Tag Archives: Winnie the Pooh

Look! It’s a black-frocked bible-thumper, moulting in the road!….

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Ffolkes,

A touch of research will, I hope, lead me to a greater understanding of what it is I am doing here today, or, for that matter, any day….. (Have you noticed the dots? Apparently, the number of them says something about where my head is headed, so to speak…. I just noticed…. That says something, too, I suppose, about my head….) Where did I…?…. Ah, okay… So, it turns out that much, or, even most, of what I do here is under the aegis of Clio. I wasn’t sure which of the nine muses was my own, so I went to look them up, and she is the one who seems to be most closely allied to what I usually end up writing….

She is the muse of History, as opposed to those of Epic Poetry, Love Poetry, Song or Elegiac Poetry, Tragedy (though we do get rather sad at times…. Sometimes, what I write could be construed as such, I suppose…. Or, I reckon the fact that I write at all could be mis-construed as such….), Hymns (none of that here, thank you…), Dance, Astronomy, (Urania, to whom I occasionally appeal), and, my favorite, even though I can’t always find her, Thalia, the muse of Comedy….

None of this can, or should, be considered as essential material; it’s just what occurred to me as I sat down to write today…. In truth, it’s put me rather behind schedule, as I’ve spent a good three-quarters of an hour researching and reading about the muses, when I could have been writing… Oh well, considering what usually falls out of my head when I write first thing, without some kind of mental warm-up, this is probably a good thing, and may even show a positive effect on the Pearl as a whole. It certainly can’t hurt, can it?….

Like all would-be perfectionists, I’m my own harshest critic, inside my head, where nobody can hear me yelling at myself (detracts from the image, don’t y’know, of a calm, composed personality, in harmony with all he sees…. Yep, that’s me alright….. on alternate universe days…. ). Nonetheless for all that, I’m thinking that doing research first thing is a better way to give myself a bit of a warm-up, before jumping right onto the keyboard to start emptying out the detritus laying around my mind after the night’s storms…. If nothing else, it can give me something distracting from my usual train of thought, which, of late, has been hijacked regularly into ranting about the idiots in Washington, before I’m even fully awake….

That, in and of itself, is probably a good thing; my sticks aren’t quite as sharply pointed when I start writing at the same time as I’m consuming my initial hits of coffee. There’s more chance of the target’s survival in that case, which allows me to take more shots at them later….. more fun for me, and better behavioral modification for them, hopefully….. And, if not, well, we can always just shoot them… Oh, wait, that’s THEIR solution to issues, not mine… sorry, forgot…. got confused as to which side of the issue I was on….

Oh, look! Isn’t that an intro? Why, yes, yes, I believe it is…. If not, it’s at least long enough for one, and silly enough for three of them, considering how many different subjects we wandered through before getting here…. I’m astonished that none of it got on our clothing; that particular group of subjects can get splashy, and will leave stains, if not treated instantly. If it ever does, there are soapy wipes in the hidden compartment in the arm of your seat…. Just push the big red button on the window, and the arm of your seat will….

WAIT! DON’T DO THAT! That’s the wrong button; if you push that, the pilot will immediately throw us into a spin, heading for the nearest landing point; THAT button is the cabin-fire button…. I meant to say, pull the little purple and pink ring on the OTHER arm of your seat, to find the arm that goes up, to reveal the soapy wipes…. Whew! Sorry, almost screwed the pooch big time…. Fortunately for all of us, this is all fictional, and no real danger was ever present…. No, really, none….

Shall we Pearl?….

“If tin whistles are made of tin, what are foghorns made of?” — Croll’s Query
_____________________________

“I love the Constitution and government of this land, but I hate the damned rascals that administer the government.” — Brigham Young

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_03/017456.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/020014.php

To this pair of articles, which provide incontrovertible proof of the ignorance rampant among the Republican members of the House of Representatives, (as of some years ago, admittedly, but, pal Joey is still in the House….), I will also add the link below, which, unlike the first two, was ripped from the CURRENT crop of articles online about the government shutdown we are witnessing, courtesy of assholes who think they’re better than everyone else…. This one is about the ostensible leader of those idiots, who also, unfortunately, also happens to be the Speaker of the House, a very dangerous position in which to see a man with no morality, other than his own, and no brain cells that continue to work in tandem with any others that may remain, in the empty shell of his mind….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Boehner-to-Obama-No-debt-hike-without-concessions-4873299.php

“Some Republicans, such as Rep. Steve King of Iowa, dismiss the warnings about a government default as an exaggeration, suggesting U.S. credit won’t collapse and calling the talk “a lot of false demagoguery.” (Of course, the “talk” to which he refers is the straightforward message on the most likely effects of the shutdown that was given by none other than the head of the Department of the Treasury, whom we MIGHT want to consider as a more competent judge of such matters as a lawyer from Iowa (I say lawyer, because, odds are, he is one…. if he’s not, well, no comment, as whatever he is, he ISN’T a financial expert….)

Asked how the standoff might end, Boehner said Sunday on ABC that he was uncertain: “If I knew, I’d tell you.””

“Privately, administration officials say they don’t think Boehner and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell want a default as they realize it will be far worse than a shutdown, but the two don’t know how to avoid it or when to try.”

Clearly, the only issues at play here are a selfish, false sense of entitlement, and ruthless paranoia…. but, then, I’m a former psychiatric technician, and I tend to see how behaviors fit into patterns common to certain psychiatric disorders, of which paranoia, and delusional thinking are two primary examples. The behaviors currently being displayed on the national stage for all of us to witness is appalling to me, so much so, I’m going to abandon this mild rant here, in favor of going to an old-school indictment of these idiots….

So, here is what Smart Bee, under the influence of my parameters for today, has to say about what is going on in the political scene, here in America, today, October 7, 2013….

“You are not what you think you are; but what you think, you are.” — Smart Bee

“Everybody thinks himself so well supplied with common sense that even those most difficult to please. . . never desire more of it than they already have.” — Rene Descartes

“Vote for ME — I’m well-tapered, half-cocked, ill-conceived and  TAX-DEFERRED!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Science never cheered up anyone. The truth about the human situation is too awful.” — Kurt Vonnegut’s TimeQuake

“Experience is the only prophecy of wise men.” — Alphonse de Lamartine

“I have been Foolish and Deluded, and I am a Bear of No Brain at All.” — Pooh

“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the real labor of thinking.” — Thomas Alva Edison
_____________________________

Today’s choice of poems was, I like to think, destined. I like to think that because I’m a romantic at heart, and an optimist by choice; even if it isn’t true, it’s nice to think so…. I just thought about Oscar, and what he might have had to say in today’s world… So, with a bit of help from Google, and Poemhunter.com, I offer this sublime piece of social commentary from a master of words….

The Doer Of Good

It was night-time and He was alone.

And He saw afar-off the walls of a round city and went towards the
city.

And when He came near He heard within the city the tread of the
feet of joy, and the laughter of the mouth of gladness and the loud
noise of many lutes. And He knocked at the gate and certain of the
gate-keepers opened to Him.

And He beheld a house that was of marble and had fair pillars of
marble before it. The pillars were hung with garlands, and within
and without there were torches of cedar. And He entered the house.

And when He had passed through the hall of chalcedony and the hall
of jasper, and reached the long hall of feasting, He saw lying on a
couch of sea-purple one whose hair was crowned with red roses and
whose lips were red with wine.

And He went behind him and touched him on the shoulder and said to
him, ‘Why do you live like this?’

And the young man turned round and recognised Him, and made answer
and said, ‘But I was a leper once, and you healed me. How else
should I live?’

And He passed out of the house and went again into the street.

And after a little while He saw one whose face and raiment were
painted and whose feet were shod with pearls. And behind her came,
slowly as a hunter, a young man who wore a cloak of two colours.
Now the face of the woman was as the fair face of an idol, and the
eyes of the young man were bright with lust.

And He followed swiftly and touched the hand of the young man and
said to him, ‘Why do you look at this woman and in such wise?’

And the young man turned round and recognised Him and said, ‘But I
was blind once, and you gave me sight. At what else should I
look?’

And He ran forward and touched the painted raiment of the woman and
said to her, ‘Is there no other way in which to walk save the way
of sin?’

And the woman turned round and recognised Him, and laughed and
said, ‘But you forgave me my sins, and the way is a pleasant way.’

And He passed out of the city.

And when He had passed out of the city He saw seated by the
roadside a young man who was weeping.

And He went towards him and touched the long locks of his hair and
said to him, ‘Why are you weeping?’

And the young man looked up and recognised Him and made answer,
‘But I was dead once, and you raised me from the dead. What else
should I do but weep?’

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

_____________________________

The evolution of man is the evolution of his consciousness, and ‘consciousness’ cannot evolve unconsciously. The evolution of man is the evolution of his will, and ‘will’ cannot evolve involuntarily. The evolution of man is the evolution of his power of doing, and ‘doing’ cannot be the result of things which ‘happen.'” — Gurdjieff

This is just SO true! It has particular relevance for me when looking at this budget mess, as the whole situation is another example of how our culture just toddles along with no intelligent direction, no “conscious will” that takes us toward a defined goal…. Instead, the whole issue demonstrates how things just “happen”, not as the result of what anyone “does” but merely because of what is allowed to happen, due to the intransigence and selfishness of the people involved….

It is also typical of Gurdjieff, in that it’s stated in such a thick, unwieldy fashion that most people won’t take the time to fight their way through to the complete idea it expresses…. and, it’s an important idea, even if it DOES make your head hurt to think about it at all… It does mine, and I try to practice the advice given me by Lou, from http://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/, blogger extraordinaire, when he reminded me how the Red Queen, or maybe it was the King, in “Through The Looking Glass” would think of at least six impossible ideas “before breakfast”, just for the fun of it….

I DO try to keep up, you see, no matter how fast, or how far a thought will take me…. The above idea, from Gurdy, is a good one on which to practice, as it lends itself well to internalization…. Sadly, my impression of humanity at large is that such internalizing, and an attitude toward thinking in such ways, is pretty uncommon amongst the general populace…. I’d wager serious gelt that if you showed this quote to 20 random people, on-the-street, average folks, no more than two of them would make a concerted effort to read the entire quote, much less try to decipher its meaning….. The other eighteen would give up at various points, depending on their own particular reading acuity, and make a joke, or, an excuse, like something in their eye, or in some way, try to distract you from questioning them about it.

SIGH…. Such is life, though, and crying and whining about it doesn’t help…. All I can do is try to stay amused by what happens around me…. Amused is better than abused, and it’s a whole lot better than going through life with blinders on, never using the mind we are given for anything other than sitting on, or finding your way home when drunk…. sort of a biological Garmin, y’know? I prefer to use mine for all I can figure out to do with it, and rejoice at every new, and strange, idea that comes my way…. So, here are some of today’s thoughts, that caught my eye as being erudite, or poignant, or deep, or some other characteristic that strikes my fancy…. Enjoy!….

“Cynicism is safe, optimism takes real intelligence.” –Smart Bee

“Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.” — H. L. Mencken

“Know, first, who you are; then adorn yourself accordingly.” — Epictetus

“Desire is both a very good servant and a very bad master.” — JoAnn Schwartz (1953 – )

“Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experience.” — George Santayana

“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

“I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn’t.” — Jules Renard
_____________________________

I’m more than just a little afraid to go back over this one; as I created it, I felt a stirring in the Metaphorse that disturbs my sense of balance, and fear that I may have inadvertently caused some real damage to some part of the space-time continuum… The danger here is that, often, when one goes to look for any such damage, it hides, or slips away, and just gets worse, thanks to mein Herr Heisenberg’s little observation as to the reality of reality…. If I look at it, it changes, and becomes something else, and there is no damn way around it…. Oh well, it’s got to be done, so, we’ll just have to take our chances, as we do each day…

Well, it looks as if the space-time continuum will survive another day, so, I’d best be on my way before anyone catches me…. See ya tomorrow, with a bit of luck….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Surveys are calling for juicier burgers….

