In my left ear, sir….

Ffolkes,

    Today’s Pearl will be, to some extent, similar to the above picture, in that, the participants of the activity recorded are having as much, or more, fun, than those who are observing and recording…. Now, it’s true, such a statement only takes into account such factors as how much fun it is to watch others work, how much the elephant enjoys being sprayed, but, has no clue as to whether or not the guy washing the beast is gay, straight, or in-between… Of course, the latter has nothing at all to do with anything, but, it was shocking enough to get your attention, wasn’t it?….

Just a little trick to open up…. sort of like the old pull a coin from the ear trick, but, with letters…. None of what is included in the above paragraph had any particular meaning, or significance; it was all a set-up for the punch line…. I also know that it is currently considered a faux pas to use gays, lesbians, or other alternative choice adherents as the butt, or even the subject, of any sort of joke…. I guess they’re too sensitive? I don’t know, and don;t care; it’s a fucking joke, ffolkes, so get over it…. Nobody here is laughing at gays; I laugh at those who are afraid of them, or hate them, as I know, for a FACT, it is usually because of their own fear of feeling attracted to the same sex that prompts them to be cruel or stupid.

I didn’t mean, actually, to get into anything so controversial right off; in fact, I was trying to figure out how to tell y’all I was just going to re-blog an older post…. then, I sort of fell into this discussion, whereupon I decided I was up, so I may as well Pearl…. So be it….

I don’t know where this will end up; I do know we won’t be targeting any hapless LGBT enthusiasts in any of our rants, as I figure they don’t need any help from me…. The last twenty or thirty years of constant societal interaction has brought the issues to a head, and, in the process, has made veteran activists out of many people who otherwise would never have even thought about it…. There is still a long way to go, as there are a LOT of ignorant people out there, none of whom care to admit their ignorance, or try to learn anything new, but, the tide has turned in society, and the forces of ignorance are currently in full retreat from their position of intransigence regarding sexuality…

This isn’t saying I won’t support them, I’m just not devoting this entire Pearl to their issues…. In fact, I haven’t a clue as to what issues we may touch upon, but, it’s not going to be that one…. unless, of course, some headline jumps up, grabs me by the eyes, and says, “here, look at THIS!”…. It’s been known to happen…. I think I’m beginning to unravel here….

It’s probably best if I stop here, and get on with the rest of today’s effort…. I’m getting further and further away from any sort of coherency in this section; we’d be better off to get on to the next….. This means, naturally, since we are so firmly entrenched in this, we’ll need to apply another emergency exit strategy, in order to return to any semblance of dignified competence…. Not that such is anything like normal around here, but, we do try to maintain a certain level of protocol and tradition, even if it constantly blows up in our faces….. Who knew Murphy was allergic to protocol?….. Not me….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Belief gets in the way of learning.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

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After reading the following diatribe-style pearl, it is clear that two pearls are necessary to start it off with the correct frame of mind…. anything less would be hazardous to your mental health….

“Perhaps I know why it is man alone who laughs: He alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“Kids, don’t gross me off..  “Adventures with MENTAL HYGIENE” can be carried too FAR!” — Zippy the Pinhead

When I first began today, I had intended to re-blog an older post, and still may use something from the archives….. for now though, I’ve collected another set of links to articles that continue to explore the problems we have in society that are leading us to our extinction, more rapidly than we are willing to admit…. there are only three articles, but, the two issues covered are, perhaps, two of the more serious issues we face, to wit: climate change, and the effects of racism on modern society (that racism, as I see it, is the primary contributing factor behind the militarization of the police forces in this country, as well as around the world….)

If you don’t think I’m being accurate, or that the police forces around America aren’t becoming militarized, allow me to provide you with some Art that clearly indicates what I mean…. The picture you see (which has been used in a number of sites and reports…. I believe it’s an Associated Press picture….) shows the county police in Ferguson, Missouri, during one of the community protests over the shooting of an unarmed civilian…. This, ffolkes, is how the modern police force is views the public they allegedly serve…… as their enemy….. After looking at the picture, read the two articles, which, of course, are from a European news outlet…. our own news companies won’t talk very much about the issue…. Oh, they’re reporting on it, but, they don’t even MENTION any of the military style equipment or tactics, except in passing….

