Billy was fired, with enthusiasm….

Ffolkes,

    Having again greeted the day with a groan, I arose from bed, left arm aching, left hand numb, only to find my head swirling like the proverbial spinning top. Fortunately for me, I hadn’t already taken a step, so I didn’t fall very far, just sitting back down on the bed. Ah vertigo! Such a fine way to greet the day. So, here I sit, spinning rapidly through space/time with my eyes spinning like little slot machine cherries, fighting the need to swallow, in case my stomach…. well, you get the picture. If I took that any further, all of us might spew…. I’m not in the mood to have to take the computer apart to clean it…. I can barely see yet!

Okay, complaints done. It’s another day, which is quite enough to say about it. If it’s going to continue in this vein, I might just go back to bed, & wait to try again tomorrow, but, first things first. If I don’t get this done first, I’ll feel like crap all day & night; I’ve become rather addicted to this process, I guess; I can’t seem to get comfortable in my head if I don’t post…. Since this process has kept me sane, if not happy, for going on four years, I have made it part of my persona, so to speak; the day just isn’t complete without it….

Since I have the added complication of a left hand wanting to go numb every other word typed, I’m going to replay the intro from a few days ago, to save some time, and misery. To do so, we’ll resort to an early application of emergency exit technique #4, which works like this….

Shall we Pearl?

“And it came to pass that in the hands of the ignorant, the words of the bible  were used to beat plowshares into swords…” — Alan Watts

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

I’ve mentioned in previous Pearls how I enjoyed the alternative comics that were such a part of the art scene during the 1960’s; perhaps the most well-known of the artists who drew them was the man in the following interview… Robert Crumb, author of the most successful of all the New Age comics that came out at the time, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Phineas, Franklin, and Fat Freddy, all residents of Haight Ashbury during its prime era of hippiedom…. Enjoy, ffolkes, this man was not only THERE, he drew us the pictures we now have in our memories….

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

    Here, then, to soothe my panic for something to put here, is an archived politirant, from sometime after the election in 2012…. actually, quite a bit after…. this one is from April 21, 2013…. not much has changed, in truth, so, it’s all good….

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

“A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ah, yes, it does indeed….. This is the principle of human nature I exploit when I rant…. Well, I try, anyway…. It seems as if Ralph Waldo had the inclination to rant strike him on occasion, and, competent observer that he was, he examined how it made him feel, and act when he was in ranting mode. When in full flight, ranting makes one feel ten feet tall, able to leap arguments with a single quote, impervious to sarcasm or belittling remarks, and capable of chewing up the toughest pundit and spitting him out, before breakfast….. Whether or not one could actually do so doesn’t matter in the slightest, for it is what we THINK we can do that determines what we CAN do…. Like the dragons of Pern, who could lift any weight when flying, as long as they thought they could….

“Whenever you eliminate the inedible, whatever remains, however unpalatable, must be food.” — Smart Bee

Now, this is a truism; much as it seems like levity, it is quite serious, being a disguised version of a truth uttered by Sherlock Holmes, about Truth, to wit: “As I have previously stated, Watson, when one has eliminated the impossible, what remains, however unlikely, must be the truth.” (God, I hope I quoted it right… I’m lazy, and used the version in my head, rather than googling it to make sure…. but, I’m 100% positive that my paraphrase, if it be such, is completely accurate, in terms of meaning…..) Ranting is an area where this principle is key; it really doesn’t make sense to rant about something that isn’t true, unless the falsity is the actual subject of the rant…. as the following aphorism implies….

“It is a substantial advantage for any philosophy to be based on the truth.” — George Santayana

Of course, this doesn’t mean that being right will make reality conform to how we wish it to be. Much of the world, if not all, is controlled by a group of people who lie, constantly, without shame, completely indifferent to how it affects others, as long as their own needs are met first. But, they only do so because most of the public believes their lies, for the simple reason that it is too hard to believe otherwise. If they begin to see the truth of how they are controlled, they become frightened, often to the point of violence, because they don’t want to know the truth…. unless it comes from a suit on TV…..

“Given a sufficient number of people and an adequate amount of time, you can create insurmountable opposition to the most inconsequential idea.” — Devyver’s law

This is truth, too, sad as it may seem…. The general public will believe just about anything they are told, usually without any sort of critical thought applied to testing its veracity, if it is presented in a manner to which they are accustomed to being told what to do…. If the guy on the six o’clock news says it will rain money, most folks in this country would start looking for a barrel to catch it in, and wonder if it would rain in bills, or in coins… I kid you not…..