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Ffolkes,

It’s entirely possible that I’m drying up….. I’ve written so much in the last two years, it’s all starting to sound the same; if there is one thing I refuse to consider, it is repeating my self to no purpose. I’ve repeated myself here, of course, many times, as I have continued my campaign to show as many ffolkes as I can just how badly they are being disrespected by the BRC, the PH’s, their CM’s, and the blind, vicious masses of myrmidons who loyally, if immorally, support them all, hoping beyond hope enough people would hear the truths I’m shouting out, and begin to work toward stopping them from killing us all….

In that campaign, and to pursue the stated end,I HAVE repeated my assertions, any number of times, which is why I think I may not have much left. It all is beginning to seem futile, at the least, and completely pointless, at the worst; I cannot see much evidence that all I’ve been saying is getting us very far toward salvation as a society. Oh, don’t worry, I’m not a complete idiot (presumably); I don’t believe that I am the world’s savior, or that I have the only message worth hearing, and I certainly don’t claim to be the world’s most compelling writer, even if I do use a lot of big words…. 7 billion people who have NOT ever read what I write can’t be ALL wrong, can they?….

No, I can’t claim to be the most important, or the best, or even the most committed writer of what could be called “calls to action” (though, perhaps, the most prolific in word-count); a lot of people, who are (maybe) better writers, and who certainly have more readers, also write about this stuff, every day, in a lot of news outlets. There are organizations with web sites who have been formed solely for the purpose of counting all the lies that politicians tell us (fact checkers, they call themselves….), checking the claims made in their speeches against reality, to ascertain the level of truth being told….. At last check, the claims I’ve made, about ALL of them, that they are ALL lying, have been proven, beyond a doubt, to be absolutely correct…..

However, truthful as I may be, I’m getting a bit tired of continually promoting a message that, even though annoyingly and humiliatingly true, as well as bitterly ugly, does not seem to outrage others as much as it does me…. I don’t understand how the press can constantly print the crap they do, allowing the lies that are put out to be distributed beyond all hope of counteraction…. It is as if the entire society has accepted the lies as their only truth; even the media will breathlessly repeat anything said by a major politician, without ever checking the statements for truth, in full awareness that what they are repeating may not be the truth…. They know what they’re doing, but, because it makes a profit, or in some other way meets their need for expediency, they refuse to stop reporting what they KNOW, or, at least, suspect, to be false….

Actually, I don’t know if profit is the ONLY motive of those who report the news…. I do know it is the sole motive of those who own and control the media; their primary concern has always been one of control of information, not the undisciplined spread of it. But, it really doesn’t matter what their motive may be, as the end result is the same; a society controlled by shadowy masters who have no compunction about lying, cheating, or stealing their way into power, then using that power to consolidate their positions, making it damn near impossible to either remove them…. most of the time, they don’t allow the media, or anyone, to even identify them….

Those who have the real power in this world tend to stick to the shadows and back alleys, (which, oddly enough, look strangely like penthouses and country mansions….), never showing their faces to a public that would revolt and tear them limb from limb, had they any clue as to their real part in how reality is ordered….. They don’t like to be photographed, and they never walk in public venues without security at close hand, to protect them from the “mean streets”, filled with the mostly ignorant inhabitants, of the world they have created to suit themselves.

I would imagine that even the most powerful politicians in the world haven’t a clue that they are really puppets, controlled by people who will never give up their clandestine power. If the world’s political leaders were ever made aware of the degree to which they are no more than marionettes for their invisible masters, just like the unwashed masses they lord it over, it could conceivably cause problems for those who have the real power, which they aren’t going to allow…. The real rulers of this planet have had many thousands of years of practice at directing human culture into the channels they desire, wherein the great mass of humanity believes their leaders are good people, trying to make their lives better, when in reality, we are all headed straight to a Dante-esque version of Hell, of our own making….

On that positive note, I think I should go on to the rest of today’s outburst, before I rant myself into a coma…. As pleasant as that prospect may sound to some, I’ll pass, thank you….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“Sex! Lies! Drugs! Money! Power! Corruption! Man, I love Congress!” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

I’ve waited a long time, and spent a lot of time very diligently searching the Net for an article such as this one…. It is a very even-handed, and more importantly, realistic take on all the stuff that the politicians use to whip the public into a frenzy of fear, whenever there is a new mass shooting, or another terrorist attack somewhere. Such reports of terrorist activity doesn’t even have to be happening here, in this country, for some of the media pundits and politicians to use it as a method of creating panic and outrage in the public arena.

The author acknowledges a little known, and certainly under-appreciated fact, which can be stated thus: when the number of shootings are actually COUNTED, there are actually no more of them happening now than at any other time since statistics on the matter have been collected. In fact, several earlier periods of our history, especially in the last century, experienced significantly more terrorist bombings, and more mass shootings, than have occurred in the first 13 years of this century. These are numerical FACTS, ffolkes, not speculation, or guesses…. The pundits WANT the people in fear, so they promote that agenda, with no shame at all…

Because the political pundits would rather keep the public in a state of suppressed panic than tell them the truth, they flood the media with emotional diatribes against unseen, sometimes even non-existent dangers, in order to manipulate the great unwashed masses into accepting new limits on their freedom, in the form of “temporary” laws they tell us are only there to protect us, but, in reality, will be used to spy on their own people, operate clandestine prisons and courts with no oversight, and arrest even law-abiding citizens who fit their profiles of a possible terrorist….

Did you know that the right to publicly assemble to address the government with grievances has been done away with?…. Yep, look it up, ffolkes, the Patriot Act makes it a crime to gather a certain number of people without a permit…. which they are NOT giving out…. They — “They” being police authorities and/or military troops, or even agents of government bureaus, such as Homeland Security, the FBI, or the NSA, or ‘special agents’ of some other acronym we haven’t even been made aware of, acting blindly, but with full cooperation and agreement, under the orders of politicians — they no longer need to give it out, anyway, as it is now legal for them to arrest anyone at such an event, under suspicion of terrorist actions, and they don’t have to explain it to ANYONE!…. Truth, y’all…. Capisce?

Read the article ffolkes, it’s an eye-opener, and gives a good take on a subject most are afraid to even discuss….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Terror-mass-shootings-don-t-mean-more-danger-4852423.php

“Although a wise man might urge that one should suffer fools gladly, this should not be construed as license for any fool to demand that one do so.” — Frederic William Kantor
_____________________________

Today’s Pearl has, so far, come from within the confines of my own mind, such as it is, and, as far as it goes, so, for the poetry selection, we’ll go with one of mine, as well, to maintain balance, and to ensure that no one else can be blamed for any of what has transpired here today….

Unheralded Sagacity…

To many, who will not see beyond their nose
the world becomes a dangerous place,
a bullet in every gun, a thorn with every rose,
no magic comes to save us, reality leaves no trace.

Minds closed, wrapped tight in manufactured fears,
men become clay, easily molded into complacent form.
No chains needed, held in thrall for years,
lies become gospel, when dishonesty is the norm.

Shed the chains you wear in durance, in kind;
Oh, ye of little faith, and much doubt
Strength is found in an unfettered mind,
Cry “freedom” with a great shout.

No help from any gods can hinder so much
as our own lack of confidence;
finding the light within, knowing it as such
confirms us, becoming consequence.

Illumination…..

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Thus far today, I’ve ranted, twice, if one cares to be technical, and used one of my own poems as ballast; that order of events dictates that this section will be an old-school pearl, and who am I to fuck with tradition, eh?….. I have no idea what direction it will take, but, I’m hoping for a good grouping, to finish off what feels like a good effort…. Let’s see what we can persuade Smart Bee to let loose….

— Bother! said Pooh, as the Borg assimilated him.

“There are many who consider as an injury to themselves any conduct which they have a distaste for, and resent it as an outrage to their feelings; as a religious bigot, when charged with disregarding the religious feelings of others, has been known to retort that they disregard his feelings, by persisting in their abominable worship or creed. But there is no parity between the feeling of a person for his own opinion, and the feeling of another who is offended at his holding it; no more than between the desire of a thief to take a purse, and the desire of the right owner to keep it.  And a person’s taste is as much his own peculiar concern as his opinion or his purse. It is easy for any one to imagine an ideal public, which leaves the freedom and choice of individuals in all uncertain matters undisturbed, and only requires them to abstain from modes of conduct which universal experience has condemned. But where has there been seen a public which set any such limit to its censorship? or when does the public trouble itself about universal experience? In its interferences with personal conduct it is seldom thinking of anything but the enormity of acting or feeling differently from itself; and this standard of judgment, thinly disguised, is held up to mankind as the dictate of religion and philosophy, by nine-tenths of all moralists and speculative writers.” — John Stuart Mill, _On Liberty_, Chapter IV

“A time to mourn, and a time to dance.” — Ecclesiastes 3:4

“Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically–for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist–but then what isn’t?” — Quentin Crisp, 1984

“I’m going to live forever, or die trying!” — Spider Robinson

“All generalizations are dangerous, perhaps even this one. There are exceptions to the rule, but this does not appear to be one of them.” — Smart Bee

— You may be redneck… If the Borg refuse to assimilate you.

Okay, well, hmm….. I am speechless…. moreover, I’m in awe, of SB’s sheer genius at what Dorothy L. Sayers called piffle, what the world-at-large calls insane nonsense, and what I call damn fine irony…. I hope you enjoy this one…. I did…..
_____________________________

“Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Yes! Yes! Now, THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!!! Of course, once I read it through from start to finish, it could fall apart, but, for now, it feels like a good one…. Let’s go see….

For once, I was right, even though I’m a man, and I’m standing in a forest, by myself, talking…. I have it on good authority that in such cases, I am always wrong… Nonetheless, this is a good one, and I’m not going to listen to anything to the contrary… Well, wrong, I’ll listen, but, I won’t agree…. Not only that, but, it’s done! 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

dozer3

Flavor so rich, sour becomes savory….

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Ffolkes,

Yesterday, according to the WordPress statistics bots, I posted my 821st post on this blog…. (funny, I first typed “blob” where it says “blog”, then went ahead and corrected it, but, I see now it might have been better to leave it in, as it fits nicely…. oh well, another opportunity for humor lost…. It happens a lot around here….) I’m not sure whether to be impressed at my persistence, or dismayed at my stubbornness. Only my audience could tell me, which is terrifying, to say the least….. so, I’m not going to even ask, as it really is a moot issue…. I’m going to write as long as I have something to say, and since I kept my innermost thoughts to myself for many years before starting this blog, I’ve got a lot of stuff stored up….

That being said, we can go on to more lucrative, or more interesting material…. that, of course, is the plan. The plan undergoes a number of alterations, usually, before we reach the end of any particular Pearl, so, those kinds of alterations are not unexpected, or hard to manage…. It’s the weird stuff that gets thrown in by my whimsy that tends to make things strange. So far, though, I’ve managed, at least in my own mind, to keep from posting anything that might offend anyone who isn’t an asshole already…. If I have, well, I’d have to consider that a personal problem, as I post enough disclaimers to warn off even the most idiotic of readers….

The stuff I write here is all my own…. if it isn’t, I say so clearly. If I find a quote in Smart Bee, unattributed, I will first Google it to see if it is out there where it can be found; I find an author for these unknown statements about 50% of the times I look for it. If I can’t find it, I give the attribution to Smart Bee, which put the onus for identification back in their court (the software’s authors, that is….). Otherwise, what you see is me, or it is other folk’s stuff, clearly marked, being used by me for the purpose of discussion and/or clarification, and it’s what you’ll get, every day….

