Tag Archives: XTC

“Committing the Sin of Indolence” — a retrospective….

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Ffolkes,

“I cannot teach anybody anything,

I can only make them think.”

~~ Socrates ~~

3000

Pluto as seen from the New Horizons Spacecraft

Image from the UK Guardian 9/17/2015


I had forgotten just how deeply embedded this process has become in my existence…. It seems the creation of a Pearl is more important to my degree of sanity than I’d previously admitted; if I don’t sit down to write for a while, I feel “off”. Once I’ve cruised through SB for a time, using my mind in a familiar way, some of the angst I seem to build up over the course of the day dissipates, leaving me better able to think introspectively, which is where I need to be just now…. So, I’ll write…. but, I may not post…. We’ll see.

For now, I think I’ll go make some coffee. It’s 0230 (almost) so, why not? It looks like me and LeeLoo will be up a while tonight…. Don’t know why insomnia struck tonight, but, I may as well take advantage of it to get some thinking & planning done…. Or, perhaps, I’ll gather up some pearls, and see what they have to say….

When I told myself, and y’all, this process would be changing, I didn’t realize just how many alterations the change would encompass. No complaints at all; I seem to have misplaced some of the angst I’ve typically carried around with me. Whatever the case may be, it’s slowed this down to a crawl…. The two paragraphs you see above were written yesterday. Since then, most of this Pearl has been finished; only some entertainment left to find now. Yet, I’m not even worried at all whether I get it posted today, or not…. which may be good, or not. We’ll see about that, too, I suppose. For now, I think I’ll go cruise You Tube & find something fun to watch, whenever this gets posted….

Shall we Pearl?….

“The laws of physics have no basis in reality.  They describe the operation of the human mind.” — Robert Anton Wilson

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

george sez

    I don’t believe I need to say anything at all to introduce this artist/philosopher/social critic. Simply, he was the best of his time….


***********************

George Carlin
It’s Bad For Ya ~ 2008

***********************

***********************

***********************


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

“If the truth offends — too bad.”

~~ Hard Ass Bee, with gigoid’s full agreement ~~

Dont keep calm

    Okay, so, I lied. I COULD say I didn’t lie, so much as I misspoke, as any number of politicians would say. And, have said, repeatedly. (e.g.: “I just didn’t say it.” — Ronald Reagan — Associated Press, 10/5/66)

Actually, what I did is underestimate how long it would be until I was struck by the urge to write about the world at large, when I’m having my own troubles with the world inside the shell of my consciousness…. But, as I cruised through SB for entertainment, the following pearls kept jumping up, practically shouting at me, to insist on being included in a long, involved indictment of men of evil intent, who usurped the government of this nation almost before the ink was dry on the Constitution…..

Their efforts have resulted in the world we face today, where all the rules are made by those who insist on controlling the lives of all they see, without ever considering how others may feel about that…. 90% of the world’s population live as no more than slaves, threatened with poverty and destitution at the slightest emergency or accident in their lives, at the mercy of the bankers, and the predatory politicians, the fat-cat lawyers, the faceless myrmidons (i.e., police) who enforce the will of the masters, and the religious dogma dogs who encourage the slaves to respect those who oppress them, for the promise of a better life after they die.

I was raised by a man who went to war in 1941, to protect his family and home, thinking he was fighting for the liberties he believed he had, and that he believed would be the legacy for his children. He raised us to believe in those same principles, of liberty and freedom for all, upon which he, and we, were supposedly brought up….

If he were alive today, he would be as pissed off at what has taken place as I am, for, since the creation of the National Security Agency during WWII, every one of the Bill of Rights, and, all of the protections of our Constitution, have been abrogated, one after another, in the name of security and ‘national interest’, two concepts the definition of which the beloved ruling class reserves solely for itself…. Neither of those two concepts have anything to do with protecting the interests of American citizens; they only serve to protect the status quo. How else does one explain such statements as the following:

“You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in their struggle for independence.” — Charles Austin Beard, American Historian, 1874-1948

This is the absolute truth. We see this every day, in irrefutable evidence provided by videos of how using the words our forefathers used can get an American citizen shot by the police, ‘for resisting arrest’, or, for ‘disobeying a lawful order by an officer’…. It’s pretty hard to refute visual/auditory evidence, but, time after time, people continue to die, and no police officer is ever charged…. It is a disgrace, and, a national shame, one my father would have deplored with every fiber of his being…. I share that disgust, and, intend to never submit to such treatment myself, without making it clear it is a mistake to assume that a free man can be oppressed…. Whoever tries to take my rights will find I only have those rights I am able to defend…

In the meantime, here are a bunch of other statements that cover the same subject, from various angles, by various contemporary and historical figures; some are examples of how things ought to be, others point out the nature of the problem, or, at least, some of the motivation behind it…. All are, to my mind, spot on….

