth century….

Mencken had a sharp eye, a nimble mind, and he wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade, which, in the end, gets more done than calling it what it isn’t…. His honesty, and his willingness to “call ’em as he saw ’em” is why he was relatively unpopular with, and feared by, the governing elite of his era…. Too many sharp barbs and exposed truths for their taste….

I just wish I could figure out how to convince all the Numbnoids to use their minds, for something more than just carrying their bladders around from toilet, to table, to toilet…. Oh well, I’ll keep at it, and maybe, someday, one of the tabloids, or one of the mainstream papers, or even, GASP!, maybe a major player, like PEOPLE magazine, will pick up one of my rants, it will go viral, and the world will be saved from the all-too-frequently ignored effects of practicing ignorance, and the crushing soulless presence of Evil in our society’s most powerful denizens, who take advantage of that ignorance among the masses to maintain their own supremacy….

Or, maybe not…. Either way, I’ll keep on pointing out what I see, even if it doesn’t get very far…. Better out than in, I always say….

“Lord, defend me from my friends; I can account for my enemies.” — D’Hericault
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Since today’s post features a fresh rant, (…. In the unlikely, but possible, event that you skipped down to here, wishing to avoid the big pile of nasty-looking, hard-to-pronounce words above, the rant is in the previous section…. )….I’ll include one of my own poems, so there’s nobody else to blame for whatever happens today…. Enjoy!….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written 11/1/13:

Time, and again….

Life, and/or love, will seldom fit
into any box we keep for them to sit.
Loose and limber, without any reason,
always somewhat out of season.

Surprise, surprise, they seem to say,
we can’t help it, it’s just our way.
If only you would learn, instead of know,
maybe you’d find yourself with one to show.

Deal, just the way it is, now and here,
follow the path, on the other side of fear.
Finding the future isn’t all blood, sweat, and pain,
far, far more than mere joy we stand to gain.

The sages all say not to try, just do,
sounds as simple as putting on a shoe.
I’d say we could really go places,
if we could but learn, to tie up the laces….

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Oh boy! Now I get to have some fun…. Though ranting is its own sort of reward, fun is better. I’m going to go to Smart Bee, cap in hand, and respectfully beg to be given a group of the finest pearls that are there to be found, hoping the humility will throw it off enough for me to get what I need…. which, in this case, is a group of pearls with just one parameter…. fun…. Let’s see what we can find, shall we?….

“Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.” — Robertson Davies

“I hope they never find out that lightning has a lot of vitamins in it, because do you hide from it or not?” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“Never die while doing something stupid. That will be what people remember about you.” — Smart Bee

“Plumbing is one of the easier of do-it-yourself activities, requiring only a few simple tools and a willingness to stick your arm into a clogged toilet. In fact, you can solve many home plumbing problems, such as annoying faucet drip, merely by turning up the radio. But before we get into specific techniques, let’s look at how plumbing works….. A plumbing system is very much like your electrical system, except that instead of electricity, it has water, and instead of wires, it has pipes, and instead of radios and waffle irons, it has faucets and toilets. So the truth is that your plumbing systems is nothing at all like your electrical system, which is good, because electricity can kill you.” — Dave Barry, The Taming of the Screw

“By the time you’re eighty years old you’ve learned everything. You only have to remember it.” — George Burns (1896-1996)

“I hope something GOOD came in the mail today so I have a REASON to live!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” — H. L. Mencken

Well, ffolkes, there you have it…. I had fun, even if nobody else did… especially when I consider the last line, and how often I feel just like that….
_____________________________

Oops…. slight tactical error here…. or, maybe a flaw in the strategy being employed…. Either way, here ’tis, just 0515, (that’s in the AM…) and I’m pretty much done with this Pearl…. NOW what am I going to do? Ah well, I’m sure I can find SOME sort of trouble to cause, or perhaps, some time I can carve out to search for an imperialist running dog lackey, whom I can capture and torment for a while…. Now, THAT sounds like fun!…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Put down the matches, sir, & step away from the dead clown….

Posted on February 17, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Okay, now my feelings are REALLY hurt….. Well, not actually, but…. for the first time since I began this blog, which began in it’s current location on WordPress in August of 2011, as I sit down to write this morning, NOBODY…. that’s nobody at all, came by to read yesterday’s Pearl…. If they did, they didn’t like what they saw, and left without a comment….

If I cared much at all about whether or not this gets read, I’d be truly upset, or hurt, or some such reaction that would show how much I put into this, and care about what I write…. But, since that isn’t the case, I can’t say I’m upset, but, I’m definitely not sure WHAT to think….

I no longer HAVE to write this blog, as it no longer matters to me whether or not I stay sane, per se…. My retirement is all set, and all I have to do is keep breathing, stay solvent, and hope Social Security doesn’t get gutted before I get my share of what I put in there. So, the former, semi-original reason for doing this, to maintain my sanity while waiting for it all to sort itself out, is no longer valid…..

Plus, quite simply, I don’t much CARE any longer whether or not I appear to be sane, as the only one to whom it matters, milady Patricia, seems to enjoy my insanity, when it isn’t frustrating her trying to comprehend what I’m doing, or making her scramble to follow my often obscure trains of thought…. Come to think of it, my thoughts probably are more like a big room of cotton candy, dotted randomly with bourbon truffles, than a train…. Yes, I’m aware that’s a bit odd….

“Odd” doesn’t scare me, nor does “strange”…. I mean, it might bother me, if I cared at all about what people think, but, I learned, from cats, long ago, how to NOT give a shit about any of that….. Seriously, if you want to know how to not give a crap about what people think, just watch your cat. They’ve been perfecting their manner of ignoring people for many, many generations, and have become the acknowledged masters of the cold shoulder, and the complete indifference that so annoys other creatures….

So, in the final analysis, I don’t much care if nobody likes my work….. Realistically, that may merely be a function of the material about which I write, and the unpalatability of such difficult subjects as politics, religion, human nature, and global warming…. All of those tend to bring out passion in people, so I can see why many might not wish to deal with it every day…. Plus, my opinions generally run to the pessimistic, as I don’t have a lot of faith in human nature to be anything other than stupid and coarse, and to display every weakness of morality that we have identified….. Well, sorry, but, I’m just playing the odds there…

The part that bothers me isn’t my own ego-driven desire to be liked, or appreciated; those are issues I resolved a long time ago, and they don’t cause me any pain…. No, what bothers me is, the message I’m putting out there, about the BRC, the bankers, the politicians, the police, the judges, and the mundanes who support them in oppressing the rest of us, is not getting the distribution and attention that it deserves, or that people need, if we are to ever save our asses from our own stupidity…. I don’t care at all if people don’t like, or don’t agree with my take on most things, but, when it comes to the effects we are seeing of global warming, it is NOT something that ANY of us can afford to ignore…..

No, I wish I could figure out how to get somebody to start distributing what I’ve written to a wider audience, who might then be able to spread the word far enough that someone who can actually DO something will hear it, and be prompted to act…. It’s a bit frustrating to be saying all of this, to pour myself into what I’ve written, and then watch it die, in what for a literary work is an unnatural death, left to rot on the shelf, without being consumed…..

SIGH…. c’est la vie…. Perhaps, someday, my Prince will come…. (Maybe I should have used the word Publisher?….) Of course, a prince wouldn’t do much in the way of agreeing with me, or liking what I say, but, it sounds nice, doesn’t it?…. I suppose that’s all we have left, is to be nice to ourselves…. SIGH… Wanna come with me & eat some worms?….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Have no fear – I never attack lesser beings.” — gigoid the dubious
_____________________________

“What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” — Thomas Jefferson

In a pearl from a day or two ago, I mentioned a business deal that struck my eye, as being another example of how little the 99% in the world actually have in the way of resources, in contrast to the shadowy corporate entities that inhabit the other 1%….. The deal referred to in the article, I pointed out, was to be made to the tune of forty-five BILLION dollars….. an amount the human mind isn’t capable of grasping, really…..

It’s more money than all of the 99% here in America typically has to spend in one day, (I did the math…it’s $136 for each of the 330 million of us here in the USA, not counting the 33,000 or so who don’t need any at all, because they’re in the other 1%) approximately; this huge amount of money is, no doubt, being spent, out of Comcast’s “petty cash drawer”, dipping only lightly into actual profits, to purchase the next biggest cable system besides themselves, thereby cornering more than 33% of the cable market for itself….

Read the article, then we’ll talk….