I won’t claim what I do here is the best literature you’ll ever read, but, I will say to you that ALL I say here, especially those items that poke fun and ridicule at the BRC and the priestly hierarchies (to wit: church and state….), are my own responsibility, and I stand behind them 100%. If you disagree with any of it, comments are welcome, as long as they are intelligently written, and don’t get into flaming….

Unwarranted criticisms are cheerfully ignored, but, should you take your best shot here, at me or at what I say, in a way that crosses over the line into personal issues, then the consequences that will surely follow, are on your head, and so be it…. I’m not going to be nice to an idiot; it only encourages them to let that nonsense out on someone else…. No, I’ll do my best to put such in its place, and I guarantee, that place doesn’t smell real nice….

In my two-plus years of blogging daily, I’ve been very fortunate not to come across any trolls; everyone who has commented has been very appreciative, and polite; in fact, I consider several of my serial commenters to be new friends, people who, someday, I would enjoy meeting in person. That’s saying a lot, because I don’t keep many friends; I only have a few, whom I’ve known practically forever, of the kind who, when you see them, after a week, or after a year, will immediately take up the conversation from the point where it was left, without any need to make up the time between those conversations, because the connection was, and is, always there….

I see now that, once again, I’ve managed to blather for almost a thousand words, none of which got me to any particularly valuable place, or even one where we might conceivably take off on a literary adventure of some kind…. It’s enough for an intro, though, and that will have to do….. In the main, this is because I just don’t have anything more, of any relevance, to say; I’ve found, in these cases, it’s best to just get on with the normal course of events….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“What you would seem to be, be really.” — Ben Franklin
_____________________________

Since I went a bit overboard in the intro, I will forgo subjecting y’all to a rant today…. I’ve done quite a few of late, of some great length, and can see how reading all of what I write can get to be a chore, depending, of course, on how fast one reads, and how quickly the material can be assimilated. Hopefully, it takes a bit of time to follow the arguments, which are not always simple. Though it may seem otherwise, I do try to simplify things a lot when I discuss them, but, sometimes it just isn’t possible to make a point without displaying a modicum of subtlety, or of complexity, either of which can slow the process down….

Rather than rant, I decided to go with an old Sesame Street game my kids and I used to like, when we watched it together many years ago…. It was called “One of these is not like the others….”, and usually consisted of four concepts, one of which was diametrically opposed to the others…. Here, I have upped the ante a bit, to five items… but, they all are of a type, but for one…. I shouldn’t have to explain any further, and I trust the perspicacity of my readers enough to not ask me to do so….

Just note which of these tells a different kind of story than the others, and all will be well…. At the end of it, you may have a bit of a headache, from delving so deeply into the human well of experience…. but, the sheer difference of the fifth wheel in this group is sure to uplift your spirits, at least a little…. I find it helps to use a 10 point scale for rating these….

http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2013/09/19/ron-paul-more-women-should-sacrifice-career-to-homeschool-kids/

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/House-votes-to-cut-4B-a-year-from-food-stamps-4826559.php

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2013/09/19/pope-francis-the-church-needs-to-mellow-out-on-abortion-and-gay-issues/

http://www.walmartgreenroom.com/2013/06/tom-cruise-on-how-walmart-helps-people-live-better/

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2013/09/19/pay-gap-between-men-and-women-still-huge-except-in-oakland-really-look/

My own scoring on this one went like this…. #1 I give this a ten on the ‘idiot’ scale… #2 This gets an eight on the ‘asshole’ scale, but applies to the whole group involved…. #3 Got a negative 3 on all scales (hint: negative numbers are positive in the real world) …. #4 With both TC and Walmart in the same article, this one gets a 20 on both the ‘idiot’ scale, and the ‘asshole’ scale…. #5 got a 7, on the ‘disappointment in society’ scale….
_____________________________

This morning, I’m feeling both nostalgic, and somewhat lacking in motivation. I guess I’m suffering from cruise withdrawal, knowing my next time on board a ship is still four long weeks, plus a day, away in the future…. When this happens, I turn to the classics for a bit of surcease…. This one needs little introduction, as most of it is familiar to just about anyone alive, who graduated from an American high school in the last 100 years, and paid any attention at all in English class…. Enjoy!….

A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)

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

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________


Oh boy! I’ve ranted, approximately, and found a really great poem, so, at this point, I get to go old-school, which just makes my day…. I love this process, as it makes me use my head just the way I like, with both discipline and randomness, all in a good cause…. Well, it’s a cause, anyway…. good and bad are distinctions I prefer to avoid, as they tend to rope one into certain positions, and I don’t like to let myself get trapped like that…. Any who, whatever the rationalization used, this one should come out well, as I’m going to use very loose reins, and allow Smart Bee to do most of the work…. What better way to start the day, as long as one has sufficient coffee as a prophylaxis against any undue conceptual manipulation.?… Let’s see what that little devil has going today, shall we?…..

In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes:
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 123

“Everybody gets free BORSCHT!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Don’t lose your head to gain a minute.
You need your head, your brains are in it.

— Burma Shave

“Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool.” — Smart Bee

“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.” — A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

In looking back at this group, I see it would be possible, perhaps, even, advisable, to stop here, and use this as a five-star pearl, with a pretty good point to it, if one is slick enough to trip over it…. But, it just doesn’t feel done to me, so we’ll see what more SB can come up with to bring this to its full potential….

“No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.” — Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592)

“He is able who thinks he is able.” — Buddha

There you go….
_____________________________

Well, I’ve gotten to the end of another fine mess, and still feel as if I haven’t begun… Does this mean it’s going to be a long day? Hmm… You may be right, it’s probably too early for such depths of potential disaster; depression and paranoia are hovering right around the corner, should we follow that distraction….. So, let’s just go proof, and see if it all hangs together, or needs a few edges sharpened….

Okay, so the edges were fine; oddly enough, so was the rest of it…. In fact, all in all, this is quite good, and I don’t feel a bit of a qualm about letting it go out, as is…. Y’all may feel differently, but, guess what? It’s a done deal, and it’s too late for anything but a comment….   🙂       See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

But, Mom, Papal edicts only show the retail cost….

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3

Ffolkes,

Nervy bastards, aren’t they? Even when it’s counterproductive, or, for that matter, illegal, the congress of holiday droids brought in for this morning’s show insist on keeping their motors idling; it must be admitted, they look wonderful while they’re doing it. Of course, it always seems more like winter when they’re trundling about, showing off their latest chrome package, or some new style of working appendage.

Clyde and Em like to put out special feeders for them, but, if you do that, then use the wrong brand of oil, boy, do they get weirded out; I’ve seen them attack a guy who put one in his blog, and forgot to fill it; the only positive outcome was that the remains fit all in one box….. Maybe this year, we could ask the town council to have them stay over after the holidays, so we can have a better look at them when they’re not so involved in their dances and rituals…..

I give up…. I can’t make this any more obscure, or meaningless, so, I’m on the mark there, but, somehow, it’s just not coming out the way I’d envisioned. I think I’m using the right tone, but, I can’t seem to find just the right level of strangeness…. very essential to this type of outburst…. Maybe if I….. No, that won’t work. Never mind. I suppose this means another morning of blather…. I’d hoped my oh-so-creative-mind could come up with something more fascinating than the recent previous intros have been, but, once again, it seems we’re destined to just wander the corridors of my mind, lost and afraid…

Well, I suppose we don’t HAVE to be afraid, though, at this point, lost is a foregone conclusion…. You may as well as throw “confused” into the mix for today, too, because I can feel it gathering around the edges, and, once it settles in for the day, all bets are off…. We may as well go back to bed, if that is the best we can hope for…. That won’t get this Pearl done, though, and was never really considered as a viable option…. I just like to blather, as we know…. No, that’s not right…. I DON’T like to blather, but, I mostly don’t get a chance to do much else…..

Since we’re destined to experience another metaphor for the rest of our lives here today, I’m going to go with the flow, and use some of my dissatisfaction with the opening to fuel even more blather. It’s the only option, now that we’re this far into the process…. In the past, I’ve made other attempts to place a limit of some kind on the amount of blather that gets spread around, but, the only time it seems to have an effect is in the closing section, where it’s already a part of the task to be done there….. Otherwise, the crap just keeps on flowing out, getting all over the screen, and, no doubt, on your clothing…..

Once again, I’ve gone from fantasy, to folly, sidetracked over into severely stunted sincerity, stepped in some small piles of crap, and, now, come back around to fantasy…. We’ll end this here, as we’ve reached the legal minimum required by law, and can now make a serious attempt to get back into the creative portion of this…. whatever it is…..

Whatever it is, I can see it’s going to be a struggle to get it done today….. It’s never a good sign when I have to use a cudgel to beat stuff out of my brain, which is as close as I can come to an accurate description of how this is going so far…. Damn it, I’d hoped to get out of the intro without having to break into the first aid kit!….. As they are fond of saying downtown…. Oh, well….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten; and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago!” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, vii, 6
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I’m a dog lover, having had one in my family since I was born. One of them taught my younger sister and I to walk, by standing next to us, letting us stand & grab their fur, and then walking slowly away, pulling us with them….. Her name was Butch….   😆  

All my life I remember one dog or another being there, providing me and my siblings with the perfect example of how to get by in the world, and how to do that cheerfully; they show by example how to live with honor, joy, and compassion for all creatures. I consider the species to be the most morally and ethically advanced of all those on this planet, and if there were a God, then one could only assume that He put dogs here to be our mentors in that respect…..

My last dog, Noah, was an Aussie Heeler mix, very smart, and very loyal and loving. He lived with us for close to 17 years, passing on in November of 2011. At that time, I wrote a tribute to him, and to his spirit, which, in a way, was a tribute to the spirit of all dogs, who have lived as mankind’s best friend, and teacher, for untold thousands of generations, and years….. I am re-posting it here today, because I miss him….

An Ode to Noah


Noah came to live with us when he was about 10 months old; we rescued him from taking the long walk at the Humane Society kennel in Santa Rosa. It was my son’s fifteenth birthday, and he wanted a dog, swearing up & down that he would take responsibility for its’ care. Pets were always part of family life when I grew up, and our last dog had been gone for a bit over a year, so it was time to expand the family once again.

As Cory and I walked down the aisle between cages at the kennel, a large variety of dogs started a welcoming cacophony of different barks; shrill tiny ones, deep booming ones, polite yips, all blended together in an almost desperate frenzy, as each animal, many of them almost frantic, tried to get our attention. Some pawed at the gate, some jumped up, some looked nervous, others looked friendly, and all of them, it seemed, were making noise.

As we drew near the last cage in the aisle, we saw a medium-sized black and white dog, not barking, not jumping, just sitting down, leaning against the wall by the gate. He was looking me right in the eyes with an expression on his face that just said, “get me out of here, please!”. What could we do? He was obviously our dog, and he realized it too. We told him we’d be right back, and went back to announce our choice, and complete the paperwork.

The attendant brought Noah in to us just as I finished. He still looked a bit nervous, but calm. That is, he was calm until I clasped his new collar around his neck and hooked on his leash. All of a sudden, when he realized he wasn’t going back into the kennel, he was immediately a new dog, wagging his tail furiously, looking at us with his eyes shining, almost dancing and vibrating in his eagerness to go. As we walked back to the van, he walked proudly in front of us, tail and ears up at attention, almost prancing, looking back every few steps to make sure we were still there, a very happy dog…..