“If Congress can determine what constitutes the general welfare and can appropriate money for its advancement, where is the limitation to carrying into execution whatever can be effected by money?” — South Carolina Senator William Draden 1828

(Oops! Another warning missed by the general public, from someone who apparently saw what was happening, right from the start…. Typical….)

“Annoy a Fundamentalist: Tell him the truth!” — Sardonic Bee

“Any person under the age of thirty, who, having any knowledge of the existing social order, is not a revolutionist, is an inferior.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Solon gave the following advice: “Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath. Never tell a lie. Pay attention to matters of importance.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Solon, xii

“Conservative: Proof that evolution is not an exact science.” — Polly Sci Bee

“This is the Nineties, Bubba, and there is no such thing as Paranoia. It’s all true.” — Hunter S Thompson

“Capitalism in the United States has undergone profound modification, not just under the New Deal, but through a consensus that continued to grow after the New Deal. Government in the U. S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.” — Norman Cousins

“We have watched American democracy at close hand for many years and we believe few governments are institutionally so susceptible to dictatorship as this one.” — Gerald Johnson

“The statesman shears the sheep, the politician skins them.” — Definitive Bee

“The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself.” — Sir Richard F. Burton

“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” — Jacquin’s Postulate on Democratic Government

“Is it fair to hold politicians to the same standards as humans?” — Snarky Bee

Books are burning
In the main square, and I saw there
The fire eating the text.
Books are burning
In the still air
And you know where they burn books
People are next.

~~ “Books Are Burning”, XTC ~~


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

Comedy_Tragedy

Sublime Indifference


Faces tell such stories

as these,

we know.

No one saw,

ever.

No one sees,

ever.

But, we know.

Forgotten,

deliberately bought

with

consistent threats

of Sitcoms,

Paisley Ties,

yes, and,

Lava Lamps;

proof offered

unbidden

 of Death.

Only

of Death.

~~ gigoid ~~


Written 5/21/2015.

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

lao

    In my world, pearls such as this are the standard. As far as any philosophy goes, other than my own, Taoism is the closest attempt made by mankind to describe Reality, period. Beginning, and ending, a lesson/pearl with Taoist principles is a sure way to ensure the balance, and accuracy, of whatever is created…. Add one in the middle, and, it’s unassailably perfect. Go ahead, try to refute ANY of it….  Enjoy!….

My teachings are very easy to understand and very easy to practice.
But no one can understand them and no one can practice them.
In my words there is a principle.
In the affairs of men there is a system.

~~ Lao-Tzu ~~


“You don’t know how much you don’t know until you know a lot.” — Nick Holland

“While all things have their opposites, it is also true that in each the spirit of the opposite exists.” — Hazrat Inayat Khan, Sufi writer

“Clay is moulded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing. … Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.” — Lao Tzu

“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” — Carl Jung

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.  Curiosity has its own reason for existing.  One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.  It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.  Never lose a holy curiosity.” — Albert Einstein

Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

~~ Tao Te Ching ~~


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

I see it is done. Clearly, time to post; what the hell, it’s only two hours (and two days….) overdue, according to the previous paradigm. Good thing a new one is under construction…. For now, I’ll merely say there WILL be more Pearls; when that might occur is anybody’s guess. If the past two days are an indication, it shouldn’t be too long. See y’all then, ffolkes; you can count on it….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

dozer3


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
The magical life of Welsh budgies….

			
						

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Ffolkes,


“Any mental functions attempted in this area must be re-evaluated during a subsequent period. It has been discovered that standard logic works sideways in this area due to the influence of the occupant.” — Smart Bee, describing a sign reportedly seen on the White House lawn in 1983…. (Fairly early in the Reagan Years, for those with sympathetic memory loss issues….)


For some reason, SB left this sitting here on the screen for me to find…. go figure….


Most mornings here at ECR find me staring with trepidation at a blank screen, worried that inspiration will fail me at last, and no Pearl will be forthcoming. So far, I’ve managed to avoid that, most days, missing only about a dozen or so over the last two and a bit more of years; many of those were due to technical glitches, with about a half-dozen due to illness…. such as the first four days of this month, when I came down with bronchitis while on a cruise….. Such fun that was! One of my most compelling memories will always center around being trundled through the hallways of the ship, in a wheelchair, miserable, (a euphemism for tossing my cookies….), and wondering how many thousands of dollars it was going to run me for this….