    These yahoos are in a small town in central Missouri, but, by their dress  and equipment, you would think they were about to be attacked by armed Jihadi forces in another country…. And, let me ask you this….. are these guys going to carry around all those neat battle toys, and not want to USE them? Just a thought, as it seems to me, they would WANT to see what all their new stuff can do…. I mean, just LOOK at all that weaponry, the armored assault vehicle, the radar or sonic weaponry, the battle helmets, armored vests, automatic rifles, sharpshooters…. it’s a regular assault force there….

Also, just what IS that thing on top of the battle truck? I believe it is a targeting device for some sort of automatic weaponry, or possibly for rockets?….  I’m not currently up-to-date on weapons tech; I just know it doesn’t make a lot of sense to see ANY of these articles of war deployed against our own citizenry…. You think? Okay, read the articles, then tell me if you disagree with any of this….

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/14/obama-ferguson-police-excessive-force-michael-brown

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/14/ferguson-cops-military-weapons-michael-brown-shooting-protests

“…witnessed teargas being shot directly at a camera crew with al-Jazeera America. Photographs later showed police officers dismantling al-Jazaeera’s broadcasting equipment after the crew fled. “

Now, of course, we see why the American news reporters are reluctant to write about what the police are doing…. The people who would report on them are being targeted; in the article you will see where the county police arrested two reporters in a fast food restaurant, then released them only because the chief of police intervened…. Do you think maybe the reporters are getting a bit leery of making the police the subject of their writing? I certainly do; they’re human, and aren’t going to put themselves at risk if they can avoid it….

Next comes something about the issue of climate change, from one of my favorite columnists, who always has an even-handed, insightful approach to such issues…. I’m giving up now, as the picture above tends to send my outrage through the roof…. After that, if I start in on this issue, I’ll overload, and possibly end up in bed again from exhaustion…. Not going there, believe me…. Instead, after you enjoy Mr. Carroll’s words, I’ll put together an old-school pearl, to try to soothe my fevered brow….

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/Tons-of-methane-tons-of-garbage-What-fun-5684628.php

Okay, lets see if I can work off some of this angst with some pearls that shoot in the direction of the Asininnies….

“Teach a parrot the terms “supply and demand” and you’ve got an economist.” — Thomas Carlyle

“We haven’t the time to take our time.” — Eugene Ionesco

“The difference between a lawyer and a rooster, is that the rooster gets up in the morning and clucks defiance.” — Smart Bee

“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“A very ancient and fish-like smell.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Tempest — Act ii, Sc. 2

“When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school…” — Paul Simon

(Okay, so, it makes more sense when the next line is included….)

“It’s a wonder I can think at all….” – Paul Simon

Well…. It seems that seven stars don’t quite cut it…. we’ll need to expand to nine…. hold on, we’ll find two more, & be done with it…..

“The award for All-Time Champion and Protector of Youthful Morals goes to Representative Clare E. Hoffman of Michigan.  During an  impassioned House debate over a proposed bill to “expand oyster and clam research,” a sharp-eared informant transcribed the following exchange between our hero and Rep. John D. Dingell, also of Michigan…..
DINGELL: There are places in the world at the present time where we are having to artificially propagate oysters and clams.
HOFFMAN: You mean the oysters I buy are not nature’s oysters?
DINGELL: They may or may not be natural. The simple fact of the matter is that female oysters through their living habits cast out large amounts of seed and the male oysters cast out large amounts of fertilization…
HOFFMAN: Wait a minute!  I do not want to go into that.  There are many teenagers who read The Congressional Record.”

– Smart Bee

“There is no freedom without the power to defend it.”– Smart Bee

Close enough…..

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First posted on 10/24/2012:

“What do you want me to do?  Say it again in worse English?” — Robert Frost, when asked about the meaning of one of his poems.

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Rather than try any more to do what I cannot do, I’m going to the archives, for a piece I wrote a couple of years ago that seems to fit in with my mood today, if not my subject matter under discussion…. I guess, all in all, this one’s got a bit of a lot of things in it…. Enjoy, please….

From 10/27/2012:

“I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word I am saying.” — Oscar Wilde

AOL!….. LOL…. “AOL!” is hacker slang for “me, too!”, patterned after the typical AOL user’s response to a witty statement in a chat room…. in this case, I can honestly say that Oscar and I have this in common, especially the part about not understanding a word I’m saying….. I would say that puts me in some pretty good company, what?….