Noah settled into the family immediately. He proved to be very well-mannered, both with people, and in his habits. When on walks, he would stop to sniff, and lift his leg, on every interesting bush and tree, just like any other male dog. But when he had to do his secondary business, he made it clear he preferred to go behind a bush, or somewhere out of the way, and preferably out of sight.

He would assume a very embarrassed expression when not sufficiently hidden from sight, and would turn away, as if he felt guilty. A very private, discreet individual, to say the least. If he had been overlong between walks, and was so much in a hurry that he made a mistake on the sidewalk, he would act just like a cat, and pretend that it had not happened. What mess? Who me? I don’t know what you’re talking about…..

Noah was an extremely intelligent dog; I’ve known a great many animals in my time on this old planet, and he’s one of the smartest I’ve ever been around. When he came to live with us, at about 10 months of age, he already knew how to sit on command (both voice and hand), to lie down, and to stay. 

Truth be told, he had a little trouble with the whole concept of stay; he didn’t like being left alone, and would often follow after a minute or two; it’s like he just didn’t want to believe we really MEANT for him to stay. He figured he should be with us so he could do his job. As long as he could see us, he’d stay where he was; if he couldn’t, he believed it was his place to find us, and we just couldn’t come to terms; on this point he was firm.

We also never had to teach Noah any tricks, as he seemed to have figured stuff out on his own, and his way was definitely cool….The first time I ever gave him a treat (a milk bone), I showed it to him and told him to sit. He sat. I told him to speak, and he gave one quick howl. I held out my hand, & he offered his own to shake. I straightened up, tossed the treat in the air, and watched him not just catch it, but after making the in-air snag like a professional left-fielder, he tossed it back up into the air. He watched it hit the floor, whereupon he dove on top of it, rolled over, and did a happy dance, by twisting his back and hips as if scratching his back on the floor.

I swear, he looked just like Snoopy doing the Dance of Joy. When he was done dancing on his back, he rolled over and proceeded to enjoy his milk bone, with a big twinkle in his eye. I always wanted to video the move to submit it for Stupid Pet Tricks on the Letterman Show, but never had a camera handy when he performed his feat, so Noah missed his chance for stardom.

Noah’s gotten old now; we just observed his 17th birthday in February of this year, so in dog years, he’s going on 120 or so. He can’t hear anything but very loud noises, and can’t see more than a few feet, and I suspect that is mostly shadows and moving light. I’m afraid he will be passing on soon, as he can no longer get up without assistance, and cannot control his bodily functions. I sometimes feel like I should have him put down, to ease his pains, but he doesn’t act as if he is hurting, and I can tell he enjoys just lying around and sleeping, as long as he knows I am near.

For his entire life with us, over 16 and a half years, he has been a true and loyal companion. He has observed with honor the pact that was made between man and dog many thousands of generations ago, and taking care of him in his declining years is both a privilege, and an honor. In my entire life, I have never known anyone more loyal, more compassionate, and more courageous in standing up to life. He is by far the best friend that any man could hope for, and by far the best person I’ve ever known……

Noah

R.I.P. Old Friend

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This poet needs no introduction; he is, without a doubt, one of history’s finest…. I love this poem, and gladly re-post it today, in deference to my nostalgia jag…..

A Dog Has Died

My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I’ll join him right there,
but now he’s gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I’ll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Ai, I’ll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he’d keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea’s movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean’s spray.

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.

There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don’t now and never did lie to each other.

So now he’s gone and I buried him,
and that’s all there is to it.

~~ Pablo Neruda ~~


Translated, from the Spanish, by Alfred Yankauer
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Okay, I’m done being maudlin…. I’m in the mood now for some real, honest-to-goodness nonsense…. Smart Bee is generally pretty liberal in handing out samples of same, so I’m going to see what there is today, to bring us a smile, or a belly laugh, or just a chuckle or two….. Any entries you may note that do not have attribution were found that way in Smart Bee…. It contributed several pearls, and I didn’t feel like typing it so many times….

“Ah… memories, memories. Where is that brain damage they promised us?” — Hunter S. Thompson.

“Two men jump from an airplane. The first pulls the cord–and the chute works perfectly. The second pulls the cord–and nothing happens. He keeps falling straight down. As he passes his friend, the guy gets mad, unbuckles the harness, and shouts, “So, you wanna race, eh?” — Charlie Callas

“This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), A Midsummer Night’s Dream — Act v, Sc. 1
(I know, not too funny, but it seemed to fit with the joke….)

Fundamentalism: an effective form of mirth control.

He that would not when he might,
He shall not when he wolda.

— Thomas Percy (1728-1811) — The Friar of Orders Gray

Ignorance can be cured.  Stupid is forever.

— Bother! said Pooh, when he realized he wasn’t wearing any pants.

Couldn’t be better if I’d done it myself…. Good to go….
_____________________________

Today’s post is a perfect example of how fear of failure can be a motivator…. Since we are in the closing section, I’m not required to explain that, so I won’t…. Let’s see how badly I’ve screwed the pooch…. Okay, unfortunate phraseology aside, not too badly, I think… It will pass the legal requirements, which is good enough for me….. Not that legal is my primary goal, but, it does fit in with my policy of not attracting undue attention in that respect…. and if that isn’t pompous enough for you, I can try again….

Nah, the hell with it…. I’m done for the day…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Platitudes are on sale every third decade….

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2

Ffolkes,

Hello, ffolkes, I’m back…. It seems Ernie H-II, the writing ‘bot I found, filled in yesterday with distinction, if not perfection…. I appreciate his help in a tight spot; I didn’t feel well, and left myself short of time to get it figured out, so, his willingness to pitch in on short notice saved the day…. It isn’t often you get that kind of cooperation from a ‘bot, especially an AI ‘bot, but, he is a VERY well-programmed machine, and it shows in his demeanor….

I’m still not feeling like busting out in song, but, I think I can pull it together long enough to put out a Pearl… with a bit of help from whatever impulsive absurdity I can come up with on the spur of the moment to keep it moving, or to supply the proper stimulus at the proper moment to keep it from flagging…. That last sentence could be considered a metaphor for this entire process, but, it’s a weekday, so we’ll leave the metaphors alone until they’re ripe, which only happens on weekends…

As you can see, taking a day off hasn’t reduced the size of my nose, or dulled its shiny red color; whatever comes out today is liable to be a bit caustic, or toxic, or at minimum, confusing, so, if I were y’all, I’d keep my hands inside the rails, and refrain from teasing any of the animals we may encounter, just to improve the odds of survival…. Oh, don’t fret too much, we have yet to lose an entire group; in fact, we’ve only lost a total of three individuals in all this time, and two of those were self-induced catastrophes, for which we were cleared of all charges…. The third guy was found to be an ex-Mouseketeer who had an obsession about oysters, and ate too many in the wrong season, so no charges were ever filed….

I mean, is it my fault if they snapped their cookies while reading my blog? No, it isn’t, even if what is written isn’t terribly helpful to those without the inner strength to use it; what gets written here doesn’t actually CAUSE insanity, it just skirts the edge of feeling it…. Besides, all we can do is all we can do, right? Right….

As is apparent, I’m not at my best today; chalk it up to whatever physical issues are still plaguing me, (about which I refuse to whine, or even comment on….) and we’ll get on with this…. I apologize in advance for any decrease in quality or relevance, and can only hope that any lack will be counter-balanced by increased humor, as I find my own debilities to be good reason to laugh at myself, for hubris, if for nothing else….

Life is pain, ffolkes… I’ve known this for a long time…. all my life, in fact. As such, it is well to learn how to deal with pain in an efficient manner, because, one way or another, we, as humans, will always have at least a little of it present in our lives, always there, to keep us aware of our mortality…. To me, that is both funny, and ironic, not to mention written in stone….

So, I’m gonna take my pain, and roll it into a little ball, so I can stick it under the table until I’m done…. That’s better than letting it have its way, and losing another whole day to weakness, and the concomitant misery…. If it works, great…. If it doesn’t, well, let’s hope I can find the humor in it, and put it down to share…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Breaks balance out. The sun don’t shine on the same ol’ dog’s ass every day.” — Darrell Royal
_____________________________

In an attempt to return balance to the Metaphorse, I’m going on a quest…. I’m going to gather a group of pearls together, whose subtlety, depth, and, perspicacity will bring tears to your eyes…. in response to the headache you’ll get from trying to figure out what the hell I’m talking about…. This one will be so obscure, you won’t be able to penetrate to the meaning without major weaponry, of nuclear capability. So, please remember to read this in the privacy of your own mind, and don’t let any of it spill over onto your neighbors…. It’s a good one….

“If possible, try to find a way to come downstairs that doesn’t involve going bump, bump, bump, on the back of your head. ” — Pooh in Winnie the Pooh A.A. Milne

“Do you have exactly what I want in a plaid poindexter bar bat??” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Ignorance of death is destroying us. Death is the dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything.” — Saul Bellow

“I love my country too much to be a nationalist.” — Albert Camus

“I may be a self-made man, but then, when I get to thinking about it, if I had it to do over again, I think I would call in someone else.” — Roland Young

“One of your most ancient writers, a historian named Herodotus, tells of a thief who was to be executed.  As he was taken away he made a bargain with the king: in one year he would teach the king’s favorite horse to sing hymns. The other prisoners watched the thief singing to the horse and laughed. “You will not succeed,” they told him.  “No one can.”  To which the thief replied, “I have a year, and who knows what might happen in that time. The king might die. The horse might die.  I might die. And perhaps the horse will learn to sing.” — The Mote in God’s Eye (Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven)

“Give me a lever and place to stand and I will move the world.” — Archimedes (c. 287-212 B.C.), Pappus, Synagogue, VIII, 10, xi

See? Plain as a black cat in a windowless room at midnight, with the lights off….. As recompense, should you find your way to the right place, it’s a very friendly cat….
_____________________________

Some days, I’m in the mood for poetry that challenges the mind, as well as the spirit…. this woman’s words always do that….

A Winter Ship

At this wharf there are no grand landings to speak of.
Red and orange barges list and blister
Shackled to the dock, outmoded, gaudy,
And apparently indestructible.
The sea pulses under a skin of oil.

A gull holds his pose on a shanty ridgepole,
Riding the tide of the wind, steady
As wood and formal, in a jacket of ashes,
The whole flat harbor anchored in
The round of his yellow eye-button.

A blimp swims up like a day-moon or tin
Cigar over his rink of fishes.
The prospect is dull as an old etching.
They are unloading three barrels of little crabs.
The pier pilings seem about to collapse

And with them that rickety edifice
Of warehouses, derricks, smokestacks and bridges
In the distance. All around us the water slips
And gossips in its loose vernacular,
Ferrying the smells of cod and tar.

Farther out, the waves will be mouthing icecakes —-
A poor month for park-sleepers and lovers.
Even our shadows are blue with cold.
We wanted to see the sun come up
And are met, instead, by this iceribbed ship,

Bearded and blown, an albatross of frost,
Relic of tough weather, every winch and stay
Encased in a glassy pellicle.
The sun will diminish it soon enough:
Each wave-tip glitters like a knife.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

Jacob: “You know sometimes I get a little worried that you’re gonna get my favorite planet blown up.”
Jack: “Yes. Which planet is that?”

— from Stargate

I’m always feeling a small bite of anxiety, in the back of my mind, as time passes, and we approach the End of Days for Mankind…. I’m not speaking about any predictions of doom related by supposed prophets, such as Rasputin, who predicted that today would be the beginning of the Apocalypse, or some such catastrophe, back in the day when he was known as the Mad Monk of Moscow…. No, I’m talking about the very real end of our stay on this planet, brought about by our own foolish belief that we are immortal, a belief that will find no basis in reality when we are all gone, victims of the physical laws we chose to ignore, laws we broke with what we believed was impunity….

