This bear’s brain has been softened!….

Ffolkes,

    Given the state of affairs in which most of us exist, it seems pointless to bother explaining my own particular brand of insanity; nobody would blink, or wail, or fall down in shock and awe. Of course, if my own oddities don’t cause any sort of public display of astonishment, beyond the occasional snort of disdain, or the random chortle at my discomfiture, (only present, I assure you, because it’s too damn early in the day for such philosophical discussions)…. well, then, I wouldn’t expect to astound my audience with tales of strange behavior on the part of our Beloved Ruling Class, or that of my own particular nemesis, the dogma dogs….

When I think of the centuries of progress we have lost by listening to these fools, it depresses me, deeply; no other human activity plays such a large part in holding us back, as does the delusion of a supernatural force at large in the universe that, according to those who buy into that sort of thing, has some sort of obsession with having us worship them, bend our will to them, and otherwise surrender much of our humanity in order to make this delusion happy…. Now, if you were offered that as a deal for a used car, would you take it? Would you make that deal? I don’t think so; we all know how much used car salesman have OUR interests at heart…. Tricky Dicky taught us that….

I’ve done it again, haven’t I? Ranting before I even wake up, it seems, as I am, just now, finally awake enough to take note of what my fingers have been up to the last few minutes…. It seems my sub-conscious mind is chewing on the subject of dogma dogs, and their deleterious effects on human culture, since first gaining popularity back in the early days of our civilization’s rise from living in caves to living in cities built of metal and brick… Not that this “rise” has taught most people to think any more efficiently than when their most complex need was where to find another animal to kill. Hell, most of the folks alive today wouldn’t last ten minutes if they had to feed themselves, if there was no Burger King nearby….

Ah well, I suppose it’s only natural for me to complain; I am, after all, a human, with the same faults and prejudices most of us fall prey to, with, perhaps, just a few less delusions than is usually the case. Some of us humans have learned to pay attention to that little voice that whispers to us when we are told something that challenges our understanding; most people give that up to avoid having to think, or make decisions for themselves about what to believe. Those of us who have decided not to engage in such weakness, unfortunately, don’t seem to be able to convince the rest of the world of how little they actually see, or understand…. Instead, the world trudges on toward its doom, blithely blind to their own danger, or their own part in creating that danger.

Having now completely lost all track of where we might be in this process, I think I’ll abandon all hope, and just go on with the rest of today’s Pearl…. There doesn’t seem to be much point in belaboring this point any further; I’m mostly preaching to the choir, anyway, I think; most of my Gentle Readers, I find, are of that part of humanity that doesn’t buy into the bullshit being tossed around by the BRC; it might be more effective if anyone who actually needed to know this stuff would stop in to read…. But, that probably wouldn’t work, anyway, as they’d just bail the first time I asked them to think, or to answer a question they don’t understand…. SIGH….

But, we’ve managed to get far enough down the page to allow me to get us out of here without further claptrap (wonderful word, that….), so, I’ll just turn this little wheel here, push this lever down, press this button, and, voilá, we’re outta here!…. Hold on to your loose packages, ffolkes, the turn here is a bit sharp….

Shall we Pearl?

“In the handbook, it says that most people ignore the strange and unusual;  while I myself *am*… strange and unusual.” — BEETLEJUICE

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I feel like a bit of political satire, with a dash of impropriety, and some well-earned snark…. in other words, let’s see what our old friend Russell Brand has been up to of late, shall we?….. He is one of the few people in the public eye who is actively proposing world-wide revolution against those who would kill us all in achieving their own ends…. Here is his interview on Letterman last month, with a number of other available videos listed at the You Tube page where the link leads…. Listen up, ffolkes, he’s telling it straight….

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“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live.  It is asking other people to live as one wishes to live.” — Oscar Wilde

I’ve ranted already, filling up a great deal of the intro with my usual diatribe against organized religion, and the dogma dogs who would have us believe all that nonsense, so, I’ll spare you another one today, and proceed with an old-school pearl to serve the same purpose…. This one is, obviously, aimed at those foolish, but dangerous predators who prey upon the weak and gullible among us…. a group which sadly includes the greater portion of humanity….

Note, please. the first entry, which attempted to warn people against these liars and manipulators, is part of a work written long before the birth of Jesus Christ, the dogma dogs’ most frequent choice for their insane machinations….

“Some foolish men declare that a Creator made the world.  The doctrine that the world was created is ill-advised, and should be rejected.  If God created the world, where was He before creation?  How could God have made the world without any raw material?  If you say He made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression … Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning and end.” — The Mahapurana, Jinasena

“The Church hates a thinker like a criminal hates the police.” — Smart Bee

“To certain individuals of small minds and overweening ambition, there is no greater insult than to be proved wrong.” — Thomas H Dyer 1984

“People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.” — Samuel Butler, in “Samuel Butler’s Notebooks”

“Worship the gods, listen to their advice, but don’t lend them money.”– Smart Bee

“Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.” — Oscar Wilde  “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Smart Bee is a bit testy this morning; these are the best I could find…. So, I’ll leave you with a short statement of my own advice when confronted with someone trying to get you to swallow their hook, line, and sinker…. to wit:

“Get a taste of religion. Bite a preacher!” — Smart Bee, with gigoid’s full agreement

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Some poems, and poets, need no introduction, nor adornment…. Enjoy!

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Since Smart Bee is a bit out of sorts, we’ll go with a choice from the archives…. This pearl was first posted on 7/13/2012, though, to look at it, you’d think it was made to go with the rant section above….
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Here then is an old-school pearl…. Strung together, each of these distinct ideas blend to become one scathing exposé of society today…. Just what that exposé consists of is, of course, left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…..

“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

“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

“What do you mean, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch?” *YOU* are the free lunch!” — Solomon Short

On a sidewalk near Portland State University someone wrote `Trust Jesus’, and someone else wrote `But Cut the Cards’. — Smart Bee

“Honesty isn’t any policy at all; it’s a state of mind or it isn’t honesty.” — Eugene L’Hote

“Apes evolved from Creationists!” — Smart Bee

Well, there you have it…. perhaps a bit less scathing than sardonic, but attractively presented, if nothing else, eh? Don’t forget to offer a cut to the player on your right before you deal the cards ….

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Well, I’ve done it again, Ollie…. There’s no going back now, and, since I never intended to do that, anyway, we can proceed to close this out with only minor guilt, which, I’m happy to say, I gave up years ago…. We all need a hobby, right? Right…. On that note, I’m outta here, ffolkes…. See y’all tomorrow….

À bientôt, mon cherí….