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/02/14/follow-the-money-to-congress-on-comcast-time-warner-deal/

ECONOMY, n. Purchasing the barrel of whiskey that you do not need for the price of the cow that you cannot afford. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

First, let’s look at what Comcast had to spend bribing Congress, on the political tools they wish to cultivate….. According to the above article, Maplights says the amount they contributed to various members of Congress over the past two years, since this deal has been in the works, is $835, 525. That probably sounds a bit low to you; I know it does to me, until I realized that this is the amount they REPORTED, not the actual amount given, which, I’m sure, is much more cleverly hidden than the numbers they actually let us see…. Plus, this amount represents the CASH contributed, not any perks, or favors that were also tendered…

Still, it’s almost a million dollars, in cash, which you know they spent without even counting the cost, as money well-laundered, and well-used, to secure favors (to wit: votes to approve the deal)…. For that measly million bucks, they’re allowed to spend their “spare” 45 BILLION, to ensure that they continue to have the power and resources to continue to supply the public with the bread and circuses that comprises the TV and Entertainment Industry….

TV, now with the related usefulness of computers and the internet, is possibly the most influential industry the Beloved Ruling Class has, in terms of effectiveness in directing, and molding. the public’s attitudes….. These two communication tools form, together, a mega-industry which, as you know, includes the entire sporting world, and all the billions upon billions of dollars that people spend to vicariously re-live their youth, watching football, basketball, baseball, tennis, cricket, rugby, soccer, and all the other billion-dollar industries that each individual sport can generate, when turned into a professional competition, rather than amateur….

Hell, the cable companies even make money broadcasting the amateur sports, making an even larger profit, because none of the players are being paid! (…. on the surface….)…. If, like me, you paid attention to the little bit of history they teach in high school, you might remember the discussions on ancient Rome, and the public circuses they had in their era….. Most of the time, in the books and class discussions, the circuses were pointed out as a symptom of their dying culture, which subsequent events seemed to prove, as Rome’s culture declined, until it was sacked by barbarians not many centuries after the circuses began in earnest….

“America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.” — George Clemenceau (1841-1929) — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

In our own culture, we have television, movies, sports, and now, the Internet, all of which, the way they have evolved, are now used to augment and support the ruling classes, at the behest and direction of those who control society…. These are, collectively, nothing more than our version of the Roman circuses under Nero, effectively keeping the majority of our society quiet, content to laze around, peacefully watching Sex In The City, or the Olympics, or, googling gossip about their neighbors….

Okay, since nobody will probably read much of this, I’m going to save some of my angst, and conduct a test, an experiment, as it were…. I’m going to ask a couple of questions now, to see how many people it might stimulate into answering, in the comment section… The questions are such that I hope will make y’all think, at least a little…. then, if you have the time, let us know what your response might be, in your own inimitable style…. Me, I’m going to go find some pearls for section three, & a poem for section two, after which I’ll get out my candles, my chrysknife, and my amulets, to cast a spell of deep thinking, over whomever stops in to read, which will, if successful, MAYBE, give us something to discuss….

I’ve told you my opinions previously, at great length, so you know how I feel about these assholes…. What’s your take on any of this, eh?….. The question(s) is(are)….. Will Congress approve this deal? Or, will the money the shadowy corporate lackeys, the lobbyists who inhabit the halls of Congress alongside the legislators, spent on them have been wasted? If the latter, do you think it will matter in the long run?….

Finally, do you agree that the entire entertainment industry, including sports and movies, is merely one of the shadowy corporate masters’ techniques of crowd control, used for the most part to keep the populace quiet and content? …… Come on down, ffolkes, and let’s create an intelligent, stimulating dialogue…. Or, if you prefer, we can just grimace and call each other foul names….

Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And Learning wiser grow without his books.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book vi, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 85

“Me, I love the rich. *Somebody* has to love them. Sure, a lot of rich people are assholes, but believe me, a lot of poor people are assholes too. And an asshole with money can at least pay for his own drinks.” — Tom Robbins, “Jitterbug Perfume”
_____________________________

The poem for today is, as I sit to begin this section, an unsolved mystery…. I’m going to complete section three before I turn to that, so, we could end up with just about ANYTHING today…. I certainly hope so…. I’ll be back in a while, poem in hand (well, on the clipboard, anyway, ready to paste….)….

Yep…. I knew I could count on serendipity…. While searching for the pearls in section three, I realized I know the perfect poem for today’s theme, as it evolved (I’m trying to use that word a lot, to help people learn to accept the idea of things evolving…. maybe the general knowledge of that will leak over onto someone who actually needs it….)…. Any whom, here ’tis…

Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer

This is a song to celebrate banks,
Because they are full of money and you go into them
and all you hear is clinks and clanks,
Or maybe a sound like the wind in the trees on the hills,
Which is the rustling of the thousand dollar bills.
Most bankers dwell in marble halls,
Which they get to dwell in because they encourage deposits
and discourage withdrawals,
And particularly because they all observe one rule which woe
betides the banker who fails to heed it,
Which is you must never lend any money to anybody
unless they don’t need it.
I know you, you cautious conservative banks!
If people are worried about their rent it is your duty
to deny them the loan of one nickel,
yes, even one copper engraving
of the martyred son of the late Nancy Hanks;
Yes, if they request fifty dollars to pay for a baby you must
look at them like Tarzan looking at an uppity ape in the jungle,
And tell them what do they think a bank is, anyhow, they had
better go get the money from their wife’s aunt or ungle.
But suppose people come in and they have a million
and they want another million to pile on top of it,
Why, you brim with the milk of human kindness
and you urge them to accept every drop of it,
And you lend them the million so then they have two million
and this gives them the idea that they would be better off with four,
So they already have two million as security
so you have no hesitation in lending them two more,
And all the vice-presidents nod their heads in rhythm,
And the only question asked is do the borrowers want the
money sent or do they want to take it withm.
Because I think they deserve our appreciation and thanks,
the jackasses who go around saying that health and happi-
ness are everything and money isn’t essential,
Because as soon as they have to borrow some unimportant money
to maintain their health and happiness they starve
to death so they can’t go around any more sneering at good old money,
which is nothing short of providential.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

_____________________________

So, I’ve ranted, enough to suit me, and a poem has yet to be found…. (Remember, I did this section first, before filling in the remainder of section two…. Kind of like being a Time Lord, isn’t it?….) This puts me in a quite dangerous place, to be honest, as I’m liable to do just about anything at this point to get a laugh, or, at minimum, a chortle…. Hell, I’d settle for an amused expression….

One should never trouble a rogue philosopher who has nothing to read or talk about; ’tis a pastime fraught with peril dire, or, dire peril, if you prefer…. If you couldn’t guess, today’s old-school variety pearl is going to concentrate on funny, with humorous being the primary, perhaps only, standard of inclusion…. Let’s see how my own sense of humor is doing, when joined with SB’s dB, shall we?….

“Christian life consists of faith and charity.” — Martin Luther

(What? Not funny? It is, too! Why, I damn near fell out of my chair, laughing so hard I damn-near spewed my last swallow of coffee!!….. Well, I think it’s funny, because, hey, do YOU know any Christians who live like that? Neither do I…..MOSTLY, the Christians I see spouting off about their piety or religion are better described as entitled, selfish, and bigoted, CERTAINLY not charitable toward those not of their “faith”…. I’d wager even Martin Luther had a hard time saying this with a straight face, except, he WAS German, and they’re known world-wide as a dour people in general, often found to be without a sense of humor at all…. Okay, I’m done now….)

“The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a necessity.” — Oscar Wilde

(A bit pessimistic, but perceptive….) (That’s all, I swear…)

“I love cats…they taste just like chicken.” — Bumper Sticker

“God bless Atheism.” — Smart Bee, being a smart ass…

“The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.” — Jane Wagner

“You can’t cheat an honest man; never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump.” — W. C. Fields

General Custer: “Look at all those f%*king Indians” — Famous people swearing…

That will do nicely, I think….. I don’t know about y’all, but, I chortled….
_____________________________

Having thus humiliated myself beyond redemption, I should probably just sign off and go…. In fact, you’re about to witness an unprecedented event, as I take my own advice, and do that…. See you tomorrow, if I don’t just give up altogether…. Don’t worry, that’s not bloody likely….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

If it were only REAL cheese!….

Posted on February 16, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Now I KNOW there’s a conspiracy! The US news media has been overcome by an act of sublimely random kindness, as evidenced by their recent refusal to publish news that will depress people, or make them feel blue…. I’m pretty sure they show all the symptoms of having been infected with pronoia, the condition wherein a person is convinced there is a conspiracy by the world to make them feel good; in reaction to this infection of uncommonly good sense, they have been forgoing the publication of news that is critical, or gross, or gory, or anything marginally depressive, in favor of articles about cancer survivors, heartwarming Olympic back stories, kid’s birthdays, or other such positive crap….