What I worry about is that the end won’t come as I hope it will, in slow stages; that would at least give us a small chance of survival, on another planet, if not this one…. I’m afraid, though, it will come more quickly than I hope, fueled by the death throes of the ruling classes, who won’t want to believe that they are included in the sentence of death that we have passed upon ourselves…. They could conceivably make things even worse for the rest of us by their insane insistence on continuing the very actions that are killing us, and using force to keep on doing so…. I can envision such actions leading to a very ugly situation, as the declining resources of our planet, such as air to breathe, or water to drink, are fought over by the few remaining humans, with all the formidable ferocity of which we are capable…..

Forget about food, or shelter, ffolkes, the physics of these issues, global warming, and the pollution of the atmosphere, are a mathematical certainty, if the addition of CO and CO2 in massive quantities into the air continue at the current rate. Those figures, which cannot lie, show us a very ugly picture of ANY future that may result; ugly, in the fact that humans are NOT in the picture at all….. The oceans are getting warmer, as is the whole planet, and this leads to climate change; this is eminently clear from the geological and fossil history we already have proven to be true, and once the process starts, on a global scale, it takes time to stop it, or to restrict the changes that have been induced, time we no longer have….

But, this process is at least capable  of solution, physically…. It is the intransigence of the people who run things in our society, and the ignorance, avarice, and fear that controls them, that is keeping any possible solutions from being instituted, or even begun. This intransigence is not only holding things up, it could conceivably make it go faster, by creating upheavals in society that could cause the pressure cooker in which we live to explode into violence, even more so than it does now…

Such deal breaking events are already being seen in the news, as that area of our culture becomes ever more insane, right along with the rest of society…. For example, the current flap over the surveillance of email and phone conversations by the government is one that may eventually lead to more outrageous events, and be the cause of further increase in the rate we speed toward oblivion….. I’ve been watching the story unfold in the news, and become more flabbergasted as time passes.

The reaction of the government, in my mind, ever since this became public knowledge, has been characterized by disdain (by first denying, then admitting with a sheepish grin….), dishonesty (even in the face of their own documentation, they lie about the extent of the programs, and continue to do so…. see below….), and arrogant entitlement (they have neither admitted they were acting illegally, nor stopped or limited those illegal actions….).  In all of the public statements, I have seen no apology to the public, nor any real admission of wrong-doing; instead, the President talks about “having the trust of the public”, and issues a flurry of information that appears to show their commitment to controlling the surveillance, when all it really shows is that they aren’t doing much of anything to oversee the process….

Here are three articles that show exactly how much obfuscation and distraction are used as a technique for diverting the public’s attention away from the actual programs themselves, and focusing it on extraneous issues, that have no real effect on stopping, or limiting the surveillance. It just makes it LOOK like they are doing something….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Obama-defends-government-surveillance-programs-4755098.php

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/NSA-says-it-was-told-to-stop-collecting-some-data-4754364.php

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/NSA-collected-thousands-of-US-communications-4749853.php

Incredible amount of shadowy details, with no clear purpose in reporting them, other than distraction? Yep…. Plus, they admit right up front that their own attempts to restrict the collection have been relatively non-existent…. They speak of 56,000 emails that were “inadvertently” gathered up with some emails that “might” have come from terrorists…. What a crock! That number isn’t a fraction of a percentage point of the number of emails that go out daily, and doesn’t mention the fact that this collection was one of MILLIONS of times they mined such emails, or the BILLIONS of emails and phone calls that are monitored…. And, those 56,000 emails are the ones they’re saying they DIDN’T read….. as if they believe we’ll believe that….

Note also, if you will, the repetitive language used in the articles… showing clearly how the media fosters and maintains the lies that are being spread by those in charge, using words and phrases designed to encourage belief and trust in the BRC, as well as in the honesty and impartiality of the reporters…. However, to my mind, it just tells me that the media is supporting the agenda being promulgated by the government, and whether they are doing so unconsciously, or deliberately, they continue to be as much a part of the problem as those on whom they are reporting…..

Now, if some reporter would just ask the right questions, and report the answers accurately, maybe, just maybe we’d be able to shame them enough to actually make a change…. I don’t think I’ll be holding my breath, waiting for THAT to happen, though….

It is Maya!
Dost thou not know her?
Illusion — dreams — phantoms.
But, to the wise, Maya is more.
——————
But, to the wise, Maya is more.
Look around:
All that thou see’st,
Trees and shrubs, The grass at thy feet,
All that walks or creeps,
All that flies from tree to tree,
All is unreal: All is Maya.
Our bodies, our limbs, our very thoughts.
We ourselves are slaves to Maya.
What remaineth?  Who can say?
Love to the lover,
The child to the mother,
The song to the singer,
God to the worshipper;
These, wandering thro’ the world of Maya,
Are perchance shadows of that which is.

— Holst, Savitri (based upon the Sanskrit Mahabharata)
_____________________________

“I’m in my own little world, but everybody knows me there.” — Smart Bee

Since SB came up with a perfect closing line, I’ll just see how the rest went…. Considering everything that has gone into creating this, it’s not half bad… As such, I’m going to go post it, before collapsing for the balance of the morning…. So be it, gigoid has spoken….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Apocryphal messages from Betelgeuse, in Swedish slang, ….

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Ffolkes,

Today’s Pearl promises to be a marvel of human endeavor, if only I can get it done, a tribute to the perseverance of the human spirit. Of course, that probably sounds somewhat presumptuous, if not completely egotistical, but, it’s true, nonetheless. Just the effort of getting out of bed today reached monumental proportions, as several physical and mental issues presented themselves to my attention immediately upon opening my eyes…. Then, of course, after summoning the will to get up to an upright position, I had to go to even greater lengths to get myself up to get coffee…. Thankfully, it was ready, and I was able to drag myself over to the kitchen area, get it ready, and choke some down within a few moments of arising, a fact which has, no doubt, saved any hope of going on….

I had a bit of time yesterday when my back pain was tolerable, and got around to a few of my favorite blogs to read…. This was fortunate, in a way, as I found out where Murphy has been the last couple of days….. After reading the blog of susank456 ( here: http://birdsanddogs.com/2013/08/20/the-day-that-shall-remain-nameless/ ), it was clear he had spent the day with her, fussing with her in every possible way…. Though sympathetic to her plight, I had to smile in appreciation at my own fortune, in having at least one day without his miserable presence making itself felt. He spends entirely too much time here already, so, little as I wanted a friend to have a bad day, it was good to know that, in spite of being one of his favorites, I’m not his only target….

He’s back today, though, and though I don’t appreciate his ministrations, I accept them in the spirit in which they are presented, to wit: Life goes on, so deal… And, I will, despite the headache, despite the new knife in my neck, despite the inner ear disturbance making me stagger around like a drunk, and, despite the miasmal overall feeling of impending doom, a gift, no doubt, of my PTSD, which has deigned to leave me alone for some time, but now has decided to manifest itself in this minor way…. It’s annoying, as I KNOW I have no reason to feel unreasoned fear; everything in my life is proceeding apace, and I’m content with how it is going….. Hence, these feelings of incipient doom are just leftover nerve impulses from an earlier time, which my brain has decided to let out now, rather than back when there was need for them….

As mentioned, though, it’s minor, and fairly easily thrown aside, thanks to my basic outlook, which generally doesn’t give much of a shit about that kind of stuff; it’s too familiar to produce the same panic as it once did, so, it’s merely a matter of performing the mental equivalent of blowing one’s nose when it gets too full…. All the excess angst and fear will get blown away into the ether, using the virtual tissue we call a blog…. I hope none of it gets on your clothing; I’ll do my best to confine it to the tissue, but, one never knows exactly how it all will turn out, does one?….

So, today, I would suggest you take advantage of the accessory materials that are provided for you in the compartment just under your seat…. There is a bib, an oxygen mask, and some containers of Jell-o, in case you need a little snack…. Oh, and there’s a flotation device, too, for any water landings that go wrong…. it looks like a rubber ducky, but, when you squeeze the bill, it inflates into a larger version, which is suitable for all bodies of water…. Never say we don’t have style, eh?….

Shall we Pearl?….

But sorrow return’d with the dawning of morn,
And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.

— Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) — The Soldier’s Dream
_____________________________

What with the dizziness, and the fog through which I’m viewing the universe, this is going slowly, requiring many breaks to ease my pain… To make it go a bit faster, we’ll throw in an old-school format, which is less time-consuming, even though no less challenging in nature. We’ll even let Smart Bee take the lead on the search parameters, and see what kind of mischief it can find for us today….  Don’t forget to fasten your seat belts, please; the flight can get bumpy on these fanciful flights into the realms of nonsense and whimsy….

FOOL, n.  A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity.  He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscience, omnipotent.  He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences.  He created patriotism and taught the nations war — founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago.  He established monarchical and republican government.  He is from everlasting to everlasting — such as creation’s dawn beheld he fooleth now.  In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being.  His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the  set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man’s evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal
grave.  And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Reality is an obstacle to hallucination.” — Smart Bee

“When late morning rolls around and you’re feeling a bit out of sorts, don’t worry; you’re probably just a little eleven o’clockish.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“He who learns but does not think, is lost!  He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.” — Confucius

“I’m not black, but there’s a whole lot of times I wish I could say I’m not white.” — Frank Zappa

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Oops! My bad…. we took a turn away from nonsense and whimsy, and ended up over in the critical thinking section…. Sorry, but, somebody left the map taped upside down, as a joke, I guess…. Oh well, nobody got anything on them, did they? Good… we’ll go on, and try to put this out of our minds, okay?… Please?….
_____________________________

Okay, here… I’ll distract y’all with an impenetrable poem…. It’s one I wrote a little over a year ago, and just found the other day…. I believe I wrote it in response to one of the school massacre shootings that happened that year…. It’s a bit thick, but, with some pretty fancy footwork… not too bad, altogether, and certainly worth a read, if for no other reason to get on by it to section three….

Modest sounds of impatient concern….

Crowds converge at the raw and grisly scene,
comatose to compassion, curiosity tugging at the hem
with sharp, oh, sharp tools made obscene,
filing the essence of future hopes in spite of them.

Yet who has won the keys to the treasure,
who whipped up the fear of another brother?
Who spent the dreams of the old in selfish measure,
with such arrogant blindness grave issues to smother?

Fateful decisions may prompt still another pause,
to catch and release collective images of insanity.
Surely legitimate anger arises with ample cause
wallowing in self-made entrepreneurs, fluent in profanity.

A quartet of eternities must pass to guarantee change,
regardless of need, or desire, or autonomous manipulation.
Ancient rules and modern aggression is only passing strange
when golden delusion grasps futilely at its related illusory station.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

I’m not in any condition to sit long enough to rant, and I’m overdue for one, so, I’m resorting to the archives again, since they’re there, and they have over 750 posts from which to pull stuff for today, some of which is actually pretty good, to my mind (well, I DID write it….) Any who, here is a rant for y’all, from December of 2012…. It could  have been written today; the material is that fresh, and the subject is one that seldom undergoes any great changes, at least not of the nature of that part under discussion….

Oh, and consider this… I wrote this BEFORE any of the articles in the Guardian, about the NSA’s surveillance, based on the documents from the NSA itself, leaked by Eric Snowden, had been published, or heard of…. Mr. Snowden, at the time of this writing, was just making, or had just made, his decision to abscond with the information, and was busy figuring out how to get in touch with the reporters he contacted…. I guess my paranoia wasn’t, and isn’t, so out of place, now, is it?…..