I lived through that, so I guess it taught me a lesson….The problem is, I can’t figure out what the lesson is, that it is trying to teach me…. Don’t get sick? Don’t go on cruises? It’s a bit of a facer when I can’t even decipher my own subconscious’ little tricks designed to get me to live more…. what? Safely? Healthy? What? I don’t get what it’s trying to tell me with this…. It’s not as if I spend all my time pursuing unhealthy behaviors…. Hell, the way I move these days, there’s no danger of any speed-related illness or injury, that’s for certain…. I feel like a snail much of the time, and walking over two blocks is getting to be a real challenge…. I stay warm, I don’t hang out in crowds, and I eat a well balanced diet, mostly….


So, what’s the deal here? Did I lose all my marbles last night? Have I forgotten what I was going to write about today? What’s with all these questions, anyway? Have I lost it completely? Maybe I should wait for one of these to be answered before starting to write the next….. But, if I started answering any of these, how will I get to where I want to go? And just where is it I want to go, anyway?….. Maybe I should just start to think about that one…. But, since I haven’t known the answer to that question for many, many years, other than where it might be in relation to a cruise itinerary, it would arguably be a waste of time…..


Of course, we’ve already done that for, oh, twenty minutes or so already, so that isn’t going to fly as motivation, or as defense, at least, not a viable one….. I suppose I’ll have to just pull out method #9 for ending intro sections, which involves a lot of noise and party favors, while the noises from outside the house continue to sound as if the Twilight Zone has settled into the neighborhood for good…. No wind, but nice wind-chimes happening, and the lights keep flickering at odd moments out on the street….. I think I’ll just leave the doors and windows locked up for the moment…. Oh, wait, look at that!


It’s a nocturnally oriented, black faced, cattus domesticus, sleepily winding across the floor to demand morning libations…. Loudly demanding her morning food and water attention, she graciously accepts the morning attentions of one of her personal slaves…. There, one high-maintenance cat taken care of…. Since I’ve managed to meander far enough to satisfy even the most stringent of bureaucrats, even the one with the dual pocket protectors,  method #9 isn’t going to be needed today…. That’s always good news, as it is one of the more expensive to use in terms of physical resources that need to be replaced each time…. That damn caviar is getting expensive!…. I suppose I could use non-Beluga, but, what would the point of that be?….


Okay, so, not bad…. Five full paragraphs of completely useless bullshit, none of which had A) any real meaning beyond its existence as fodder, or piffle, B) any connection to Reality at large, either Consensual, or Privately Held Beliefs, and, most importantly, C) more dignity than necessary to keep from breaking formation….. For less than a full cup of coffee, that’s not bad at all…. Hell, it might just be a record, but, we’re not going to measure today…. The necessary tools are all put away in their winter stations, and I’m not up for it…. Besides, I just realized, it’s a holiday, isn’t it? So, legally, I can take the day off from tasks like that….. I have reached my limit of nonsense, and shall now go find another way to annoy myself…..


Shall we Pearl?…. In fact, for openers, let’s do it twice, because that’s twice as nice…..


“I don’t understand why everybody’s in disguise.” — Lemmy Kilmister


“Integrity has no need for rules.” — Albert Camus

_____________________________


So, it’s Christmas…. This is a tough holiday for me, since I don’t believe in the Christian hierarchies of thought, or buy into its particular set of delusional material…. In fact, I’m pretty pissed off right now at the Christians, as I hold their attitudes to be a significant factor in the events that have led to the current world environmental crisis; you know, the End-of-Days scenario, that is forming as we speak, or, more accurately, as I regale y’all with my outrage…. The Christian attitude, of “we’re special, because we are the ONLY religion that is right….” has caused more damage over time than any other single idea, especially since it is so egregiously FALSE….. but, I digress….


Any who, since I don’t believe in the BS, it’s hard for me to engage in the more likable parts of the season, like the gift giving, because I find it so hard to justify the rampant consumerism that goes along with that…. The ads, commercials, the billboards, the deals being screamed at us from every venue, get so annoying, it makes me want to go out, buy a gun, and start carrying it around, not necessarily to USE it on the idiots, but to show it now and again, to at least get them to SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR FIVE DAMN MINUTES….. How many times does it take before “Silent Night” becomes a legitimate call to take up arms?….


So, for this first section, we’ll go with an old-school variety of pearl, and hope we can find some way to poke some fun at the culture we all inhabit…. Hey, it’s a tough job, but, somebody’s got to do it, right?…..


“We have nothing to fear but the atmosphere itself.” — Smart Bee


(Okay, so it’s not funny…. it’s TRUE though, and that should count for something…..) (Okay, I’ll stop with the comments now, and let the rest of this pearl proceed apace….)