I mean, it’s okay by me, mostly…. I really don’t mind not having bad stuff to look at all the time…. But, hey, we DO need to keep at least a weather eye on our beloved leaders, to ensure they’re not doing anything we wouldn’t approve of (as if THAT ever mattered to them!….). If the journalists continually refuse to even look at that, well, that wouldn’t be a good policy to continue, as it would make things worse than they already are….. We all know what wearing rose colored glasses will do in the long run…. and it isn’t pretty…

So, if you have the opportunity, talk to your local journalist, and tell him, or her, that while you appreciate their recent turn toward a more positive outlook on life, one must acknowledge reality, and reality dictates we keep the BRC and the rest of the Asininnies under scrutiny at all times, lest they come to feel an even greater sense of entitlement, if that is possible…. We don’t want to encourage them any more than is necessary to keep them under control….

Would that we, the people had that much control over our politicians! But, as y’all have probably figured out by now, this is all parody, and has no real connection to how the world really works…. It’s more of a wish, a dream of how things SHOULD be, or maybe, of how the world COULD be, if enough of us, who know the real score, were able to wrest back the control the BRC has clutched in their bony fingers for the last 5000 years….

Unfortunately, those of us who realize what has happened, and would be willing to try to change things, are too few, and too scattered to be able to organize effectively (besides being a bunch of independent assholes, who mostly don’t play well with others….).

So, the world will keep on muddling along as it always has, with the haves taking from the have-nots, and we’ll all dance the mambo down the path to Hell, wearing our fashionable handbasket clothes…. Well, most folks will…. Me, and a lot of ffolkes I know, we’ll just keep on keepin’ on, until the Grim Reaper comes to personally escort us to the other side of the River Styx…. Until then…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“There has never been an intelligent person of the age of sixty who would consent to live his life over again. His or anyone else’s.” — Mark Twain — Letters from the Earth (1905-1909)
_____________________________

I could, no doubt, under different circumstances, go surfing around the web, to some of the off-the-main-track, alternative sites for news, or to some of the international news sites, such as in Europe, or elsewhere around the world, to pick out some material about which to rant…. The US has their fingers into more than enough situations all over the globe to supply me with something about which to rant…. In addition, I have enough chops now, as a writer, I think, to be able to pick out almost anything, and write a few hundred words in exposition…. Howsomever, which is a word I just made up, I think, (well, Spellchecker never heard of it, that’s for sure..), what I don’t have is the wherewithal to sit long enough to do so…. An intro, and a paragraph, and I’m nearly at my limit…

Hence, the presence here, in section one, of an old-school pearl, freshly picked, but, without any particular standards or parameters to guide SB in the presentation process…. That way, I’ll get a wider list from which to choose the best…. That’s the plan, anyway…. Let’s be about it, shall we? I’m getting stiff…. not in a good way….

Have you ever wondered why you always run out of breath when you throw up? Ah, but a man’s retch should exceed his gasp, else what’s a heaving for? — Smart Bee

(Sorry, really, I couldn’t help it…. This was Smart Bee’s first entry today, and it caught me unawares…. I almost blew coffee out my EARS, laughing so hard without warning, and actually did strain a muscle in my jaw in grinning so fast and wide….. What do you expect, with no standards?….)

“I would have made a good Pope.” — Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994)

(I had an almost identical reaction to this one, which came mere moments later…. Too funny!….)

“Then again, e=mc^2 may only be a local phenomenon.” — Einstein

(Oh, I suppose one must keep an open mind, and not assume too much….)

“In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” — Old Testament — Ecclesiastes i, 18

(See? See? What did I tell you? They want us to NOT think, to NOT question anything they tell us!…. And you thought I was kidding….. Okay, I’ll shush now….)

“Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.” — Carl Sandburg

“Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.” — Affirmation from The Book of Law, an ancient sacred text….

“Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Laugh, about it, shout about it when you’ve got to choose–whichever way you look at it you lose.” — Paul Simon

You may have noticed that this pearl has eight pearls in it, rather than the obligatory seven…. This is because I couldn’t choose between the last two, both of which make a good closing thought for this group…. though I do lean a bit toward the one that is sung over the one that merely speaks its piece…. You can make your own choice, or, do as I did, and just throw out the first one, which pretty much stands alone, anyway…. There you go….
_____________________________

Having, up to now, completely screwed this up, in terms of anything original, or even terribly interesting to think about, I think it’s best if I use my own poems, so as not to create any guilt by association for any other author, or poet…. Try to enjoy it anyway, ‘kay?….. Hell, y’know what? I’ll even make it a two-fer, by leading off with a haiku, written as part of the daily poetry challenge last year on WP, a world-wide writing challenge to write a poem a day for the month of April….. The poem below the haiku came another time, and speaks about my muse, with whom I maintain a passionate love/hate relationship….

Haiku II

An inner light glows
shining out of open eyes;
madness or wisdom?

~~ gigoid ~~

Dreaming of Calliope

La belle dame sans merci speaks aloud, through endless night,
torturing dreams, with powerful words and stentorian phrases.
Manifest visions, bathed in unbearable grace and light,
destroying all direction, standing lost, in unfathomable mazes.

Fate plays a part, one that will never face denial,
as fear and courage eternally vie for ascendancy.
Conflict becomes valid, gifting strength in open trial,
but honest emotion wears no costume so fancy.

Blood, sweat, and tears stroll on avenues of gold,
unlikely heroines heralding as in ancient lore;
Sharp, competent knives cut through tales untold,
eternally shifting reality past the naked shore.

Drifting toward origin, bereft of mandate or cause,
finished, nay, abandoned, tied with a figurative bow.
No simple gift from muses to give comfort or pause,
save that all we need to know, we already know…..

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

As noted above, my physical condition this morning isn’t compatible with long periods in the chair…. My time in the chair, of course, must be balanced with a caveat firmly in mind, to wit: I also cannot stand or walk around for very long, before having to sit, to stop the numbness that begins to affect my legs after a few minutes upright, with or without walking…. Even in a chair now, I have to consider my skeletal posture, to avoid pinching off some part of my spine or sciatic nerve, and getting numb…. SIGH…. some parts of getting old really SUCK, you know?….

Fortunately, I have now a backlog, consisting of a couple of million words of reasonably coherent, intelligent discussion, from which to pull something adequate for the purpose at hand, i.e., a politirant, for which we are overdue today (Well, I’m not counting the mild little fantasy rant in the intro….)…. Here, then, is another blast from last February, just prior to receiving the news of my impending award of Social Security benefits, which, apparently, kept my mind in a state of curmudgeonly agitation, if the Pearls from that period are any indication…..

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

From February of 2013:

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

The issue of gun control is currently a HOT BUTTON issue for a lot of people in this country…. (Sorry, didn’t mean to shout….) At least, it is for those who enjoy over-reacting to all the violence reported in the news….. They seem to forget that there are now significantly more than 7 billion people on this planet, with more crowding on every second; the increased violence we are seeing is a natural result of overpopulation, combined with stupidity, both of which exist in ample supply in our society…. The following is a piece I wrote in 2012, not long after one of the school shootings that occurred that year….. The piece, to my mind, pretty well summarizes my objections on this issue addressing the naive, foolish, unwarranted fear that has prompted the idiotic notion of repealing the Second Amendment altogether…. Here is my response to that idea….

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence… From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable…. The very atmosphere of firearms every- where restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” — George Washington (bogus?)(who cares? I don’t, it doesn’t make it any less true if it was said by someone else…..)

I hear a lot of people these days spouting off about gun control, which, to them, means that all guns should be outlawed, or, at minimum, made so difficult to acquire the normal person won’t bother. This is a viewpoint that I have never understood, because it makes a totally unwarranted assumption (more than one actually, but we’ll address one of the most critical….), i.e., guns cause violent behavior…..

This fallacy is generally accompanied by the unwarranted assumption that, if people couldn’t legally own them, unwanted episodes of random violence would stop. This is naive, and unreasonable, given that there is absolutely no evidence to support such a contention.

There is no evidence whatsoever that violence is NOT part of human nature; this is a psycho-social FACT of human nature, with so much evidence in support, it isn’t really a matter of debate. People have violent tendencies, and violence is the primary response of a great many people who have never learned, or had reason to learn, how to use their reason to control their emotions.

Though I’ve never owned or carried a gun, I am a firm believer in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, in its most literal sense. Without the right to bear arms in our own defense, we, as citizens, would be at the mercy of whomever was in office at the time, and would have no recourse at all to any redress of grievance against those officials, since they could not be forced to comply with law.

I do NOT trust any elected official to act in MY best interests; human nature also decrees that they will act in their OWN interests first, with no compulsion to even consider anything else. Making it a law that only police and government lackeys could legally be armed is a sure way to guarantee that the average citizen would be at the mercy of these so-called leaders, mercy being a quality that they have never heretofore demonstrated in any fashion.