“The trouble with using experience as a guide is that the final exam often comes first and then the lesson.” — Smart Bee

Oscar once made a statement that ran parallel to this one, as well. It is a hard lesson for all of us to learn, but, it is one of those common pieces of natural law that affect all of us at one time or another in our lives. Life, like the physical universe, just doesn’t care whether or not we are ready for an experience, it just happens. It is our own reaction to that which determines whether or not we are able to cope with the experience, and learn from it, or whether it buries us…. an all-too-common fate. It’s a tough room, as the comedian said….

“If you’re smoking after sex then you’re going *WAY* too fast!” — Smart Bee

This is not a perfect segue into the next item for discussion, since I’m a) not sure what that was, and b) this wasn’t it, but it does exemplify what I like to call the “silly factor”, an offshoot effect of the natural bozoid tendencies that all of us humans possess as members of this silly species…. Murphy’s Law is merely an observation, but is one that could only be made by our species (even though I’ve noted that other species, that associate with us, can sometimes be pulled into Murphy’s influence, to do his bidding, and occasionally, to act as co-victims….), because he takes full advantage of our tendencies toward bozoid behavior, to set traps for us; traps that cannot, and never do, fail to catch us unawares.

“I sometimes think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Even if one considers that God did not exceed his capabilities when making Man, he certainly made a rush job of it, and left certain design characteristics out of the final production, facets that would have gone a long way toward making this world a lot more pleasant a place than it has turned out to be, with Man in his current foolish state. Ah well, it just goes to show that one shouldn’t depend on a notion like creationism to provide us with excuses for our behavior….. accepting that kind of indulgences, or even assuming it, has obviously led us to the state of affairs we now face in the world, as the great majority of people continue to behave just as if they had the right to use the universe as they choose, rather than as they should do as moral creatures….

“Instead of being born again, why not just grow up?” — Smart Bee

That about says it all, don’t you think? Mankind would be far better off if we all decided to act as grown-ups, rather than clinging to the ages-old fantasies that have put us in this position. Only a child acts without regard to consequences; our species has been refusing to grow beyond that avaricious stage for millennia now, and the world is showing the deleterious effects of that sense of entitlement. We cannot continue to treat this planet as our toy, to be used and discarded like it was some piece of manufactured plastic, or we will most certainly suffer the very real consequences of that foolish attitude.

“Morals today are corrupted by our worship of riches.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

In spite of all the massive quantities of evidence that it is harmful, we continue to pump millions of tons of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere every minute of every day…. the effect of that on the balanced ecology of the planet is reaching a critical flash point, and may already be at a point from which there is no turning back…. This is FACT, not supposition….. but, the world carries on, certain that we may depend on the same old idea, that we are invulnerable, and not subject to the laws of nature…. a sincerely stupid idea at best…. It is almost enough to make one want to tear hair out and start shooting…. but, unfortunately, there isn’t enough ammunition to shoot all the folks who need to be shot, and it’s probably too late now, anyway….. Besides, who wants to be the one who has to decide who to shoot first? (I do! I do!…. which just proves that we humans can’t handle that sort of godly decisiveness….)

“All the secrets we may be able to keep from any and every god and human being do not in the least absolve us from the obligation to refrain from whatever actions are greedy, unjust, sensual, or otherwise immoderate.” — Cicero, On Duties

It’s really too bad that this idea never caught on…. oh, many folks learned to use it, to lie to the rest of us, but, in reality, nobody ever really does this, they just say they do….. It kind of makes one wonder whether we deserve to keep living, doesn’t it?  Well, it makes ME wonder…. with not a little bit of sadness, for our species holds such promise…. a promise we have never learned to keep….

“It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man’s deeper nature is soon found out.” — Oscar Wilde

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Well, ffolkes, it’s done; I wasn’t completely sure I would be able to get it to this point when I started, and, half-way through, I almost gave up again…. I think we can mark this one down under the “Serendipity” category tab, as I don’t know how to explain it any other way…. I’m only guessing here, but, I think proofing would be superfluous at this point, so, off we go to post…. See y’all tomorrow, given half a chance….