“Space is not the final frontier. The final frontier is the human soul. Space is merely the place where we are most likely to meet the challenge. The victory will occur in the continual process of challenging and testing our limits — both as individuals and as a species — and not in the amount of territory conquered.” — Solomon Short


“Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, viii, 51


Conservative: The mix of megalomania and stupidity. — Smart Bee, in a VERY insightful moment


“There are many things worth living for, few things worth dying for, nothing  worth killing for.” — from Tom Robbins’ “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues”


Memorial Day In The United States;  “A day when almost every community holds memorial parades. The man who enjoys marching in line and file to the strains of music falls below my contempt; he received his great brain by mistake.” — Albert Einstein


“To be wise, the only thing you really need to know is when to say “I don’t know.” — Smart Bee


As I’ve said before, I know it will be okay when Smart Bee has the brackets covered….. Perfect, if a bit eclectic in nature…. good embedded cynicism, I think, if a bit light on incipient sardonicism…

_____________________________


Hmm…. let’s see now…. for whom am I in the mood today? Ah, I know…. This will do nicely….




Old Men


People expect old men to die, 

They do not really mourn old men. 

Old men are different. People look 

At them with eyes that wonder when… 

People watch with unshocked eyes; 

But the old men know when an old man dies.


~~ Ogden Nash ~~


_____________________________


I had some trouble figuring out what to put in here, but managed to find an archived rant, one that should fit in quite well…. It’s fairly long, but quite cogent, so, we’ll just get to it…. This is from June 22, 2013….. not so long ago, was it?…. A mere six months…. which, as the rant indicates, another six  months when NOTHING changed in the world at large….


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


“The rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million.” — Eugene V. Debs, US labor leader.


(Note: Debs received one million votes in 1920 as candidate for US President, while serving a 10-year jail sentence for having said in June 1918: “Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder… the master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.”) — Smart Bee


This has been sitting around for a couple of days, since I found it in SB. It’s the perfect beginning for a politirant, and the news of late has provided a number of interesting side notes to this idea, so I find myself in the position of being compelled to rant, which is the best attitude to start with….


The recent news has shown a number of items concerned with the revelations just released a few weeks ago, when a former NSA contractor spilled the beans about how the US government has been spying on its own people, collecting personal data from phone records, mercantile records, and from review of emails and other data mined from the internet…. The revelations, of course, are in the process of being denied and/or devalued by that government, who are trying to convince the public that the spying is “transparent”, and that the information is NOT being collected to investigate American citizens…. This, of course, is a bald faced lie, and anyone who believes it deserves anything that happens to them….


The government of this country is in the hands of people who are controlled by the corporate masters of society, sometimes willfully, most times without their complete knowledge. They (the corporate masters…) don’t give a SHIT about the rights of anyone else, so the above statement that got Mr. Debs in trouble is shown to be perfectly true. The people who control society don’t believe in the sacred nature of rights, for anyone who isn’t them, so it can be said that the rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million, because to the 1% (a number that is actually far larger than the number of real masters of society…. that’s probably closer to .001%…..), neither one is sacred at all….


What disturbs me a lot of the time is that there are still a lot of people who believe that, of the choices available in the political spectrum, one side or another is better, and showing support for one of them will direct matters to a more favorable (for the people) resolution…. The fact is, neither the Republicans, nor the Democrats, nor any of the Independents who are in office, or trying to get into office, have any interest at all in doing anything other than establishing their own agenda as the one used by society. Those agendas have nothing to do with helping the general public; they are designed to benefit only those who ascribe to the correct philosophy. No matter which political party or entity you choose, you’re going to get screwed, in the final analysis.


“The art of government is the organization of idolatry.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)


If you still think that Barack Obama is going to help the common man, well, I suggest you listen to the crap he is putting out right now about this surveillance. Remember, too, that he signed the law that killed the Bill of Rights, on New Year’s Eve of 2012,  the infamous National Defense Authorization Act, which makes it legal for the government to arrest citizens without a warrant, to hold them in an unknown place, without any oversight or review of rights, and try them in a secret court, without legal representation. It authorized the use of drones in a domestic fashion (which they continue to lie about, and say they aren’t using them…. when reports from all over the country provide relatively incontrovertible PROOF that they ARE using them….), and, most assuredly, authorized the illegal wiretapping and internet data mining that is currently going on, even though it has been exposed.


We may as well begin referring to the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution as the Bill of Former Rights, because, face it, ffolkes, you don’t have them anymore. I’ve heard it said that they are not rights, anyway, as a right is something nobody can take away from you…. More accurately, you have no rights that you are unable to defend…. and the government has slyly convinced most people that they don’t want those rights anyway…. 


Look how many formerly intelligent people are jumping on the bandwagon about gun control, forgetting all that our forefathers cautioned us about, when they warned about the possible encroachment of big business and the churches into the workings of government…. Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Mason, Franklin, all of them mistrusted the corporate interests and the preachers, having suffered much at their hands, and they tried to warn us against listening to them….