As I said, I don’t own or carry guns, yet…. For much of my life, I’ve trained myself to be dangerous without the use of them, and feel no fear that I cannot deal with an armed man to my benefit; this is simply because it is the person holding the gun that is the danger, not the gun itself. Speed, power, and accuracy are the key elements to controlling a violent situation, along with some forethought and preparation, and the ability to keep a clear mind when under duress.

When a person is holding a gun, they feel ten feet tall, and invincible, but they remain human, and humans can be controlled with superior strategy and tactics. It does no good to hold a gun, when the target won’t sit still, or even remain visible….. and in these cases, that sense of being impervious becomes a liability to the gun-wielder, because, in reality, we are all nothing more than weak, slow, hairless apes, in comparison to most of the creatures on this planet. When dealing with a human trained to kill, the gun is only of use when the one holding it is of equal skill as the one at whom they intend to fire.

However, most Americans do not have this sort of skill set, nor the state of mind that makes it work. In the hands of a skilled warrior, a gun becomes a dangerous weapon indeed, for it will be used to achieve the warrior’s goals, as any weapon would, and not employed to merely bully others into doing what is desired, which is the usual use of these kinds of weapons in the hands of the ignorant and deceitful. Politicians, by the very nature of their sociopathy, do get rather deceitful in the pursuit of their self-centered ends. The desire to be in public office, to me, is a sure sign of a sick mind, since a healthy one has no need to assume power over others, being content to be in control of themselves.

At this point in the narrative, I feel I’m about to become a bit sarcastic, placing myself in jeopardy of becoming caustically so, even if I am justifiably directing my ire toward those shrill advocates of this kind of legal oppression, to wit: laws that attempt to legislate morality…. a pastime known to be fraught with proven danger…. So, I’ve unilaterally decided (Hey, if Barry O, the pOTUS can, I can, too!….) to stop this rant here, to avoid offending anyone unduly (Probably not why Barry does it…).

I agree with the need to tighten the regulations regarding assault weapons, in terms of keeping them out of the hands that have the most likelihood of misusing them, but, not NEARLY as far as is wanted by the fear-mongers. I think it is a good idea to keep guns out of the hands of children, (without proper adult supervision and training….), and people who have demonstrated the lack of emotional control needed by a free citizen of this country, to own and use a gun appropriately, i.e. the mentally ill, who are characterized by a lack of impulse control, or those who have previously shown their own lack of, or unwillingness to use, the necessary control, by having used guns in the commission of previous serious crimes…. None are good characteristics to see in someone with a gun in their hands….

But, once again, I must caution people to examine any laws that DO get passed, closely, paying attention to the details, to ensure they don’t go farther than is necessary, which the people in charge have a tendency to do; it’s part of their nature to attempt to slip stuff by the public…. I’ll try to wake up your precautionary instincts by asking this…..

If the insane are not to be allowed full rights as a citizen, who is it that gets to decide who is insane? The same issues of trust are present, or absent, in that idea, as in the assumption that the Beloved Ruling Class will act in our best interests….. They can be trusted to act in their own interests first, and we all would do well to keep that in mind….. I’ll ask y’all to think about this, ffolkes, and remember what we all know about what happens to those who ignore history…..

“1935 will go down in History! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead to the future!” — Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), prior to confiscating all civilian firearms

“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.” — Bob Dylan

Note from February, 2014: Just so it’s clear…. All of the above is true and complete to the best of my knowledge, accurately representing the opinion of gigoid the dubious, today, just as well as it did a year ago…. So be it, gigoid has spoken….

“I am not being paranoid. Paranoid is being afraid of things that aren’t there… trust me, I should know.” — Lauren Alexander
_____________________________

Well, this has been a productive morning, all thing considered, so, I’m going to trust my luck up to now, and beat a hasty retreat, before anything untoward has an opportunity to throw a metaphorical wrench into the works…. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

All quiet on the western omelet….

Posted on February 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I am never sure how one of these Pearls will turn out, due to several factors, the most telling of which is my refusal to plan them out from one day to the next; I’ve always insisted on using either fresh material, or material I created previously, from the archives here on WP, or my own backup copies here on Arthur’s hard drive (my computer’s name is Arthur, after the Dudley Moore character….Yes, it was whimsical….). Today’s Pearl may be the most different yet, as it will have been constructed under the most trying of conditions possible for me to imagine…

Yep, my coffee machine broke today…. This, of course, could have been a major disaster, which is, I’m sure, exactly what Murphy planned when he sabotaged the heating element…. (He tried to hide the fact of his chicanery… when I came out, and pushed the button to start the coffee maker, the light went on, just as if it were going to work…. but, three minutes later, no hot water, and an obviously dead machine….). However, having slept well, again, thanks to my new regime of night time medications that work like a charm, I didn’t panic at all…. I merely reached down, grabbed a sauce pan, heated water, and poured it through myself, then made a note to go by a store for a new machine later today….

It’s amazing how clear one’s head is when one actually sleeps during the night…. It has been so long since I had any consistent sleep, I’ve forgotten how it feels in the morning, which, to put it most simply, is wonderful…. clear-headed, and without unending waves of pain crashing through my awareness, demanding attention as soon as I am up, to begin the daily fight with gravity to remain upright…. What a bonus! There is pain, yes, but it is manageable, and responds well to the morning routine I’ve evolved…..

It is no doubt a mite confusing for y’all here today…. Y’all are probably as unused to my NOT complaining about my pain, or Murphy, or whatever issue has arisen upon my ascendancy from bed ( I’ll bet y’all are especially weary of hearing about my fears of the blank screen….), as I am unused to NOT having anything about which to whine…. It’s actually quite nice…. even fun…. Who the hell am I kidding? I’m boring myself to tears with all this nicey, nicey crap!….

Fuck it, I’m outta here, before I turn into a Pollyanna, and start writing love poems….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Great acts are made up of small deeds.” — Lao Tzu
_____________________________

I’ve got rants in me today; I could easily turn all this goodwill I’m experiencing today into angst. All I’d need to do is go look through some headlines, & voilá! Instant outrage…. But, my precursor mood isn’t quite right to get me there, at least not yet today (It IS only 0430….)…. So, I’m going with the newest format, combined with some random pearls, chosen to replace any long-winded comments from me, for a new effect…. We’ll see how it works, and possibly include it again in future Pearls…. for now, enjoy the craziness that is our society at large, in action….

First, two statements that are the perfect opening pearls for this set of headlines….

“God is an invention of Man. So the nature of God is only a shallow mystery. The deep mystery is the nature of Man.” — Nanrei Kobori, — late Abbot of the Temple of the Shining Dragon, Kyoto, Japan

“Is being an idiot like being high all the time?” — Janeanne Garofolo

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Ex-parks-ranger-sues-CHP-officer-over-use-of-force-5234039.php

“With tooth and nail.” — Du Bartas (1544-1590) — Divine Weekes and Workes, Second Day

Is there any worse temper displayed, (other than the fabled “woman scorned”, of course….) than that of one whose sense of entitlement has been usurped? If so, I’d like to know what it is, as it may be the absolute champion of all such egregiously stupid, and selfish attitudes that anyone can assume…. Yet, here we have, in this country, literally, MILLIONS of idiot assholes, such as the ones in this story, who harassed the officer who upheld the law at the expense of their peer, the speeding asshole…. Yes, there are millions of other, even stupider assholes manning the wheels of innumerable police cars in our cities, counties, and towns, driving around with their attitudes on full display…. When was the last time you observed an officer of the law making a legal turn signal?…. Yep…. I can’t remember, either….

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/02/13/comcast-net-neutrality/

“Accumulate mannequins now; spare parts will be in short supply on D-Day.” — Safety Tips for the Post-Nuclear Existence

This article is here just so I can say I included something about the SCM’s, whom I believe to be the MOST responsible parties when it comes to assigning blame for the condition of our planet…. This story shows just how little the common man has to say in just about anything in society….. Here we have two more faceless corporate entities joining forces, with the end result one of increasing the degree of control each of them has over US…. the Internet is the McGuffin in this picture; it’s what they WANT us to focus on…. Yes, they want to control the Internet, but that is merely because it is a tool that helps US to learn more about what they’re up to…. thus, stealing control of it ensures they maintain the death-grip they have on our slave collars….

Need more evidence? Here:

“Another doctor reports that in a recent issue of the *American Journal of Family Practice* fleas were called “hematophagous arthropod vectors.” — Smart Bee

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Study-says-fracking-releases-more-methane-than-5233422.php

“…it doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are — if it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.” — Richard P. Feynman

“Fracking releases more methane than previously thought”…… Oh? Really? No kidding? Well, there’s a surprise, eh? Another fucking asinine method for ripping resources from the planet’s crust, using previously untested technology, and it’s causing more damage than we realized? Now, who would have guessed that?

