Ffolkes,
— Albert Camus
It’s really too bad I’m so late today; getting the little bit of extra sleep always does me good, but, then, upon arising, I must deal with the White Rabbit syndrome, which always afflicts me on these mornings…. My sense of duty is so strong, even letting myself get some extra Z’s will cause my inner critic to sound off, trying to flip me over into guilt, just because I had a tough day yesterday, and paid the price in sleep….. Oh well, nothing much I can do about either end of that, so, we’ll just pretend it isn’t happening at all, and go on to bigger & better things….. provided, of course, we can find anything like that around here….
It is now the usual time I post, and I’m just getting started; haven’t even been in to complete the day’s routines that come prior to starting. I hate to break routine like this, but, my skeleton insisted, so, what is done is done…. However, since I am late, I’ll try to keep this intro out of the usual ranting mode I fall into…. It shouldn’t be too hard, my mind is relatively blank this morning, anyway…. In fact, it’s so empty, maybe I’ll just forgo any sort of intro at all, and…. no, wait, too late, we’re already this far in…. Everything else would fall over in a heap, if I leave this right now…. gotta remember those weight-bearing walls stuff; the intro does more than just decorate the top of the page, y’know….
I realized, while completing some of this routine, I feel as if my life is on a cusp, that the decisions and directions I choose now will lead to a new, and important time in my life, and have been feeling so for some time now…. I’m not sure exactly what the feeling means, in terms of how to react, but, I know that caution is called for; I’m old enough to be a little leery of how snap decisions can affect us later in our lives…. But, I’ve always been one who tries to live like a tiger, who explores the world without fear, rather than a turtle, who remains whole, and alive, by pulling in their head, and ignoring the world, when danger threatens….
That said, I’m looking forward to the future, which, given my age, my understanding of reality, and my absolute agreement with what Camus said in today’s opening lines, is somewhat of a surprise…. There isn’t a lot of good news out there regarding our future; I suppose that goes to show, with us humans, our own little slice of reality is what concerns us the most, and, in the final analysis, the world’s events are less important to us, than those that affect us directly…..
That, my friends, is human nature, which, though we cannot change it to any real extent, we can learn to live with it, and adjust the way we allow that to control our decisions…. Right action doesn’t always, in fact, seldom, run parallel to what is true in reality; often, we must act in ways that go against the grain, if only to maintain our own dignity, and self-respect…
All of that being said, to little purpose beyond organizing my own thoughts, I see we’ve again come far enough to call this an intro, and get on with the rest of the daily mess…. I’m going to show some unusual flexibility in this regard, and go along with that assessment, thus freeing us to get on with it, such as we may…. Since we are in the exact position needed for this extraction, I’ll just throw this switch right here, and we’ll be gone, onward….
Shall we Pearl?….
“Wherever I go, there I am, Pooh mused.” — Found in Smart Bee, unattributed; possibly from “The Tao of Pooh”, in which we see Pooh as a metaphorical manifestation of the concept of the Uncarved Block, an elemental source of truth through simplicity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If you’re a circus clown, and you have a dog that you use in your act, I don’t think it’s a good idea to also dress the dog up like a clown, because people
see that and they think, “Forgive me, but that’s just too much.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey
“The Freedom Tower was meant to inspire patriotism and instead embodies the darker sides of nationalism,” Stipe wrote. “The 9/11 attacks and the Bush administration’s response, buoyed by the media, and our shock at having finally been direct victims of terrorism, paved the way for a whole new take on ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ There was no longer any need to explain or publicly debate militaristic power, or the police state mindset. To do so was to be the opposite of a patriot.” — Michael Stipe, REM frontman, and NYC resident, who, on 9/11, lived just a few blocks from Ground Zero….
My first impression, upon reading the first few paragraphs of this article in Rolling Stone, was one of dejá vu, for every single thing Mr. Stipe is quoted as saying were thoughts that went through my head, at the time of which he is speaking, ie. the after-effects, and after-events of that day’s infamy….. He, too, as I do, holds the media at fault for egregiously fanning the flames of ignorance and fear, labeling all those who attempted to formulate a reasoned response to any, or all of it as being unpatriotic, even, treasonous….
The whole “French” thing that happened soon after the attacks, when France showed a moment of rationality before committing to war, is a perfect example of how both the media and the government were complicit in making things worse than they already were, deliberately using this to modify pubic opinion, harping on the public’s fear and anger, thus manipulating them into adopting the attitudes they needed, in order to accomplish their goals…. which is, as is patently obvious, the tens of BILLIONS of dollars that have, since that time, poured into the coffers of the arms dealers, all over the world…..
If anyone out there believes that isn’t true, well, ffolkes, come on down & say so; make sure you bring some evidence ffolkes can see, and feel, and touch…. In short, REAL evidence, not opinions… These are opinions, backed by such evidence, which can be found in any news distribution site…. I predict nobody will do so, because, as they know, there is no evidence to support their position….