But, what happened to Eugene Debs back in 1919, when he was sent to prison (in direct violation of the right to free speech….) was not the first indicator that things had regressed, and the trend toward government takeover of the rights of US citizenry has continued right up to today. The recent revelations about spying, you will see, will be quashed, and ignored by those in power, as there is now nothing we can do to stop them from doing whatever they want…. According to the laws we let them slip by us, it’s all legal ffolkes…. We are screwed, and the only good thing I can see about it, is that, due to global warming, climate change, and the imminent destruction of the human species by our own pollution, we won’t have long to put up with it….


Books are burning

In the main square, and I saw there

The fire eating the text.

Books are burning

In the still air

And you know where they burn books

People are next.


– “Books Are Burning”, XTC

_____________________________


To some degree, I am procrastinating the finish of this Pearl…. It is now but 0635 in the AM of Christmas Day, and I can foresee a long, boring day ahead, filled with many hours for which some sort of entertainment must be found that won’t stultify my brain completely…. The current choices offered by the mainstream media just aren’t going to provide me with anything remotely amusing, and the library is closed today…. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to go back to bed, and sleep until tomorrow….


First, though, let’s see how this came out….. Hmm… not too shabby for a non-government contractor working for free…. It will pass muster for a holiday, at least…. Gosh, I suppose this means I can delay no longer, but, must find a way to end this, hopefully with some grace and dignity…. Ah, the hell with that….. I’m outta here, ffolkes…. 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





		
	
					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Such splendid toast deserves marmalade….

			
						

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Ffolkes,

‘Tis a sad commentary to note one’s entire life boils down to one moment, and in that moment, one realizes that the greatest skill one has developed is the ability to dither, or blather, or, as they used to say, to speak piffle….. Disheartening, to say the least; I had hoped for something a bit more dignified, or at least more useful.  Piffle, as it was called in the previous century, is only useful to those who speak it, and to those who understand and appreciate it…. Most of the rest of society views piffle somewhat askance, as they have no idea either what is said, or what it may mean…. which, ultimately, is their loss…..


Of course, I can’t claim to be anywhere near as good at it as, say, Lord Peter Wimsey, from Dorothy L. Sayers’ novels; her books tend to intimidate as much as educate, as I believe she wrote with the Oxford Dictionary at close hand. Every page she wrote was filled with demonstration of a writer who loved the English language, one who seemed to use ALL of it in her writing. In my most egotistic dreams, I write only half as well as she did, for I don’t ever expect to be able to match her expertise, or her originality. Only someone with such a strong love for, and full understanding of, the language of their birth, could use it in such a way as to make it both ironically humorous, and at the same time, pointedly insulting, or laughingly charming, or quietly inspirational.


SIGH…. To my everlasting regret, I can’t do that, not as well as I’d like. It is a constant disappointment to me that I cannot; it’s one of the few skills in my life that I can say truthfully that I have been unable to master, once I tried. Perhaps, before I pass on to the next dimension, or whatever happens after we die, I’ll get closer to writing better piffle; I hope so. If not, well, I can always go back and read more of Ms. Sayers’ work, though I believe I’ve already consumed all of her Lord Peter stories…. They are the kind of books one can read over and over, finding something new every time….


All of the above is what could be called a distraction. I wrote it as a sublimation of the desire to whine about the intro again, hoping to distract both y’all and myself from the fact that this section once again is filled with material that has no real connection to anything, other than as a means to pass the time until my brain kicks into gear sufficiently to start writing something more nourishing to the mind. There may be those among you who would point out the lack of ANY material here that meets that standard, but, I don’t expect them to speak up; they’ve been threatened about doing so, and have assured us of their silence in this matter….


Of course, I can’t expect that threat to hold them off forever, so it’s probably better to just get on with the business of the day…. According to the stats I’ve seen recently, very few readers will see this anyway…. My number of followers keeps growing, but the number of Likes per day continues to drop…. I’ve averaged about four Likes per day for over a week now, though stats indicate my following is up to 270….


I don’t much care if ffolkes don’t always Like what I write, but, it’s a bit disheartening to think that no one at all cares to read it…. But, it doesn’t really matter, since I don’t much care one way or the other about fame, or money…. only about sanity (my own…), and sanity is the reason I write…. Not that what you see here is particularly sane by normal standards, but those aren’t valid here without permits anyway…..


Shall we Pearl?….

_____________________________


“The rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million.” — Eugene V. Debs, US labor leader.


(Note: Debs received one million votes in 1920 as candidate for US President, while serving a 10-year jail sentence for having said in June 1918: “Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder…the master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.”) — Smart Bee


This has been sitting around for a couple of days, since I found it in SB. It’s the perfect beginning for a politirant, and the news of late has provided a number of interesting side notes to this idea, so I find myself in the position of being compelled to rant, which is the best attitude to start with….