If you haven’t realized yet that these are angry, rhetorical questions, then, you may as well go read somewhere else, because you’re just not getting it, or not paying attention, ffolkes…. The assholes who run the world don’t CARE if they fuck up the planet…. They believe they’re immune to the results of what they do…. dying is for the little people, don’t y’know?….. Bah! This one makes me so angry, I can barely speak, and certainly can’t write very well, so I’ll just call them assholes one more time, and let it go at that…. Fucking assholes….

“Where are we going? And why am I in this damn handbasket?” — Smart Bee, at gigoid’s instigation….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Ron-Paul-starts-Snowden-clemency-petition-5235280.php

“I’m all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius.” — Leo Szilard

I’d never in my life have ever thought I’d agree on ANYTHING with this guy, but, well, there you go…. The reasoning behind our opinions here are, very likely, completely at odds, but, we seem to have reached the same conclusion, to wit: Eric Snowden is NOT a traitor, but, rather, a hero, and should be brought home in honor, not restraints…. In this particular instance, I don’t really CARE that I’m apparently getting into bed with one of the country’s most insane talking heads, a professional politician who turned his vocation into his legacy, making his son a hereditary politician, as well as a professional one. He got this one right, and he’s the first one to come out in public with this, in the face of the administration, so, in this at least, he has my support….

Yuck…. They were right when they said that politics makes for strange bedfellows…. And, now, I feel a little ill….
_____________________________

One of my email services sent this poem to me a few days ago, so I saved it for just an occasion such as this, when my spirit is in need of something along a classical line….. and, please, no relevance to current events, either….. I just want to get away for a moment or two…. This is a good one for that….. Enjoy!

A Crazed Girl

THAT crazed girl improvising her music.
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,

Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling She knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,
Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare
A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing
Heroically lost, heroically found.

No matter what disaster occurred
She stood in desperate music wound,
Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph
Where the bales and the baskets lay
No common intelligible sound
But sang, ‘O sea-starved, hungry sea.’

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

I was going to include an old-school pearl here, but, found this old politirant, from almost exactly a year ago, and thought it would make a good piece to demonstrate some of why it makes me ill to have to agree with Ron Paul, as noted above…. This will explain that delicacy quite well, I should think, and if not, well, you can always read it twice….

From 10/17/13:

First, a word from the Founding Fathers….

“I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.” — Thomas Jefferson

Now, a bit of insanity, on the identical subject, from a more modern source….

“By all accounts, though, an end seems near for the impasse that has once again exposed a government so divided that it sometimes borders on dysfunction. Though the House failed to muster sufficient support for a conservatives-only bill in the GOP-majority chamber on Tuesday, enough Republicans there seem likely to join House Democrats to approve a bipartisan version if it can be approved by the Senate and sent to them. ”

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Senators-closing-in-on-deal-to-reopen-government-4895884.php

I was reading the news last night, online, and the latest reports from the capitol say that a deal will get done prior to today’s deadline…. as it always does…. The difference in the deals that get done and those that don’t get done are relatively insignificant, in terms of real life; they only make a difference to those involved in whatever struggle is current. Nobody really understands any of it anyway… not the politicians who spout all the platitudes and figures, not the experts who supply the detailed analysis of those figures, and certainly not the public, who don’t even WANT to understand the complexities…. which is something the pundits know well, and, in fact, depend on to assist them in their endeavors…

“Morality is a private and costly luxury.” — Smart Bee

Sadly, this statement, though found without attribution, was made by an observer who knows human nature well, one who has obviously observed our history closely, drawing from those observations the only possible conclusion…. Society, as exemplified by its leaders, in both the secular and clerical arenas, loudly and boldly tout the twin concepts of morality and ethics, laying claim to them as if they were a coat left lying about. The noise they make in making these claims is generally quite noisome, to my ears, but, serves to cover their asses when later accused of impropriety; they can point to their strident statements as being proof of sincerity, though, logically, sincerity and morality have no real connection.

However, sad as the statement is, it is accurate, and never more so when looking at the budget crisis that we are witnessing today. The assholes who inhabit Congress, especially the conservatives in the House of Representatives, ( an oxymoron, if I’ve ever heard one…. ), DO NOT represent the people who elected them, not even close…. They lie to them, they steal from them, they follow their own agendas, but, they DON’T represent them…

How can they? They are not even in the same economic class as most of them, and never have been…. and, please, DON’T try to tell me you don’t think we have economic classes in this society…. Sorry, ffolkes, but American society is NOT classless, and never has been…. It has ALWAYS been separated into classes, based primarily on economic factors, with those who have more money having more influence and, more importantly, more rights, than those with less money…. The most cursory examination of history, of the world, and of this country, will show this as a fact of little possibility of dispute.

The average US income (which doesn’t give a completely accurate picture, but is useful to make the point….) is somewhere in the tens of thousands of dollars ($10, 001 to $99,999, somewhere between the two….). This translates into a basic demographic breakdown of being a very few people making more than they need to survive, as contrasted by a very large number of people who are struggling to even eat on a daily basis…. This accounts for 99% of the population, and about 1% of the actual money available to that 99%….

On the other side of that coin, we have a few thousand people, the remaining 1%, who have 99% of the money, all making more than a million dollars a year, on average…. Of this small percentage, we find that ALL of the Senators, about half of the House members, and the President, of course, are all part of that 1% of the population, a part that has never had to worry about where their next meal came from…. I wish that this were not true, but, these are facts, with the supporting evidence available to anyone with a library card, so they can go there to look up the numbers….

Of course, the fact that they are “more successful” in economic terms is only proof, in their minds, of their inherent right to make the decisions for everyone else in the country, even though they have no real grasp of the needs of those people. The fact of their disconnection from reality cannot penetrate their sense of entitlement, and they fully BELIEVE in their own mandate…. “Somehow, it never hurts to step back occasionally and ask yourself “Am I contributing to the solution of the problem or aiding in making a bigger problem?”…. this is a process, and a question, that never occurs to them…

This is why I call them delusional, and can honestly claim that I believe them to be clinically insane; a person so disconnected to what is real cannot be considered sane…. except, perhaps, in an insane society. Making assumptions about having the right to decide about the wants and needs of others is a sure sign that one has an unreasonable belief in their own importance to the universe, an assumption that can only be termed as a delusion. This kind of behavior is one society cannot afford to allow, because, if nothing else, these types of delusions are dangerous to the rest of us. Allowing these “crazies”, for wont of a more accurate term, to act out their fantasies in the real world tends to lead to trouble for more than just themselves…..

“Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he. But we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act v, Sc. 4

I’m down, and out of breath, from shouting into the wind, at the mountain… A futile task, at best, I know, but, what else can one do at 5 AM? Mountain moving is my specialty, after all…. The truth of the matter is, after two hours by Shrewsbury clock, I’m tired of shouting at the mountain; it’s hard work, to little effect. I suppose it’s all I can do, and that is why I do it…. It’s cheaper, and, in the long run, less troublesome to my spirit and karma, than going out, buying a gun, and making a list of targets…. Less chance of getting shot back at, too…

There comes a time, however, when even I must admit to the futility of this particular task, and grow a bit discouraged…. I’m just not the kind of person who can give up completely, though, so, I’ll be back to rant on this subject another time…. “They” are always out there doing something on which I can comment. For the time being, I’ll leave you with this final lament…

“The world has taken on a thickness of vulgarity that raises a spiritual man’s contempt to the violence of a passion.” — Charles Baudelaire

Notes from 2014, almost precisely four months after being written: How is one ALMOST precise? Hmm…. well, that’s for another time…. for now, all I can say is…. I resemble that remark!…..
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I find myself at loose ends…. It is now 0524, and I’ve been up, working on this Pearl for about an hour and a half, minus some time to deal with coffee production and consumption anomalies…. and, I’m done. I’ve done a new-style mini-headline-rant, included an archived rant, and found a great poem…. all that, and an intro, too!

But, it’s way too early…. If I stop now, there’s no telling what kind of mischief I can get into before the rest of the world in this longitude awakens…. Hell, it’s still pitch dark outside! Even in my reduced condition, I could go down the block, setting off car alarms, and be back inside in five minutes, none the worse for wear…. Then, everyone else would be up, and I could go back to bed, satisfied I had done my part to get the world started today…..

Instead, I’m going to take a break (necessary at this point…. No worries, I’ll leave the car alarms alone….), then come back and put together an old-school pearl, just to take up some time….. I’ll make it a good one, to soothe the hurt from having extra to read today….. Let’s go see what SB has been hiding from us, okay?….

“Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.” — St. Augustine

“I have never been so well pleased, as when I could shift power from my own, on the shoulders of others; nor have I ever been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Monsieur Destutt de Tracy, January 26, 1811, — reprinted in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, XIII, — ed. A. E. Bergh (1853)

— ‘Shit Happens’ according to…

Politician: It’s shit, but it’ll get me elected.
If you elect me, there will never again be shit.
Shit is bad for the economy.