This may seem as if I have a poor opinion of the average intelligence of the average American, and in that estimation you would be absolutely correct…. I can say this with complete confidence, as it is a proven fact that the average American’s IQ is below the average for the human race at large….. fact, ffolkes, not supposition…. Of course, I could be lying, but, if so, you can just chalk it up to their bad influence…. If they can use untrue ‘facts’ to prove their assertions, I can, too….

Besides, I can show you almost 50 MILLION pieces of proof of my assertion, without having to look further than the Presidential election last year…. In that election, almost fifty million people voted for Mitt Romney, proof positive that they would believe ANYTHING…. How else could they decide to vote for a man who was PROVEN to have lied during the campaign (independent fact checking organizations showed that he lied just about 50% of the time, or, put more simply, every other time he spoke, he lied…), and indicated, on tape, his complete disdain for over half the people in the country?

It is such an incredibly huge number, it just isn’t possible to understand how gullible people can be, when one sees this statistic, (50 million votes for an asshole….). It is equally hard to believe that so many of our peers are this incredibly dumb, but, truth will out, as it always does….. It also speaks to the number of truly bigoted, racist people that are still in this country, hiding behind their cowardice, and their misguided, ignorant patriotism…. but, that’s a subject for another rant….. (All stupid people aren’t bigots and racists, but ALL bigots and racists are stupid people…..)

“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.” — Lazarus Long

You won’t get a better, more clear warning than that; on that note, I proclaim this rant, such as it was, to be complete…..

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

In 2013, I participated in the National Poetry Writing Month challenge, to write a poem a day…. Here is what I came up with on 4/22/2013…. I hope you enjoy them…. The haiku is particularly appropriate; the poem sorta fits, too….

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

I just don’t have it today, ffolkes. I’ve already had to go to the archives for a rant, and for a poem…. Now, we’re going to have to go back there for an old school pearl, too…. Oh well next time, I’ll save myself the effort, and just re-blog a good older Pearl. For now, this will do nicely….

From 4/22/2013:

So, there I was, cruising around Smart Bee, looking for pearls, when it occurred to me that I was engaged in a futile pastime, from the standpoint of the Universe…. I mean, what do I hope to accomplish with this stuff I write?…. Nobody’s mind will be changed, nobody will stop the carbon monoxide from getting pumped into the air, nobody is going to get mad enough to throw out all the assholes who are screwing us all…. This makes what I’m doing an exercise in mental masturbation, essentially, with as much hope of changing society as….. well, there is no hope for society, so I can’t think of a metaphor for it…. Nor is there any hope of anybody taking any of this seriously, even if read…

Having thus determined the absolute uselessness of our pastime, I will continue, fully cognizant of how lame it is…. I’m calling this a Pearl of Forlorn Lost Hope…. sort of…. Actually, it’s a subliminal pearl, and will worm its way into your head, where it will work on your attitudes, polishing and brightening them without you ever noticing…. By late this afternoon, you will have done a complete 180 from wherever you were, and will enjoy the rest of the day (that’s a subliminal post-hypnotic suggestion….)  Enjoy…..

“Does history repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce?   No, that’s too grand, too considered a process.  History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.” — Julian Barnes

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” — Marcus Aurelius

“But whether there’s some grand design really matters little to me. My only hope was this: to see what might be, to believe that it should be, and then to do all I could to bring it to pass, whatever the cost. When a life spins out as joyfully as mine has done, then the price, once paid so painfully, is now recalled in gladness. I have received full value. Here among the shepherds, my cup is filled with the water of life; it overflows.” — Orson Scott Card, “Treason”

” It is now some years since I detected how many were the false beliefs that I had believed to be true since my earliest youth.  And since that time, I have been convinced that I must once and for all seriously try to rid myself of all the opinions which I had formerly accepted, and begin to build anew, if I wanted to establish any firm and permanent structure for my beliefs.” — Rene Descartes, Meditations

“There is no cure for birth and death other than to enjoy the interval.” — George Santayana (1863-1952)

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

Okay, so, I cheated. A lot. S’okay, ffolkes, it’s done, and I’m not yet at a point where anyone is in danger, unless they come right to my door. Since I’m staying in today, to avoid just that possibility, I’ll finish up, and be out of your hair…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I can’t talk myself out of it…. I don’t try very hard, so, see ya then….

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….