The recent news has shown a number of items concerned with the revelations just released a few weeks ago, when a former NSA contractor spilled the beans about how the US government has been spying on its own people, collecting personal data from phone records, mercantile records, and from review of emails and other data mined from the internet… The revelations, of course, are in the process of being denied and/or devalued by that government, who are trying to convince the public that the spying is “transparent”, and that the information is NOT being collected to investigate American citizens…. This, of course, is a bald faced lie, and anyone who believes it deserves anything that happens to them….


The government of this country is in the hands of people who are controlled by the corporate masters of society, sometimes willfully, most times without their complete knowledge. They (the corporate masters…) don’t give a SHIT about the rights of anyone else, so the above statement that got Mr. Debs in trouble is shown to be perfectly true. The people who control society don’t believe in the sacred nature of rights, for anyone who isn’t them, so it can be said that the rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million, because to the 1% (a number that is actually far larger than the number of real masters of society…. that’s probably closer to .001%…..), neither one is sacred at all….


What disturbs me a lot of the time is that there are still a lot of people who believe that, of the choices available in the political spectrum, one side or another is better, and showing support for one of them will direct matters to a more favorable (for the people) resolution…. The fact is, neither the Republicans, nor the Democrats, nor any of the Independents who are in office, or trying to get into office, have any interest at all in doing anything other than establishing their own agenda as the one used by society. Those agendas have nothing to do with helping the general public; they are designed to benefit only those who ascribe to the correct philosophy. No matter which political party or entity you choose, you’re going to get screwed, in the final analysis.


“The art of government is the organization of idolatry.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)


If you still think that Barack Obama is going to help the common man, well, I suggest you listen to the crap he is putting out right now about this surveillance. Remember, too, that he signed the law that killed the Bill of Rights, on New Year’s Eve of 2012,  the infamous National Defense Authorization Act, which makes it legal for the government to arrest citizens without a warrant, to hold them in an unknown place, without any oversight or review of rights, and try them in a secret court, without legal representation. It authorized the use of drones in a domestic fashion (which they continue to lie about, and say they aren’t using them…. when reports from all over the country provide relatively incontrovertible PROOF that they ARE using them….), and, most assuredly, authorized the illegal wiretapping and internet data mining that is currently going on, even though it has been exposed.


We may as well begin referring to the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution as the Bill of Former Rights, because, face it, ffolkes, you don’t have them anymore. I’ve heard it said that they are not rights, anyway, as a right is something nobody can take away from you…. More accurately, you have no rights that you are unable to defend…. and the government has slyly convinced most people that they don’t want those rights anyway…. Look how many formerly intelligent people are jumping on the bandwagon about gun control, forgetting all that our forefathers cautioned us about, when they warned about the possible encroachment of big business and the churches into the workings of government…. Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Mason, Franklin, all of them mistrusted the corporate interests and the preachers, having suffered much at their hands, and they tried to warn us against listening to them….


But, what happened to Eugene Debs back in 1919, when he was sent to prison (in direct violation of the right to free speech….) was not the first indicator that things had regressed, and the trend toward government takeover of the rights of US citizenry has continued right up to today. The recent revelations about spying, you will see, will be quashed, and ignored by those in power, as there is now nothing we can do to stop them from doing whatever they want…. According to the laws we let them slip by us, it’s all legal ffolkes…. We are screwed, and the only good thing I can see about it, is that, due to global warming, climate change, and the imminent destruction of the human species by our own pollution, we won’t have long to put up with it….


Books are burning

In the main square, and I saw there

The fire eating the text.

Books are burning

In the still air

And you know where they burn books

People are next.


— “Books Are Burning”, XTC

_____________________________


The above rant, you may note, was cut short, due to my rising blood pressure; I came very close to losing it due to outrage there near the end. I’m so PISSED at our government, and the crap they’re pulling, it’s hard to keep it from spilling out into other areas…. Poetry will often soothe this kind of angst, and Emily does it quite well… This is a plaintive poem, and not particularly soothing…. It does, however, engage the mind in something other than the shenanigans I can’t stop, even if that which it brings for us to engage is no less serious, just more personal…. Any who, enjoy…. I did….




There’s a certain slant of light,

On winter afternoons

That oppresses, like the weight

Of cathedral tunes.


Heavenly hurt it gives us;

We can find no scar,

But internal difference

Where the meanings, are.


None may teach it anything,

‘T is the seal, despair, —

An imperial affliction

Sent us of the air.


When it comes, the landscape listens,

Shadows hold their breath;

When it goes, ‘t is like the distance

On the look of death.