Enjoy!…
——————-

“Just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you!” — Smart Bee

Last week, or maybe earlier, another blogger and I were both ID’d as being a bit paranoid, (self-identified, I might add) because we happen to believe at least some of the conspiracy rumors continually floating around the internet. Each of us took comfort from the above sentiment, knowing it to be 100% true, and have mutual agreement in that belief. He seems to be pretty tech-savvy, posting a lot of different types of media on his blog, so he must have similar knowledge as I of computers, and the functions of which current technology is capable. This knowledge, along with a deep understanding of human nature, is the root cause for our paranoia, and, its justification…..

“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.” — Aristotle

The little laptop computer upon which I type to create these Pearls of Virtual Wisdom is an amazing machine, and fairly representative of what is available to the public these days. It has, quite simply, more computing power in it than was present in the ENTIRE WORLD when the first laptop was on the design boards, when I got my first clunky 386. What this simple fact(oid) implies is this: the government, and its supporters, the bankers, corporations, and churches, has available for their use, enough computing power to record EVERY piece of communication, of EVERY type, created each day in the ENTIRE WORLD. Along with that capability, to monitor ALL communications, it has the capability of mining that huge amount of data for significant words, phrases, and patterns that will inform them of anyone, anywhere, who is speaking in a way that is potentially against their interests.

Yep…. every single piece of published communication, via phone, internet, TV, radio, or any other form of media by which humans communicate, is vulnerable to being overheard by those in the beloved ruling class…. (addendum, 8/21/13: or, for that matter, by anyone with the technological know-how….) Allow me to assure you, the reasons for which they want this information have nothing to do with YOUR rights, or YOUR interests, nor are they going to tell you, either that they are doing it, or how often, or where, or anything about it.

In many public places, with cameras and recording devices, it is possible for them to overhear even the words we speak to each other face to face. If they wish, they can even concentrate technology on a single spot, (such as your car, your living room, or kitchen…..), and listen to every word spoken there, even if they are not within miles of the place. There is, by published report, no place left on Earth where technology cannot penetrate, to listen to what is being spoken, given the opportunity, and the time to employ the needed technology.

So, my friend and I are well aware that what we write and publish here online is perfectly available to those who care about such matters, and they WILL be listening to what EVERYONE is saying, even, or, perhaps especially, us. Since I have a tendency to rant against the very people who are listening, I doubt that my name is missing from several lists of theirs. In fact, I’d be surprised if it was missing from those lists…. if it is, they’re not paying attention…..   🙂

As I’ve said before ffolkes, be alert; the world needs all the lerts it can get. You are being watched, and listened to, whether you choose to believe it or not, so it would behoove you to, perhaps, take that into account. Please, don’t fall into that, “oh, you’re just being paranoid,” attitude, or the “well, if I don’t say anything wrong, they can’t get me,” fallacy…. One of the primary characteristics of those with the power-mongering gene is a certain irrationality that is inherent in their make-up…. They have an unfortunate tendency to act on belief and faith, not on fact, so their actions, while fairly predictable, are somewhat irrationally chosen, and don’t necessarily make any sense to those of us who use our minds for other things than reclining upon…. Remember, as Lazarus Long advises, “Always cut the cards.”…..

I have read and understood the above. 

X ______________________
_____________________________

Okay, I’m happy…. Considering how I felt when I got up, this has gone very well…. Now, if only it reads as well as it flowed out…. Hope springs eternal….

As usual, I was half-right (half-write?)…. It’s not bad, but, again, don’t bother calling the Pulitzer Committee…. It’s good enough for the standards we hold around here, certainly, so, I’ll be off to do that…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

We were hoping for more of a gestalt version….

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Ffolkes,

“…. crawfish pie, filet gumbo…”  Can’t say why, but that song is stuck in my head this morning…. “…. gonna have big fun, on the bayou.” I must have been dreaming in Acadian, or something….. There’s a word, a good word, Acadian, another word lifted from another language by English, used to describe the group of folks who settled in Louisiana in the early 1800’s.  Their culture, brought with them from France, melded into the mix of English,
Spanish, Indian, and African cultures that already flourished in the New Orleans area, producing what we now call Cajun food, music, and culture. (“Cajun” is a bastardization of the way the word “Acadian” comes through into English…. When pronounced correctly, it sounds like ‘a cajiun”, which, on the naturally lazy tongues of the new worlders, became “cajun”…..)

Now that the trivia portion of today’s post is finished, I’m left again in the lurch, with no intro planned. I could play my guitar for a while, and maybe sing y’all a song, but, I don’t really want to scare anyone away so early. Not that I’m terrible, it’s just that, so early in the day, my musical taste is a bit suspect; I’ve been known to listen to Mendelssohn, or Bach, for hours on end, and I don’t think y’all are ready to go back to sleep just yet, are you? I thought not…. Besides, I don’t do opera….

That does leave me adrift again, though…. Hmm…. now where shall I go to hide the fact that I am a poseur? That I am incapable of true creation, and all of my ambition to be a writer is a fool’s errand. I spend a lot of effort to keep it from becoming commonly known, but, days like today make it hard to keep it under my hat. If only I was ruthless, or politically minded, or had no shame at lying to people; then I could run for a public office, and make my living from the public trough. Unfortunately, I have lots of ruth,  no political ambition, and often break into hives when I lie, so, being a politician is out of the question….

If there was a way to start all this over again, without having to toss out what is already done, well, that would be good, and would save me a lot of headache…. No such luck exists, however, so, I’m stuck with this, and haven’t a clue as to what to do to salvage what’s left, of what started out as a perfectly good intro… one that turned so swiftly to crap, I almost didn’t see it happen….. I suppose I could recycle it; we are encouraged to re-use old stuff, but, I don’t think this will stand up to a second use. It’s liable to turn rogue on us, and injure someone in its death throes…. No, recycling old intros is a pastime rife with danger, and we’ll have none of it here….

Oh well, I’m going to have to once again resort to the whimsical methods I’ve used so effectively in the past, to amaze, to entertain, to educate, and, ultimately, to confuse the reading public, or, at the very least, those of that group who stumble into this blog, and can’t find their way out…. In other words, voi-fucking-la!  It’s an intro….

It would be quite insane, on the whole, to expect anyone to believe me if I claimed it’s a good one, in its own little way, but, it’s legal, it’s typo-free, and, it’s done, so there isn’t a damn thing to do but let it go out the way it is, and hope for the best….. In this case, I think that if we can get through the day without any further bloodshed, it will be alright…. If not, well, there’s always tomorrow, right?….

Shall we Pearl?…..

— Bother! said Pooh, as the pin fell out of the grenade.
_____________________________

So, I was sitting here, trying to decide what to do…. rant, pearl, or fake it? Any of the above would be acceptable and appropriate, but, I’m not feeling any of those particularly strongly this morning, so I’m going to cheat…. I was cruising through some old Pearls yesterday, and found some that I enjoyed (God, I hope so!….) Any who, I thought this one was kind of fun, and pretty coherent, on the whole…. Since I’m lazy, and in charge, I’m including it here today, just because I can…. This is from August of 2011, if it matters…..

Ffolkes,
Another day dawns, dammit!  Not really, but that was the first line that ran through my head this morning, so….better out than in, I say…Thus begins another fine day in paradise.

All of us have our secret fears; those little demons from our dreams that escape out into the real world and assault us at those moments we least expect it. How do we deal with it? Me, I’m a champion at denial; I can ignore most problems until they pretty much either give up or solve themselves. The few that aren’t subject to this method do tend to slap me around pretty well, but for the most part, I go along with King Ralph I, who said, “Well, the first thing we should do is order new globes.There’s no problem so big it can’t be ignored if we put our minds to it.”

While ordering new globes won’t help my current batch of woes, a dedicated state of ignorance duly cultivated while asleep can be of great use. In that state, even the news of the day can’t break through to that part of me that will worry over it. I’ve finally figured out that the rest of mankind is on their own; I’m retired, and no longer care about such mundane matters…..so be it…..

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

You may be a king
Or a little street sweeper,
But sooner or later
You’ll dance with the reaper.
— Reaper Rap (Grim Reaper, “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey”)

“A wise man first determines what is within his control; all else is then irrelevant.” — Epictetus

“Life is pleasant.  Death is peaceful.  It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” — Isaac Asimov

“Life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.” — Jean de la Bruyere

So there you have it…..carefully applied, you too can take comfort in the ready arms of practiced denial….and it only hurts yourself!!! How many things in life can you say that about?…..  Y’all take care out there…..meanwhile, I’m going to try to get my tongue out of my cheek, where it has been firmly lodged for some time now……
_____________________________

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.” — ee cummings

The Dragon of Grindly Grun

I’m the Dragon of Grindly Grun,
I breathe fire as hot as the sun.
When a knight comes to fight
I just toast him on sight,
Like a hot crispy cinnamon bun.

When I see a fair damsel go by,
I just sigh a fiery sigh,
And she’d baked like a ‘tater-
I think of her later
With a romantic tear in my eye.

I’m the Dragon of Grindly Grun,
But my lunches aren’t very much fun,
For I like my damsels medium rare,
and they always come out well done.

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

_____________________________

Below is another Pearl from the archives, from 2011… It would take at least two paragraphs and several hundred words to tell you the reasons why it is included here today, words I don’t intend to write…. Suffice it to say more than one compelling reason presented itself, so, here it is, for what it is worth…. It’s a pretty good one, all things considered, and could be considered as a bonus, were you so inclined….

Ffolkes,
I think it’s safe to say we all get pretty tired of the political circus as played out here in the USA; it all seems so pointless, until you realize it is directly affecting your own life, then it just gets irritating. Everyone I know has beliefs and convictions, with their own methods of dealing with the world, and their own methods of how to treat other people. Mostly they all get along just fine. Then I look at what is being said in the arena of public discourse, and there doesn’t seem to be any correlation, no connection with what I know is real for most folks.

The avaricious ones, the ones who seek public office, have an entirely different view of reality than most of the Americans I know. Even the conservatives I talk to think differently than the politicians, except for those few who allow the politicians to do their thinking for them, and merely parrot those talking points currently in fashion. It’s unfortunate that there are a LOT of the last category, which is part of the reason why the talking heads are able to maintain their death-grip on the almighty profit margin.

Since the whole point of the above is how sick I am of hearing the nonsense in the news, I won’t rant any further today on that subject. Don’t really feel like ranting anyway; it’s already been a tough morning, and I’d rather turn in a more positive direction. It took over 25 minutes on the phone, but I was able to complete a necessary task this A.M., and I’m using that to act as the driver for the rest of today’s tasks. All of this is just a long, convoluted and obfuscatory way to say, enjoy!……

“Confront them with annihilation, and they will survive; plunge them in a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.” — Sun Tzu

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeoning of chance;
My head is bloody but unbowed.
It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll;
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

— Henley

I know you think that you understood what you thought I said, but I am not  all that sure that you understand that I seldom say what I think and even less often do I mean what I say.

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.

If you think women are moody and bossy – get a cat.

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
— William Butler Yeats, “The Stolen Child”

There you go; a little whimsy is good for the soul…..so is epiphany. Y’all take care out there…..
_____________________________

As a practicing curmudgeon, and a critically acclaimed bozoid, it behooves me to say, at this point, just how proud I am to have been nominated for this award…. Oh, sorry, wrong file…. Okay, here we are…. Well, that was interesting…. Some rather esoteric remnants of sanity being bandied about here, eh? If one didn’t know better, one might think that I had gone around the bend, so far I’ll never find the way back…. but, then, illusion is what it’s all about, now, isn’t it?….