“Mistakes are at the very base of human thought, embedded there, feeding the structure like root nodules. If we were not provided with the knack for being wrong, we could never get anything useful done. We think our way along by choosing between right and wrong alternatives, and the wrong choices have to be made as often as the right ones. We get along in life this way.” — Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail

“As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.” — William H. Blake (1757-1827)

“They do not understand how that which differs with itself is in agreement: harmony consists of opposing tension, like that of the lyre and the bow.” — Heraclitus

“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Speaker, 12/15/00

Well, once again, SB proves its merits…. I didn’t pay much attention as I gathered up these pearls, but, I think it came out pretty coherent, don’t you?…. Well, I guess it is if you have my own particular strange way of seeing patterns of thought in collected ideation…. or, whatever it is I’m doing when I go Pearling…. For that matter, who the fuck cares? It works for me, so, I just try to enjoy it, and don’t fret about how it works…..because I can’t always explain it, even to my own satisfaction…. 🙂
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Well…. the Pearls seem to be growing again…. I’ve broken 3000 words several times already this year, and this looks like another one that will go over that count, easily…. Not that I’m counting, or anything…. I just keep track of it as a way of judging how much crap is left in here to get rid of…. The more I can get onto the screen in the morning, the less I have to shovel out during the day, into the BBR, where it can cause real problems, if I’m not careful where I put it…. But, that’s the world’s lookout, not mine…. In the meantime, I think I’m done here, so….. see ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Specializing in palatable solutions….

Posted on February 11, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

As I entered the room where my computer resides, I heard a low moaning sound coming from just outside the back door…. I went to see what was there, and, lo! Lying on my back porch, bleeding copiously from a number of ugly looking wounds, was the most disreputable looking person I’d ever seen….

Since I didn’t want them bleeding all over the house, I grabbed some towels and bandaging materials, and went to work, attempting to stem the flow of blood as best I could, right where he lay on the wooden floor by the steps…. I could see immediately it was a futile task, as at least two of the wounds were pumping blood out, indicating an arterial cut, and I had no way to shut them off…

However, since he was merely a figment of my imagination, it was acceptable for me to just let him die where he lay…. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out any way to gracefully carry that paragraph’s story on any further, without getting into a lot more detail…. Since there are no details to be had, it being the off-the-cuff, improvisational piece it is, I thought it would be best to just abandon it after the first few lines, mainly because it wasn’t going anywhere interesting, but, partly because it was starting to become too real…. My imagination can be pretty scary at times, especially when I let if off leash like that….

Actually, it’s kind of hard to say WHAT might have come out of that one…. I don’t often lead with blood, but, when I do, it can turn in a lot of directions, that potentially can lead to fairly exotic results….. but, I digress…. From what, you ask? Well, hell, you had to ask, didn’t you? I have no clue…. You see, I’ve finally done it, and done it about as well as it could be done….

Again with the questions! Sheesh! Okay, I’ll spill…. Listen, when this gets out, you won’t tell anyone where it came from, will you? If the authorities ever find out for sure, I’ll be in deep do-do, and might even have to move to another country, where they don’t know me so well…. Okay, here’s the deal… I’m lost…. completely lost, with no clue at all as to how to find my way back anywhere near the realm of intelligent discourse….

Fortunately for all of us, our driver knows the way home, and will bring us there in due course… Meanwhile, I guess we’ll all have to just “go with the flow”, and try to enjoy the scenery that we pass through…. Hey, it could be worse…. I could be driving today, which would mean we would NEVER have gotten home, not today, anyway….. Since we WILL be getting home, I think I’ll go hide my face for a while, at least until called upon to pull the next section’s material out of my proverbial hat…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“The old proverb was now made good, “the mountain had brought forth a mouse.”” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Agesilaus II
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The following is a public service announcement, with which gigoid fully agrees…. I would liked to have put the banner up on my site, but, I couldn’t figure out how to do it using the WordPress widget they provided…. I’m a geek, but apparently not up to date on the way to do this task… But, this definitely needs to be spread around, and shared…. So, please do so…. I HAVE included a link to the main site for the protest, where you can go to sign the petition…. Please do that as well…. Let’s all join together to give the Asininnies the finger, and let them know we won’t stand for any fucking around with our Internet, or in our private lives….

“On Tuesday, February 11th, EFF (the Electronic Frontier Foundation) will join thousands of other websites in demanding an end to mass surveillance through an Internet-wide digital protest.

Visitors will be prompted to contact members of Congress or sign a global petition opposing mass surveillance with a banner that can be inserted into any site This is a critical moment in the NSA surveillance fight.

Worldwide outrage at NSA spying helped pressure the Obama administration into making a few key concessions toward reform. But Obama’s reform plan falls woefully short.

That’s why we’re turning the heat up on Congress to finish the job. Help us end NSA mass spying. Use your website to join the protest, and help us spread the word on February 11th through social media with the hashtag #StoptheNSA.”

https://thedaywefightback.org/?r=eff

This is an extra pearl today….. The obligatory three standard entries follow below….
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The article below was found yesterday, on 2/10/2014, on the SFGATE news site. I also saw other versions of the same story on Yahoo, NY Times, and just about every other major and minor news site I perused in my morning searches…. probably since it was an Associated Press article to begin with, I suppose. I’m including it today because carries some implications for all of us that, to me, are VERY, VERY disturbing…. I’ll let you read the article first, after which, I’ve put some short excerpts from the content of the article, to act as markers of what I wish to point out to you…. Take your time, but, please, come back for the discussion, which will follow the quoted text….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/US-suspect-possibly-targeted-for-drone-attack-5220092.php

“An American citizen who is a member of al-Qaida is actively planning attacks against Americans overseas, U.S. officials say, and the Obama administration is wrestling with whether to kill him with a drone strike and how to do so legally under its new stricter targeting policy issued last year. ”

“….confirmed that the Justice Department was working to build a case for the president to review and decide the man’s fate. ”

“The Justice Department, the Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment. ”

… a professor of international law at the University of Notre Dame, said there is a school of thought that the Obama administration’s drone policy is “lawless.” “Why should the Justice Department issue the execution warrant for anyone abroad? The fact that they give extra scrutiny only because he’s an American exacerbates this negative impression,”

Online: Policy and procedures for the use of force in counterterrorism operations outside the U.S.: http://1.usa.gov/1dy7de4

So…. My first question is, when did it become our national policy to kill individual citizens, including citizens of this country, anywhere in the world, if we decided they were guilty of a crime?…. Who decided, and when, that said decisions were to be left to a small set, of just a few individuals, all of whom have a heavy investment in guilty verdicts, and no investment in verdicts of innocence. No courts, no legislative bodies are involved; now, if a person is labeled as a terrorist, they can be “terminated with prejudice” at the hands of the CIA, an agency that, I had thought, was still SUPPOSEDLY constrained from the long-used, never-acknowledged employment of “wet work”, aka, assassination, as a means of protecting our national interests….

However, according to the information contained in this article, all that is now required, is for the president to define a person as a terrorist, whereupon Congress obligingly goes along with the charade, by docilely setting the legal classification of such terrorists as “enemy combatants”, which allows the president to act unilaterally, to wit: to kill them, using whatever tools are at hand in our clandestine arsenal of weaponry and/or technology, including the use of drones on American citizens, ostensibly overseas, not on US soil….. No, they wouldn’t do that, now, would they? Trust me, they say…. Now, where have we heard that phrase before?….

(Come to think of it, couldn’t that restriction be gotten around, by simply defining the soil on which an “enemy combatant” is standing as “enemy territory”, no matter where it is, in the US, or out?….. Thus, it would be legal to use drones to kill them, even in downtown Atlanta…. A bit paranoid, perhaps, but, how many legal arguments have you seen that are just as specious?….. Add to that, the obvious fact that the logic, pitiful as it may be, used in the administration’s current policy, is logic that matches this line of reasoning exactly…. Hence, it becomes clear, it is not a long stretch at all to imagine a time when we will be seeing drones pick off some poor sap in the bleachers at Fulton County Stadium….)

The point here, of course, that I’m dancing around so well with my sardonicism, is that we, as a nation, are now using the fine, ancient art of assassination, right out in the open, admitting to it publicly, with only the caveat that we should try to make it “legal” according to “US law and policies”, which, as might be guessed, are written by the very people who are using them as their legal defense…. That’s right, they’re not even hiding it anymore, so, let’s not miss the key operative word, and concept, here…. ASSASSINATION.