~~ Emily Dickinson ~~


_____________________________


Old school, old school…. I’ve ranted, and have Emily in place, so it must be time for an old school pearl, to finish off the day’s effort with a flourish…. I’m not even going to try to figure out any point, though I’m sure there will be one… This one is dedicated to the concept of fun, which I often forget to promote when in ranting mode…. So, I should probably warn you not to put too much effort into figuring this one out; it could cause severe brain function loss, and I’m not going to pay for the nursing bills during the recovery stage….. Otherwise, have fun with it….


Euripides says,–

Who knows but that this life is really death,

And whether death is not what men call life?


— Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Pyrrho, viii


“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.” — Carl Sagan


“Nothing unreal exists.” — Kiri-Kin-Tha’s Law of Metaphysics


“The common folk have many sayings, all about it being darkest before the dawn and clouds with silver linings and suchlike. We in the magical trade like to express our opinions of these matters somewhat differently. A lifetime of experience will have taught the average sorcerer that no matter how hopeless the situation seems, no matter how painful and fraught with danger his options may be, no matter how close he may be to an indescribably hideous death and perhaps even eternal damnation, still, the good wizard knows, it can always get worse.” — The Teachings of Ebenezum, Vol. XLVI (General Introduction)


“If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.” — Albert Einstein


“If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.” — Lin Yutang


Honour and shame from no condition rise;

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.


— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 193

_____________________________


Today’s Pearl will possibly come to be known as an example of an average Pearl, if such can be defined. An intro, a rant, a poem, and an old-school pearl; all perfectly fresh (but for the poem, which stands on its own merit…), and none of it possessed of anything resembling normalcy. It isn’t genius, I’d guess, nor is it an example of any overt cognitive deficits, necessarily…. Given all that, let’s see how it reads….. Hmm, it seems I was right, and wrong, too… It’s actually pretty good, and may even lead to further ranting in the not so distant future, provided the news doesn’t let me down (and when has THAT ever happened?….). After some tweaking, I can pronounce it “done, and done well”, with no shame or trepidation…. Well, it COULD use a bit more humor, but, hey, I try, and funny can be a tough row to hoe at this time of the day…. and now I’m blathering again…. I’ll go now….  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



					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Hidden behind a glass partition….

			
						

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Ffolkes,

Bastard rhymes are jostling for precedence in order in my head, just to make me mad. They do this periodically, and I think it’s just because they are jealous of free verse, and all it implies. Normally I just offer them some cold cereal, and they’ll slink away, but they look a bit more committed this morning. I suppose I will have to break down and give them cheese. I hate to do that, mostly because they’ll want it next time. But also because I hate to share my cheese, with anything, much less a bastard rhyme….


Maybe I’ll try a new method….ignoring them works well with standard problems; it’s like King Ralph I said back in 1990, “There’s no problem so big or complicated it can’t be ignored. Now all we need are all-new globes.” Yeah, that sounds right…..we’ll go with that, and if they complain, so much the better. Nothing I like more than pissing off bastard rhymes in the morning….. shall we dance?…..

___________________________________


“If you can set the rules, you can win the game.” — John McCormack


Finding this pearl brought me a small sense of relief; I wasn’t sure if this was common knowledge or not, and didn’t want to spoil a good survival tool. But since it’s commonly available, I can use it without guilt, because it won’t make the playing field any less even if I do, as others have the same option. 


This is a tool? you may ask….yes, I would answer, it is. How often in life have you found yourself somehow involved in a game or system not of your own choosing, and floundering around ineffectively because of it? If you’re anything like me, and I’m not THAT weird, it happens regularly, if not frequently. Somebody is always trying to set us up somehow, and gain some kind of arbitrary advantage, by making us conform to rules we don’t even know.


But now that you know this, you should be able to see how powerful a tool this really is. No longer do you have to put up with someone else’s idea of what is fair; if you find yourself in a position of losing out, then just change the rules of the game to suit your own purposes. This has the immediate effect of placing the controls of the situation back in your hands. 


Using this tool, you will never have to face disappointed loved ones, or friends, just because you failed at a task they felt you should succeed at; instead you emerge victorious, with reputation intact, all by using a simple, easy-to-use skill. It’s how James T. Kirk became the first cadet to solve the supposedly unsolvable Kobeashi Maru scenario, and it is how you can regain control of a lot of situations in life that previously gave you fits….. Not a bad find for a Thursday, eh?…..

___________________________________


Books are burning

In the main square, and I saw there

The fire eating the text.

Books are burning

In the still air

And you know where they burn books

People are next.

— “Books Are Burning”, XTC


When I first read this, an image immediately came to mind, a picture of some backwoods preacher in a tent somewhere, haranguing the local populace his own brand of ignorance, a pile of library books burning merrily in front of the stage where he preaches.  (Have you noticed? All these zealots are men. You never see women doing this sort of thing…)  I then realized that behind that image was a real-life danger of seeing this happen here in this country, if people like this Rick Santorum idiot have their way.