I’m somewhat relieved to find myself here in the closing section of today’s Pearl…. The lines and defining characteristics of reality are starting to become rather blurred and indistinct, due, I’m sure, to the volatile nature of what has been written here today…. We wouldn’t want to get charged for any undue wear and tear on either space, or time, so we’ll call it a day, before it gets any worse…. (Of course, as you can see, it’s already gone off the rails….). Let’s see how it reads….

Well, ffolkes, it’s a Pearl, and there is NO doubt at all about that….. As such, I’m going to take the money and run, before I lose the courage it takes to hit the “Publish” button…. Ta ta, then….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

A frail piece, outlined in pink aspic….

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Ffolkes,

— Bother! said Pooh, as he realized Piglet was indeed the essence of Chaotic Evil.

As unbelievable as it may seem at first, this is exactly how I feel this morning. Oh, not to worry, Piglet isn’t here, so I don’t have to bother about that, but, I know just how frustrated and surprised Pooh felt when it became clear just what those late night episodes with Piglet meant…. it’s a bummer, to say the least.

The problem is, I have absolutely no reason to feel any such emotions right now…. Oh, there are the usual number of worrisome events going on in my life, the kind that are always threatening to occur, but, nothing that should cause the degree of fear and anxiety that is sweeping through me as I write, and, as has plagued me since getting started today….

Ah, gotta love this mental illness, it’s such a joy. To awaken in the grip of diffuse anxiety, and unreasoning, unspecified fear, with tears, ready to flow, sitting behind the eyes, adding the pressure of filled sinuses to the catalog of the day’s events…. So, you can add a runny nose to all that is bugging me right now, just for good measure….

The pisser remains that I have no good reason to feel like this, in truth; it’s all a gift from my unconscious, which has apparently decided to continue punishing me for allowing myself to become broken, by the work that I did for so long…. I don’t know why it is still so upset; the choice at the time was either to go to work for the state, taking care of the mentally ill, or to go into the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines (shudder….) and get carted off to play soldier in the jungles of Southeast Asia….

I didn’t use heroin, so I had no investment in fighting over there that at the behest of the government, to protect THEIR drug interests, and had no intention of falling into the trap of lies they told the public, all about how Communism would overrun the West Coast if we didn’t go over there to fight them gooks….. I have no problem with the armed services, only with the illegal use of them for the private interests of the politicians, who lied to the public, both about why the war was necessary, and about why we needed to go there to fight. Since it WAS all lies, I had no compunctions about refusing to participate in it…. Of course, they’re still at it, but that’s another story, for another day….

A lot of my peers went, though, and suffered the hell of being in extreme danger for long periods of time, eventually becoming depressed by their experience in such numbers that the old term “combat fatigue”, around since World War I and II, used to describe how people react to long-term immersion in situations of life-threatening danger, evolved into a new psychiatric diagnosis, called PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder…..

It is a condition with which I can empathize, as well as sympathize, as I fell prey to its depredations in my own work, with dangerously violent mentally ill individuals, who lacked any and all control of their actions, resorting to violence on a regular and frequent basis to achieve their wants and needs…. It doesn’t take bullets flying through the air to make a person afraid for their life, believe me….

Any who, that’s all in the past, but, it does reach out to slap me down now and again, and today is one of those days…  I have a lot to do, out in the real world, so, I’m once again blazing new trails in blogging…. This is all I’m posting today…. just the intro section, and then a teaser for each of the three sections that normally would follow…. I’m so….. fraught, I guess, is the right word…. I’m so fraught with anxiety and distress right now, I don’t even have the wherewithal to use archived material, so, rather than cheat more, I’ll just post again tomorrow, and hope that I still have a Gentle Reader or two out there, hoping to find another pearl of virtual wisdom….

Shall we NOT Pearl?…..
_____________________________

“One of the merits of democracy is quite obvious: it is perhaps the most charming form of government ever devised by man.  The reason is not far to seek.  It is based on propositions that are palpably not true — and what is not true, as everyone knows, is always immensely more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of men than what is true.” — H. L. Mencken

Tomorrow, I will use this quote by Mr. Mencken as either the basis for a rant (for which it is eminently suited…), or as one of a fine, lustrous old-school pearl on the subject of politics and government, or, as we say around here, we’ll take a few shots at the BRC…. I’m almost looking forward to it….
_____________________________

Here, I’ll post a poem…. duh!
_____________________________

“The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world.” — Max Born, physicist

Boy, if this isn’t another fine rant, waiting to be written…. It almost makes me want to throw off this depression, and start writing…. But, since I still can’t seem to go five minutes without tears starting to flow, we’ll just go on to another day…. Sorry, ffolkes, I hate when this happens, but, it’s best to get past it before I do something stupid, which, as you know, is anathema to my soul….
_____________________________

That’s all I’ve got today, brothers and sisters…. Again, my apologies, or, if I haven’t offered them yet, here they are…. Sorry ’bout that, but, I just don’t have it today, and don’t feel like pretending I do, as is often the case…. I’m going to go let it go now, and go finish crying, so maybe I can get on with the rest of the day without further embarrassment…. If I can find any pride left, I’ll see y’all tomorrow….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Pug dogs don’t count as flammable items….

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Ffolkes,
Today, this blank screen holds no fear for me. That is not to say that I have discovered a way to overcome the issue of what to write for the intro every morning; that seems to be a problem with resistance to solution stronger than my creative urges. No, indeed, I see no way out of that particular conundrum, given my history thus far as a blogger, and my insistence on posting every day, regardless of whether or not I am ready to do so. However, today, there are only four days left before I leave to travel again, and no fear can push through the excited exaltation that infuses my spirit at the thought of once more pursuing, and catching hold of, a dream….

Hmm…. it seems that even the absence of fear is not sufficient reason to make this intro any easier to write. Now that I’ve begun the day with a personal note, choosing a direction to take seems like the next logical step. Sadly, I haven’t a clue as to what that direction might be, or even what it could be. I’ve arisen late, and refreshed in both body and spirit (for a change), and I hardly know what to do with myself. I’ve got all this energy, and nowhere to put it yet… which is probably why I continue to babble away, just as if I had something worthwhile to say. “Just look out the window…” you say? Well, it’s worth a try, I suppose….

Well, I looked…. In at least one respect, it was good advice…. by changing my viewpoint, I did find new potential subject matter within purview. Several objects I saw could be turned into at least a short discussion, but, I am not sure how interesting a description of the faded wall of the next house would be, or whether or not I could find a metaphor for the catalog of stuffed animals in the window that would be entertaining or instructive enough to warrant the effort. It’s a good idea, but, too late, I think, to save this particular opening foray against the day’s challenge. In fact, there may not be anything at all to be done about this one; it seems to have died an ignominious death before it ever lived…. It certainly doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere, does it?

Oh well, that’s okay, it’s happened before, and will, no doubt, happen again in the future. Perhaps one day I’ll find my niche, or my template, or whatever it is that will serve as a consistent way to open each day’s post. Perhaps not, in which case, we all will have to learn to deal with whatever I come up with… which, I suppose, is a pretty good metaphor for how to approach life… We have to learn to deal with reality, whatever shape it takes, so learning to deal with an intro section actually shouldn’t cause too much trouble for us, as long as we can translate the metaphor into real action… Piece o’cake, yes?…..

Shall we Pearl?

“A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original.” — Louis Armstrong
_____________________________

Of late, I’ve been reading the news online, and in newspapers, and have noted a disturbing trend in what is reported. It is disturbing in several ways, most significantly in its clarity regarding the admissions made by government officials about their own activities….. It seems to me that the powers that be, at almost every level, from local government, to state, to federal, and all the way into the shadow government, consisting of the true rulers of mankind, the ones who control all the politicians and banker-types, telling them what can and cannot be allowed, are no longer trying to hide from the public, but are being seen and reported more often.

Normally, they make at least a token effort to cover up any potentially harmful acts on their part, such as theft, or outright lies, either ignoring questions put to them on those matters, or issuing denials spun in such a way as to imply fault in the question, or merely distracting the questioners with personal attacks; they have, and utilize, a number of effective techniques to spin things so they come out looking good. But, all of a sudden, in the last couple of months, they seem to have given up, at least partially, trying to hide their chicanery, and allowing what appears to be criticism, of what the elected officials have done or said, to appear in the news reports….. Here are two examples of what I mean…

“U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.”  — from SFGATE, 6/24/2013
Link to entire article: http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/NSA-leaker-Snowden-expected-to-fly-to-Cuba-4617974.php

The above was excerpted from the above article, not just because it seemed to me to be the most accurate assertion in the whole report, but, also comes in as the most ironic statement, situated as it was. as the last sentence in the article.

“The deal calls for Loncke and three other plaintiffs representing the class to receive $9,000 each, with the others splitting $639,000. Their arrest records would be sealed and destroyed. Their attorneys would receive $350,000.”
Link to entire article: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/1-million-payout-in-Oakland-mass-arrests-4619816.php

This one simply astounded me… The lawyers received 33.3% of the total settlement!!! I know it’s rude to use so many exclamation points at once, but, I went into shock, with my mouth dropping open wide when I read that line, which was also the last line in the article (Hmm…. Is there a cynic loose in the SFGATE web editing offices?….)

Now, this points up two distinctly different  issues, of course, but the fact that the articles both contained statements that imply criticism of the BRC is significant. In the first, the BRC overseers didn’t bother to keep the last statement out of the article, even though it clearly states that, not only is the government engaging in illegal or immoral activity, but is also not afraid to talk about it…. The officials spoke, probably admitting to an illegal act on the part of a government agency or official, but did so in direct violation of their own rules….

I know that this particular phrase has been used in the press for a long time, to indicate two things…. One, that the reporter has found out something bad going on in our government, and has managed to trick the administration into admitting it; and, two, some unknown official has bravely taken the side of the people to get the information out…..

Neither one of these is usually true…. The reporter is a shill, reporting whatever their contact tells them to report, and doesn’t give a shit about the people, as long as his or her name is at the top of the report…. Second, the official isn’t on anybody’s side but their own, and are deliberately feeding the reporter what the powers that be wish him to report, which almost guarantees it is a lie, plain and simple….

In the second example, I’ve italicized the significant line…. The lawyers in this case are the only ones who benefited by the verdict, obviously… What disturbs me is that they don’t even care that people are aware of how badly they have ripped off everyone involved….

Allowing the lawyers to make that much off the misery of the participants, misery of which they are a prime cause, is reprehensible enough, all by itself…. But, to publicly report it shows how little respect for the public that either the lawyers, or the ruling classes have for the general public…. They know that nobody can do anything about the way they have things set up, so they no longer care about showing their hands….

The BRC controls Congress, it controls the Courts, it controls the Executive Branch, and, most importantly, it controls the media…. Anyone who believes otherwise is whistling in the dark, and needs to reexamine all they believe about their elected officials, or, for that matter, reality. We are being lied to, and cheated, and having our rights taken away, one by one, under our very noses.

The assholes responsible are even trying to convince us all that it is for our own good, that allowing restrictions to rights is the only way to “protect” us from those evil terrorists…. Terrorists who would not even exist, were it not for those self-same immoral acts that cause resentment and anger….. which is the intent…. The more angry and resentful people are, the easier they are to control… Think about it….

I see that this has grown rather long, and still has a lot of room for expansion… There is no lack of available data to support all I’m saying today, everywhere I look… on liberal sites, on conservative sites, neutral sites, all of them are full of examples, both of how we are being screwed, and of how little it is being hidden any more. They don’t care, ffolkes, and they aren’t going to change…. I’m tired of ranting, even though it is rather self-sustaining, anger-wise, so I’ll cut this short here, and just say this, to the American public…

Wake up! It’s our only chance at survival, and more importantly, the only chance for survival for our children….. Too many of them are already indoctrinated to believe whatever they are told on TV, and that control is insidiously and steadily creeping into the internet…. Eventually, it will kill us all, if we allow it….