In the 13 years since that day, the only people in the world who have benefited, in any way, from any of the subsequent events in the world, have been those who make munitions, arms, and the other equipment/tools necessary to the waging of a modern war…. Everybody else is in worse shape, and we are ALL that much closer to the END GAME, coming in a much nearer future than anyone will admit, the day when Mama Gaia comes to collect the bill for our foolishness, having previously ignored all her warnings of our impending EVICTION from Earth….
Every act taken by this government, along with every other government around the world, along with the media, and any other of those who ostensibly are the leaders, the movers and shakers of society, since 9/11/01, has moved the date of our eviction closer, until now, it is so close, people are having to actively adopt positions of complete denial, in order to maintain their focus on the living their lives, so they too, can be one of the rich elite, who, in spite of what they believe, are also going to die, right along with the rest of us….
Okay, now that I’ve depressed myself, and anyone who read that…. let’s have a few pearls, to try to shake off the blues…. or, to at least, learn how to sing them with feeling…. Okay, I know what should do the trick…. All it will take is to set a specific parameter, and we’ll see some gems, that may even be pretty enough to take our minds off the coming horrors, as people begin to realize just what we’ve done to ourselves…. The “mash up” as I believe the Brits call it, that is coming to ALL of us here on Earth, is going to be ugly, and harsh, and no fun, at all…. Sorry, ffolkes, but, the evidence is all there, and, it doesn’t lie…
“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” — Mark Twain
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for good people to remain silent.” — Thomas Jefferson
“No public man can be just a little crooked.” — Herbert Hoover
“I judge people by what is in their hearts–not by the color of their scales.” — overheard in a bar on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.
“In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds – that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.” — Justice Robert H. Jackson
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man except one thing: the last of the human freedoms— to choose one`s own attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Victor Frankl
“It was a JOKE!! Get it?? I was receiving messages from DAVID LETTERMAN!! YOW!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
Note: the second quote in the above pearl, from Tom Jefferson, is one I’ve used before; this time it was found as part of an excellent blog post by another blogger, whom I consider a friend, also a published author, thanks to the help of HER (and my) friend, and blogger extraordinaire, Red Dwyer, whom you can find at her own site, below…. Thanks, Lizzie, for the reminder…
You can find that post, a good one, by Lizzie C, here: http://runningnakedwithscissors.com/2014/09/12/slo-patriotism-respect/#comment-11461
Red’s site, where you’ll always find a good post, can be found here: http://mommasmoneymatters.com/heart-vs-mind-4/comment-page-1/#comment-32626
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In keeping with my new policy to seek brevity for these Pearls, and pearls, here is a short, very powerful poem, from a gritty realist from the 20th century, who, as a street poet, is, in my mind, one of the most powerful of social critics we have….
the best often die by their own hand
just to get away,
and those left behind
can never quite understand
why anybody
would ever want to
get away
from
them
~~ Charles Bukowski ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While sitting at the computer yesterday, (or. it may have been that Tuesday, back in ’98…. Ah well, no matter….), I brought up Smart Bee, to look for a quote to go with the picture for the day…. SB was in a mood, for sure; if I didn’t know better, I would have thought he’d been watching the public channel of the legislature again, and saw something that upset its sensibilities somehow…. but, the TV is not working, so, it had to be something else….
Regardless of the cause, in a very short burst, the following pearls came sliding out, requiring only organization into the most effective order, which is my job…. That’s done now, so, here they are, for your delectation…. Oh, yeah, I think the target, one of the usual suspects, as well as the parameters used to pick the oysters, will be obvious before too long…. Especially since it’s the same target we aimed for in section one, above….
“Lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions.” — Tacitus (55?-120?)
An Elementary-School student’s comment on politics: Some of our presidents never did much else and are famous only because they became president. — Smart Bee
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” — H.L. Mencken, “Little Book in C major”, 1916
BATTLE, n. A method of untying with the teeth of a political knot that would not yield to the tongue. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
“America may be unique in being a country which has leapt from barbarism to decadence without touching civilization.” — John O’Hara
“Giving power and money to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” — P.J. O’Rourke, former Gulf War correspondent, summing up what he learned during two years of research on how our government functions.
“Old men are dangerous; it does not matter to them what is going to happen to the world.” — George Bernard Shaw
On that final note, allow me to remind you the average age of a Senator in the US is…. well, it’s OLD; at least 70, if not higher, I’d wager…. Not only are those in charge of this nation dangerous men, as noted by Shaw, but, as millionaires (every one of them but, I think, two….), they are completely disconnected from the people whose interests they ostensibly serve….
In plain and simple truth, they are old, rich, white men, for the most part, whose only investment is in service to their OWN interests, first, and foremost…. Seriously, ffolkes, anyone who believes differently is clinically delusional, and would do well to think seriously about taking medication to help with that…. They have some now that work fairly well….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘Tis fortunate, indeed, most of this was completed prior to getting up today; otherwise I’d have still been here at lunch time…. It’s done, though, and that’s the key point, so, I’m outta here, on a mission to get this posted…. See y’all tomorrow ffolkes, and keep your ears open for possible changes around here, if only in my personal location…. I’m getting itchy feet….
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid, the dubious
gigoid 