For weeks now, this bozo, who has no idea his nose is big, red, and bulbous, has been spouting nonsense that he thinks will appeal to a large number of conservatives, getting more and more outrageous each time he opens up his mouth. I saw yesterday that now he claims that as President, he would “unmarry” all the gay folks who have already been wed. What a ridiculous concept! And what business of the federal government’s is it who marries whom? And who asked him, anyway?


This clown, er, wait, that’s an insult to clowns. This fucking idiot (there, now I feel better…) has also made it clear that if he were elected (fat chance of that, fortunately) he would send all illegal immigrants back to where they came from, and he would make it a criminal offense to either get an abortion, or, get this, to become pregnant without being married! I only have one rational response to such idiocy and that is, “Sod off, you buggering idiot. Who the fuck told you that you have any right at all to tell a woman what to do with her own body? Oh, God told you? Well, now at least we can get you some medication for your condition….”


But, what I find scariest in all this man’s demagoguery is that he actually has supporters, people who feel the same way, even some women. I despair for these people, for they are in danger as well. Their danger stems from the fact that this man will lead them right into the fiery depths of their own version of hell, since most of what he spouts is directly opposed what is in the Bible. At least none of this was mentioned in any of the several different versions I’ve delved into over my lifetime. I suppose, in order to be fair, and to live up to my belief in free speech, we have to let him speak…. but we certainly don’t have to listen…..


Silence is the only acceptable substitute for brilliance.– our old friend, Anonymous

___________________________________


She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life ‘s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Macbeth

— Act v, Sc. 5


I’ve mentioned before that Will isn’t one of my favorites in historical literature; but I also acknowledged that he is indeed one of the greatest wordsmiths of all time. This is an example of what I mean by that. A lot of his poetry, to me, seems overblown, more convoluted than it needs to be; this passage belies that belief. It’s beautifully put together, and a worthy expression of the concept it portrays. I’m going to leave it at that; some things just don’t need my help to be interesting…….


And here is an example of Will speaking from the other side of the coin…..just not very good, I’m afraid….


If I do prove her haggard,

Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,

I ‘d whistle her off and let her down the wind,

To prey at fortune.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Othello

— Act iii, Sc. 3

___________________________________


All things dull and ugly, All creatures short and squat,

All things rude and nasty, The Lord God made the lot;

Each little snake that poisons, Each little wasp that stings,

He made their brutish venom, He made their horrid wings.

All things sick and cancerous, All evil great and small,

All things foul and dangerous, The Lord God made them all.

Each nasty little hornet, Each beastly little squid.

Who made the spikey urchin? Who made the sharks? He did.

All things scabbed and ulcerous, All pox both great and small.

Putrid, foul and gangrenous, The Lord God made them all.

— Monty Python’s Flying Circus


An unusual sentiment, but perfectly true, if one takes the concept of God at face value. It’s a perfect example of how a good idea taken to its logical extreme becomes ridiculous, and thus exposes its very real flaws. A lot of folks may take this the wrong way, and cry “Blasphemer!”, but hey, I didn’t write it; I just found it and shared it. Let’s not go back to the distant past when the messenger got shot for delivering bad news. 


I have showed these folks above how to deal with what they believe to be a rigged game; just change the rules. But, sadly for most of them, they have adhered so long to the same old set of outmoded rules of conduct that they have lost the flexibility needed to enhance one’s chances of survival, rather than reducing them. As for me, well, I figure it’s a personal problem, and of little interest to me, other than to mark that spot on the map as not worth visiting……

___________________________________


“If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD)

— Meditations, vi, 21


I like this for a number of reasons, but the foremost is for its relevance to my own life. I have long considered myself to be a seeker of truth, and have known all that time that flexibility in thinking is the most important attribute of the true seeker. In simpler terms, in order to learn the truth, one must first admit to not knowing it; therefore, it is essential to the process to be able to accept from others their own version of truth. Only thus can those differing values be compared to what we hold to be true, thereby providing us with solid evidence for whichever truth we are seeking. 


We are not born knowing what is true and what is not; only experience can teach us, and one can only be certain of reaching those truths if all of the available evidence has been reviewed. This is the only insurance we have against making ignorant decisions about important issues; the only other option is to remain ignorant, a state of anathema for a true seeker……

___________________________________


Well, I finally made it. It’s been a long winding road to get here, not too much uphill, but lengthy. I think maybe I write so much each morning in order to keep from jumping into the day too far without preparation; if nothing else, this process does clear out my head to a degree not possible over the course of the day without having used it. It’s kind of like that nasty phlegm one gets with a bad cold, you know? Better out than in….. in any case, y’all take care out there…..




—

Sometimes I sits and thinks,

and sometimes

I just sits.


gigoid


Dozer
Kowabunga!