For this nation’s entire history, up to 9/11/01, when the American people were frightened to death because they got attacked on their own ground, we have never been considered a people that would use that particular political tool, (i.e., the deliberate murder of an individual, disguised as a political necessity), to pursue our national interests, either out in the open, or with discretion. It just doesn’t fit in with our self-proclaimed image as honest, fair-dealing, morally upright people, an image which, in a way, has always been the lynch pin of virtue that fit in the best with what my father taught me about honor, that which gave me a feeling of pride in this nation, as far as my meager nationalism allowed…. I liked the idea of this being an honorable country, that had no NEED to sink to that level of decadence, in order to feel safe in my own home….

“A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.” — Johann L. Uhland (1787-1862) — Speech, May 27, 1836

Then, along came (name withheld due to the probability of NSA surveillance…. There’s no need for them know ALL that I know, or think, now, is there?….), a former CIA wizard, to magically put together a spell to turn the minds of the average American into a quivering mass of fear, perfectly primed for manipulation, thus, easily fooled into accepting just about ANY sort of Bulls___t, if it made them feel safer….. All this, at the mere cost of about 3500 American lives on our own soil, a few buildings, and three airplanes….

That’s all it took for the shadowy masters of reality to be in position to destroy the US Bill of Rights completely, within 10 short years….. Plus, they got the bonus of using the incident to justify pursuing two wars in other countries, to the tune of another 20,000 lives on our part, along with a several hundred TRILLION dollar bill, all to be paid over time to the gun and war machine vendors, with whom we joined to fight those wars, at public expense…. What a bargain for them, eh?

They’ve done such a stellar job of this, they now are able to have their most clandestine crimes discussed in full public view (such as the assassination of a US citizen, by the government, without any oversight…. According to this article, that is an event which, please note, first took place over five years ago…. It is only now being discussed because they want to do it again…..

Since they, too, are human, and subject to the Theory of Bozoid Tendencies, they screwed their own pooch… To appease the public, trying to spin the image machine one more time, they changed one of the rules they made up, which apparently messed up one of their blankets, the one that allowed them to cover up the obvious use of the drones…. But, nobody is making a lot of noise about any of this, are they?

“The Justice Department, the Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment. ”

Well, of course they did!…. Was the reporter who wrote this story really expecting them to comment on this? This is, so far, the only article I’ve seen on this subject, (or, for that matter, on ANY subject near to this issue, ever since Obama announced his ghostly {ghastly?} reforms…. ghostly because they’re not really there, are they?), even though it was covered on several networks….

I will point out to you at this point, none of them, media, supporters, or opponents of the idea of us using this ancient political tool, are making any outcry, or expressing anything other than straight news reporting, just as if the issue. as to whether or not to use assassination as part of our national bag of tricks. had already been settled…. Well, it has, hasn’t it? Yep, and they did it while you were watching, in plain sight, which patently indicates, to them, they do so with your tacit approval…..

I don’t know about y’all, but, the draconian nature of this pOTUS’s administration, with its smiling assurances of innocence on one hand, and obvious proof of evil intent on the other, is VERY disturbing to me…. and, I cannot but feel that my own reputation has been sullied by my government’s actions, both out in the world at large, and at home, in its manipulation of, and LYING to, its own citizenry…..

If you need proof, (my kind of person!) from another direction, if not a different news source, no worries…. there’s plenty of it….. Here is yet another article that addresses evidence of more obvious prevarication on the part of this president…. Read the article at this link, to see how another issue has received the old left hand/right hand treatment from Barry…. http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Obama-resists-using-his-power-to-ease-marijuana-5219705.php

Again, I don’t know about y’all, but, it kinda makes me feel….. I don’t know…. patriotically seditious? Yeah, that one….. and pissed off, too, that the assholes would think they can get away with trying to feed me this bullshite…. (Patriotic sedition is that condition that can best be stated as, “Let’s throw the lying bastards out!”….)

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” — Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) — Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
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Once again, today’s effort is all fresh material, so, rather than spend time trying to find someone else’s work that fits in with my theme today, here is one of my own poems, which I KNOW will fall seamlessly in with the parade of nonsense that is today’s Pearl….

Random Exposure

If I only knew what I was doing here,
I could give others a clue.
Reality gets stranger every year,
and I’m not sure what I should do.

Singing happy old tunes, in an old, gravely voice,
gives me a lot of pleasure.
I’m only glad I can still make a choice,
to look at life, to take its measure.

Memorable moments keep passing by
gilded, framed in precious emotion.
I never have to ask anyone why,
no need for a stronger potion.

Everything in life is clear, to me
there is no doubt, no misunderstanding.
We’re all good, as you can see,
members of Life, in good standing.

Life can be hard, or it can be great fun;
the right path is there for each of us to take.
That choice is often a difficult one;
pay close attention to the choice you make.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Although I wrote the rant in section one yesterday, I went over it, editing and altering style points, so, it’s all quite fresh…. Originally, I’d planned to include here an older politirant, on gun control, from an archived Pearl…. but, then, the rant above grabbed me by the throat, made me sit down at the computer, and wouldn’t let me up until I had vented…..

So, rather than subject y’all to another 1500 words of my outrage, no matter how appropriately timed or well-written, we’ll go old-school, with parameters designed to help all of us find a bit of fun…. Hitting the funny bone… you know, that little spot on your elbow… hitting it in reality, hurts like hell….. but, when we strike it sharply on a corner of our imagination, the sharp pain could be considered as equivalent to electric joy….

Hmm…. I suppose, as a metaphor, or a euphemism, or even as a graphic example, that image leaves a bit to be desired…. Oh well, I’m sure Smart Bee can come up with enough distracting pieces of virtual wisdom to satisfy the most stringent appetite for coherency and grace…. or, not…. We’ll see, won’t we?….

“If only there were some indication the universe was doing it on purpose” — Smart Bee

“…[T]he lesson [comic books] taught children- or this child, at any rate- was perhaps the unintentionally radical truth that exceptionality was the greatest and most heroic of values; that those who were unlike the crowd were to be treasured the most lovingly; and that this exceptionality was a treasure so great that it had to be concealed, in ordinary life, beneath what the comic books called a ‘secret identity’.” — Salman Rushdie

“Gird your grid for a big one!” — random Bozo on the Bus

“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.” — Will Rogers

I’m sorry…. Smart Bee has done it at last….. This group of pearls is SO esoteric, I can see no possible way to make it comprehensible in the time allowed… Oh, the pearls are hefty enough, but, they’re all so damn unconnected on the surface… Oh well, we’ll go with my instincts, which leads me to these final three pieces of wisdom that complement each other in a pretty obvious fashion…. I’m pretty sure that after reading all three, and assimilating the implications, you’ll agree with the thought that went through my head, to wit: “Hmm… I’m sensing a theme here….”

“God has no religion.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“Thou art God.” — Michael Valentine Smith – from Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert A. Heinlein

“Thou art God, you know. Let’s do Lunch.” — gigoid, Peruaosophy, Axiom # 3

Well, there you have it, ffolkes…. I suppose I should apologize for this one, but, I just can’t…. It’s too damn cute….
_____________________________

Oops, poem…. be right back….. Well…. It’s done, and I’m glad, even though it makes me a bit sad…. You see, this one is special…. It’s…. it’s…. well, it’s actually PRETTY DECENT!!

Now, I know, you’ll think me egotistical, and, you may be right, but, you know what… I had fun, and, if you’ve got a few functioning grey cells operating in there, you will, too…. See ya tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Seven reasons to stop gargling, now….

Posted on February 9, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Intros! We got your intros here! Get ’em while they’re HOT!…..

Hey, boy! Over here!….. Thanks….

Today, I decided to forgo the usual struggle for introductory material, and move right ahead to purchasing one from the local vendor, who hawks them on the corner every day…. I know the boy well; his mother is ill, and he works all the time to support his seven little brothers and sisters…. I like to help him out because, hey, he’s only five, and it must be tough to bed the eldest at his tender age; it’s pretty young to have to be responsible for the whole family….

What’s that? Oh, the number of siblings? Oh, yeah, I guess that could be confusing, couldn’t it…. No worries, it’s not as strange as it sounds…. Yes, he has seven siblings, and he’s the oldest, at five…. That’s two sets of triplets (one boys, one girls…) and one last little girl, to even out the score in the family…. all born about 13 months apart, before the father was killed in an accident at work…. (He fell into a vat of boiling hot caramel at the Mars factory….) The insurance, while almost adequate, isn’t enough to make it comfortable for them, so he works, as any good son would do for his family… He can use all the help he can get, so I like to pick up one of their intro’s (the triplet girls write them….), even if I don’t use it right away, like today….

Damn! You know what I just did, right? I’m writing an intro, about another intro, talking about intros, while holding on to an intro that was written by innocent hands….. This, with its insidiously tenuous connection to reality could be dangerous to the health and well-being of the space/time continuum as we know it…. To stretch the boundaries of reality to such an extent can cause unknown stress fractures to appear in strange places, and at strange times….. It can cause reality to become unstable, at best, or, if left to itself too long, can cause actual holes in the fabric of time and space, through which nasty creatures from other dimensions can creep over into ours, and cause a lot of problems until they’re caught and sent home…. Hey, what did YOU think those cats were staring at over in the corner?….