“HELLO, everybody, I’m a HUMAN!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

I’m not sure what to think of the above rant…. It’s a bit disjointed, and lacking in discipline, due, I think, to the amorphous nature of the subject under discussion… Precise definition of the human spirit is, to say the least, difficult, and fraught with danger, of inaccuracy, and of obsession. In light of that, I offer this, a poem I wrote a while back, that points out a method by which we can, at least, not become overmastered by reality….

Accentuated Lessons

Bold statements of calculated intent
Become common rule of the malcontent.
Avarice assumes such attractive wear
Beguiling deception, illusory and fair.

Grasping and pulling with ghostly hands
Legally proper in all the signatory lands.
Seeking and finding each vulnerable soul
Anguish as payment for exacting the toll.

Wraiths of commerce’s invisible dead guards
Still haunt the dreams left in sad empty yards.
While absentee nobles sit in stiffly elegant splendor
Served by sad-faced detainees in abject surrender.

Escape from reality is illusory at best
Often we falter and fail its daily test.
Only when focused on inner strength
Does peace stay with us for any length.

Peace lies within, always…..

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

I’ve ranted myself out, and don’t even have the energy to pull together an old-school pearl…. so, we’ll dip into the archives for one from 2012… enjoy!…..

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

Caution: Old School Pearl Ahead. Gird Your Grids For A Big One…..

“Two babies were born on the same day at the same hospital. They lay there and looked at each other.  Their families came and took them away.  Eighty years later, by a bizarre coincidence, they lay in the same hospital, on their deathbeds, next to each other.  One of them looked at the other and said, “So. What did you think?” — Steven Wright

A monk said to Joshu, “I have just entered this monastery. Please teach me.”
“Have you eaten your breakfast?” Joshu asked.
“Yes, I have,” replied the student.
“Then you had better wash your bowl.”
— Smart Buddhist Bee

“TAPPING?  You POLITICIANS!  Don’t you realize that the END of the “Wash Cycle” is a TREASURED MOMENT for most people?!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“I’ll get you my pretty,  and your little dog too!” — Wicked Witch of the East

“Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

There, that should do it…. I’ve made this as clear as mud, obviously…. Don’t worry, though, it won’t be on the test…. In fact, it won’t even count toward graduation, not that we care about stuff like that…. But, it does make a good point, yes?  Nod your head…..
_____________________________

It all feels disjointed, somehow. Everything seemed to come out in fits and starts, and I couldn’t seem to keep track of direction…. Probably getting the mushy-brain, pre-cruise brain syndrome, where all I can think about is how good it will feel to walk on that ship….. Ah well, gotta stay focused for another few days…. Let’s see how this came out….. Well, not too bad, all things considered… It will have to do, for I’m not doing it over….. Try not to hold it against me, okay?…. Thanks…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Susceptible to diverse therapeutic models….

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Ffolkes,
Oh, hello there…. come on in, but mind your head on the doorway there…. We’re doing a bit of remodeling, made necessary by an incident that took place late last night. There I was, sleeping peacefully, until about 3 AM, when all of a sudden, every piece of loose paper in the apartment burst into flame, WHOOSH, and I found myself frantically spraying water from the sink all over the place, alternated with beating out licks of flame on every surface…. A real nightmare, for sure, but without the benefit of being asleep….. It’s a real mess, but, I managed to get all the flames out before any of the walls or anything else got involved, so, I’m forced to assume the attitude of “it could be worse”. Which, of course, it very easily could have been, had it actually occurred…

No, that’s right, you heard me correctly…. I’m lying again, or, as we authors like to call it, being creative….. For the life of me, I couldn’t think of anything to start with today; the only thing I could come up with was this little bit of prevarication, which I justified as being acceptable only with the greatest reluctance…. I don’t really enjoy lying, as it challenges all I was taught as a boy by my father, but, how else can one make fiction, if not by a form of lying about reality? Any new story,  or any idea that hasn’t been already used, is, from one viewpoint, a lie, because it doesn’t exist in reality. Even though I know this, it doesn’t help to keep quiet those voices we have in our heads, put there by our parents in our infancy. I don’t know about y’all, but the voices in my head can be quite insistent, and annoying….

I know, I know, there are medications for that, but, these voices aren’t psychotic in nature; I actually heard them, utilized by my parental units, stating whatever advice or warning they  were trying to convey, at one point or another in my youth, so the medicines wouldn’t prevent them from making themselves known. Of course, most of what they say is a repeat of stuff we already know, so it’s not hard to just let it go by without getting worked up, or feeling any guilt, which, when dealing with stuff our parents gave us, is an occupational hazard…. I am SOOO glad I got rid of guilt in my life; I can’t tell you what a difference it has made….

Well, all of that is certainly….. well, it’s done. It’s words in a row, all of which are relatively connected to the ones nearby, which makes for a more pleasant appearance, as well as helping it to make whatever sense it may possess…. In this case, not a lot…. In fact, practically ALL of this intro section, thus far today, could be considered as sheer drivel, were it not for the need to keep some dignity on board. In looking back over what I’ve written so far, I can only hope that I haven’t gotten any of it on any new clothing items, and that nobody takes it seriously…. Even for me, this one is pretty loose, so, please, be careful handling it… it might not have a lot of sharp edges, but it WILL leave a stain….

“One cannot make up stories; one can only retell in new ways the stories one has already heard.” — Carolyn Heilbrun

Shall we Pearl?…..
_____________________________

— Bother! said Pooh, as time unraveled around him.

Boy, don’t you just hate when that happens? I know I do…. and, these days, I feel like time is definitely becoming looser, and less likely to stay in its proper form. This may have to do with how close we are approaching our demise as a species, or with the constant barrage of insanity that continues to be displayed every day in the news…..

Some days it is impossible to keep up with all the stupidly insane, absolutely bonkers stuff that pours out of the mouths of pundits and politicos, preachers and police spokepersons (silly damn word….). It seems to me that government, as we know it, could do with a sense of humor…. Currently, there just isn’t anything funny about what they’re doing, in almost every arena, and I, for one, could do with a break from their implacable stupidity…..

I had intended to rant here, and to some extent, that will hold true…. I suppose the above paragraph could be counted as rantlike, but it needs some direction before it will come close to drawing any blood; I try to make sure it will at least cause a wound that will scar up, or what’s the point? However, at this point, there is just too much to choose from among the issues that are in the public eye right now…..

The Supremes are taking up the question of gaiety, and whatever they say will certainly cause consternation in one camp or another; the Feds are proving their complete lack of a sense of humor, by bringing charges (a euphemism for ‘persecuting’….) against the whistle blower who is hiding in Hong Kong, who had the audacity to tell the truth in public without their permission; civil wars are happening in the middle east again, and even the players can’t tell who’s who; another public circus is being played out in a Floridian court of justice (is that an oxymoron?…), where a paranoid racist murderer is being protected by the system….. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an article about penguins today, just to counterbalance all the disturbing shit being broadcast everywhere….

I can’t keep up with all of it; it’s getting crazy out there, ffolkes, and getting there faster all the time…. Any who… Since I can’t keep up, and can’t decide on what subject I should rant, we’ll try some cosmic Judo, and use my own weight against me…. We’ll go old school, and see what happens… These quotes are…. well, they are what they are, and they say whatever it is they’re going to say…. Deal with it, and enjoy….

“If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Be patriotic – question authority.” — Bumper Sticker

“An ethical man is a Christian holding four aces.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

— William Butler Yeats, “The Stolen Child”

“I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn’t.” — Jules Renard

That’s it, I give up…. Smart Bee is being a butthead today; this pearl took an inordinate amount of time to put together, for so little result…. but, it works, so we’ll get on with the rest of today’s effort, and consider it all a wash up to now….
_____________________________

Between what I see and what I say
Between what I say and what I keep silent
Between what I keep silent and what I dream
Between what I dream and what I forget:
Poetry.

— Octavio Paz (1914-1998)

Honorable Request

Days, filled to a brim with fluff and time, pass
dimly into memory, bit by combative bit,
ever mournful, yet loud with life and sass,
only in dream do we meet, and dance, and flit.

Souls, spinning ’round in gleeful wonder, comply
as they must, never given a reason,
somberly proper, yet limber and quite spry,
dancing on to greet each bright new season.

Storms, angered by apathetic care, rage
proceeding into ministerial glare, unknown,
clothed in colors, purified solely with sage,
past an infinite future, already flown.

Life, plumbed to its depths and secrets, keeps
flowing with currents, strong and fairly found,
love stands, asking release, as it slowly weeps,
seeking refuge unasked, to stay honor bound.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Section one today turned out to be a bit strange, which, while not unexpected, did screw the format up a trifle. I don’t have a rant left in me, beyond what I’ve already done, and SB is being wonky about giving me what I need… So, I’m resorting to the archives, where I found this little religirant, not too long, and quite fitting, given what has gone before…. Plus, it’s done, and I don’t have to worry about being more creative (not that I lost a lot of sleep over that….)…. Any who, here is a pearl from mid-2012 sometime…..

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

I don’t have an attitude problem–it’s supposed to be like this. — Smart Bee

I like this. It’s what I’ve said to any number of folks who have challenged me regarding my intransigence in the face of ignorant behavior. I am always tempted to add, “I am an American citizen, and it is not only my right, but my duty to challenge authority,”  mainly because I believe it to be absolutely true, thought not an attitude currently favored by most of society, more’s the pity…. We’d be a lot better off if more folks took their duties as citizens more seriously….

“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.” — Thomas Paine

All of our founding fathers were convinced that only an educated populace had a chance of maintaining the freedoms they secured for us. They knew firsthand how unscrupulous churches and governments, working hand in hand, had oppressed and subjugated the people for centuries, and they were determined that it should NOT happen here. So they engineered a system whereby each citizen has the opportunity, and the right, to a complete grounding in basic knowledge, in order that they could make informed decisions regarding the laws with which they would be living….

“The Church hates a thinker like a criminal hates the police.” — Smart Bee (So do politicians…)

For over 200 years now, the beloved ruling class and their hidden supporters, the prelates of the churches and synagogues, have been repeatedly and subtly attempting to undermine the purpose behind educating people, trying to limit the amount spent on education, or luring people into believing the nonsensical alternatives that religion offers in lieu of independence of thought, thus minimizing the effects of the education received outside their influence. They (the politicians and priests/preachers….) continuously bombard the public with lie after lie, until the lies are accepted as truth, just because there is nothing else offered. They then use those lies to further confuse the public as to what is really happening, and go about their business of stealing and grabbing power wherever they find the opportunity….

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State.   My idea  is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.” — George Carlin

So, my attitude is not the problem…. the problem is that not enough of us have this attitude, and the PTB have virtually no competition in their fight for our attention; there is nobody allowed on the political stage who is singing a different song than the one approved for public consumption by those who control such matters…. Hell, we’ll know we’re making progress if even one such person ever gets the chance to even speak…. meantime, all we can do is to have those of us who know our duty keep plugging away, calling them out for their lies, and making as much noise as we can, to try to draw some attention to those places where it isn’t appreciated, but needs it the most…..

“Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. But what shall we substitute in its place? you say. What? A ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my relatives. I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast and you ask me what you shall put in its place?” — Voltaire
_____________________________

I’m exhausted…. That was the toughest Pearl in quite a while… I hope it reads well enough to pass muster; I’d hate to have to go back and start over…..   Well, it will do, I suppose… It may not be Ibsen, but it’s at least Art, or Frank, or Earnest…. especially the last. Plus, it contains no misspelled words, at least according to SpellChecker, and we all know how infallible that is….. Ah well, I have no pride left, so….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3