Since we don’t want any of that to happen today (I’m short on funds, and can’t afford the charges from the Green Lantern League to put things right after such an episode…. Blast it, I remember when superheros would work for free!….) But, nonetheless, that’s how we’ll have to go today, because the old bank account isn’t going to stand up to that kind of stress…. What we’ll do now is a bit hard to define, because, in these situations, we have to fall back on an emergency method to get us out of here without further damage…. We’ll go with #4, which, in spite of its brevity, and lack of style, continues to work the best…. but, then, Denial has always been one of mankind’s favorite tools….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 19
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Today’s Pearl, I’m thinking, is one that will someday be destined to be known as “that one”….. So be it….. I’m using an older religirant in section 3 today, because I can, and because I like it…. So, this section, naturally, will be an old-school pearl, but not a random harlequin…. Smart Bee keeps giving me good pearls about the BRC and their ilk, so, we’ll go with what we’re given, this time….

“Still one more thing, fellow citizens: a wise and frugal government, which shall refrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), inaugural address, 1801

“The white man is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land what he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy. Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.” — Chief Seattle in a letter to President Franklin Pierce in 1855

“The first measure of a free society is *not* that its government performs the will of the majority. We had that in 1930s Germany and in the South until the ’60s. The *first* measure of a free society is that its government protects the just freedoms of its minorities. The *majority* is quite capable of protecting itself.” — Jim Warren

“What good is it to me, after all, if there is an authority always busy to see to the tranquil enjoyment of my pleasures and going ahead to brush all dangers away from my path without giving me even the trouble to think about it, if that authority, which protects me from the smallest thorns on my journey, is also the absolute master of my liberty and of my life?” — Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), Democracy in America

“A government solution to a problem is always followed by the creation of at least two additional problems, either of which was worse than the original problem which the government set out to solve.” — Smart Bee

“And, after all, it is the 200th anniversary of the presidency. That’s something to celebrate. From George to George — in only 200 years, we’ve gone from “I cannot tell a lie” to “I cannot tell.” — A. Whitney Brown, “Weekend Update,” Saturday Night Live

“Give me the mind of a child of 4 and he’ll be mine for life” — Adolf Hitler
_____________________________

Since the two other sections are somewhat somber in nature, I thought a bit of whimsy would go over well….. Enjoy!….

There Once Was A Fellow Named Nash – A Limerick Ode To Ogden Nash

There once was a fellow named Nash
He could write funny poems in a flash
But some of the time
The truth of the rhyme
Could give the poor subject a rash!

~~ Randy Imwalle ~~

I Do, I Will, I Have

How wise I am to have instructed the butler
to instruct the first footman to instruct the second
footman to instruct the doorman to order my carriage;
I am about to volunteer a definition of marriage.

Just as I know that there are two Hagens, Walter and Copen,
I know that marriage is a legal and religious alliance entered
into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut and a
woman who can’t sleep with the window open.

Moreover, just as I am unsure of the difference between
flora and fauna and flotsam and jetsam,
I am quite sure that marriage is the alliance of two people
one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other never forgetsam,

And he refuses to believe there is a leak in the water pipe or
the gas pipe and she is convinced she is about to asphyxiate or drown,
And she says Quick get up and get my hairbrushes off the
windowsill, it’s raining in, and he replies Oh they’re all right, it’s only raining straight down.

That is why marriage is so much more interesting than divorce,
Because it’s the only known example of the happy meeting of
the immovable object and the irresistible force.
So I hope husbands and wives will continue to debate and
combat over everything debatable and combatable,
Because I believe a little incompatibility is the spice of life, particularly if he has income and she is pattable.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

_____________________________

This is a pearl from February of 2013:

“The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just keep your fucking mouth shut and hadn’t asked any questions.” — Frank Zappa Playboy Interview, April 1993

Hmm…. Frank’s take on matters are such that I generally find myself in complete agreement with what he says. Here, he has again put his finger on one of the more obvious facets of Christianity, one that defies all logical explanation in lieu of subservient belief, to wit: faith vs. knowledge, and the Christian’s unfortunate tendency to embrace the former, without any appeal to the latter….. To my way of thinking, that is not only foolish, but cowardly….. but, perhaps, that’s just me….

The fruit of the tree of knowledge gives mankind the go-ahead to use the brain with which we were furnished at birth; the preachers would have us abrogate that use, having us, instead, give over all our power of belief into the hands of the faithful, who, naturally, have only our best interests at heart….. Sure they do…. NOT. I’m sorry, but, no matter how many times these folks say so, I am not going to accept that they know better than I what is best for me…. Nope, not even if there were twenty Bibles out there, all proclaiming how true they are…. Oh wait, there are twenty of them, aren’t there?…. Oh, well, you know what I meant….

Why do people fall for this? I cannot understand how people, who are normally reasonably intelligent, will, by conscious choice, bury their heads in the sand to buy into this, without ever taking even one moment to examine any of it for truth, or even logical assumption. Is there some kind of mind-control drug in that incense? Maybe in the sacramental wine…. Whatever it is, it turns normally competent, intelligent people into mindless slaves, and does so with their complete agreement and approval….. To my mind, it is one of history’s saddest, most incomprehensible features, when I look at just how easily people fall for such egregious, and so obviously self-serving idiocy, as most of the dogmatic proclamations of the major religions tend to offer up.

“I hope I never get so old I get religious.” — Ingmar Bergman

I am compelled to add, “Me, too!” to this sentiment…. In the recent past, I’ve been taking a lot of shots at religions, and need to make clear that I do not hate Christians, or Buddhists, or Muslims, or the followers of any religion. I think they are being silly, deliberately and evilly so, at worst, or at best, misguidedly so, but I don’t hate, or fear them, as is the case on their part whenever they consider me, or my criticisms of their beliefs. I don’t hold that against them, either, as it is logically consistent for them to do so, given the limitations of their dogmatic position. Since, however, the fervor with which they will often defend their position can reach a rather fevered pitch, I tend to treat many of them like a stinging insect, so I will move, and speak, slowly and carefully, so as not to frighten them more than they already are….

Ethical and moral behavior is not confined to those who follow the precepts of one religion or another, despite what any of the proponents of those religions will try to tell you. In fact, if you look closely, the number of folks who are believers have a much higher percentage of failure in that area than do the non-believers, which only makes sense…. The believers all have a sense of entitlement that gives them the idea that the rules of behavior don’t always apply to them, in terms of how they treat people who are not of the same faith, so, to those who are not of their own sect, they don’t bother being truthful, or honest, or ethical, as those people don’t count, in their eyes. People who make their own moral codes tend to follow them, and are much more tolerant of those who do not share their beliefs.

Basic human nature dictates these responses in people; thus, one can see how dangerous it is to remain ignorant, in the Biblical sense. Those who choose to buy into the myth of the Garden of Eden, giving up all their personal independence of mind for the comfort and safety of dogma, will always fail to act according to their own morality much of the time, generally acting, instead, out of their sense of entitlement, and the belief that all of their sins will be forgiven, merely by the act of confessing them. Only those who consciously choose their moral code have the courage to act it out, it seems, except for those few people who actually try to live according to the morality that is espoused, and is seldom embraced by their less ethical peers.

Having the strength of mind to make one’s own moral code also implies the courage to act it out…. This is why I choose to deny the dogma I’ve been exposed to all my life, as being illogical, and, ultimately, immoral…. It makes more sense to me to make my own decisions on such matters, and tell the busybodies who assume they know best for all to go jump in a lake…. Even better, just shut the hell up, and get out of the way, so the rest of us can get something relevant done, without having to put up with all the nonsense from that quarter….

“What is a church? Our honest sexton tells, ‘Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells.” — Crabbe

Note from 2014: Since the validity of the above remains strong, I leave you with the following pearl, to finish off this discussion with the proper tone of accusation, and indictment, of those guilty of this sort of crime against humanity….

“The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breeds pride and arrogance.” — Eric Hoffer
_____________________________

“The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer mind their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.” — Assyrian Stone Tablet, c.2800BC

4814 years….. That’s how long it has been since that tablet was written…. One wonders, at times, just how much credence there is to the idea that strong forces in history will somehow have been felt long before they came to fruition…. How else to explain the proven cases of accurate precognition that are found throughout our species’ short span on Earth? This tablet could have been printed yesterday, and would be no less valid than it was over 4500 years ago….. That is, to me, pretty damn scary, and not terribly encouraging…. Of course, I’m a worry-wart, so…. Y’all stay cool, ffolkes, & I’ll see you tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

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

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