Don’t push that envelope; stick a stamp on & mail it….

Ffolkes,

It took a while, but, I finally figured out a way to defeat the lack of creativity with which I awoke today….. It’s a busy day, with early appointments and lots of activity going on, so it’s not a good day for my head to take a break…. but, it doesn’t care about any of that, and has issued enough evidence to let me know it isn’t going to do any REAL work today…. So, I’m filling in from the archives today, shamelessly, as I found some good stuff, which will work for this Pearl nicely….

I’m so happy with what I’ve found, which is going to keep me from having to strain myself to come up with new material, I’m not even going to blather here in the intro any more than is necessary to get us on down the page a ways, so I can cut and paste the chosen archived material to my heart’s content…..

Some out there might think I’m being lazy, but, given the way I’ve felt for the last week or so, pain-wise, y’all are free to think anything you want; I simply don’t give a rat’s ass, and will do what I want anyway….. I’m not very likable sometimes, I suppose, when I’ve been in pain for several days…. and can’t bring meself to care much at all, at all…. I’m sure you’ll understand, and if not, oh well….

Hmm…. I hope I didn’t drive anyone off with that sort of curmudgeonry; if so, well, so much for honesty, eh? S’alright, I’m good with solitude, as long as I know I have been truthful, and not deliberately cruel…. I mean, I AM an American, and we can be real assholes, given half a chance, right? That is certainly our reputation over much of the rest of the world, a reputation that has been, I’m afraid, well-earned, though not by the average American…. No, our rep around the world is based strictly on what the assholes in our government do in their international relations, which is, mostly, bomb the shit out of little brown people….

Oops! Almost started in on the BRC there, and it won’t be necessary today, and certainly isn’t needed in the intro, much as it may fit in there sometimes…. Today, we’re looking for something a bit more rational, and, by golly, I think we’ve got what we need right here, right now… which is a damn good thing, as my wrists and fingers are beginning to become painful enough to cause some serious difficulties typing…. Thank goodness this is now legal…. even if not what could be called “good”…..

Shall we Pearl? Yes, yes, we shall…..

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I had intended to put something else here, but, I found this while looking for the one I’d chosen….  It’s equally appropriate, and more on point than the other, so, you get this, instead…. This diatribe was first included in the Pearl posted on 6/16/13:

“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt (1759-1806) speech on the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783

I had not intended to start with a political rant, but this just came up, so here we go…. This is as true today as it was in 1783, perhaps even more so. Since 9/11/01, when those fanatic idiots carried out their insane delusions of grandeur on the world stage, the “necessity” for Homeland Security has been the watchword of the political pundits who, unfortunately, are in charge of the legislative and executive branches of our government. Bill after bill after bill keeps coming down the pike, bulling their way through into becoming law, or even worse, created by executive order, without the benefit of review by Congress, useless as that may be.

The entire incident that happened that day was blown completely out of proportion by the media. Yes, it was a terrible tragedy, in which something over 3000 American lives were lost, in three separate incidents. The videos of those planes hitting the buildings in New York must have been replayed a thousand times before noon, all over the country, until every American who had access to a TV was informed of what had occurred….

The American media, and the political machinery that manipulates it so effectively, then proceeded to flood every channel with the after-effects, making sure that the sorrow and fear of every person they could find willing to speak of it on camera was put on the evening news, and ensuring that no rational, dispassionate examination of the events would take place. Before the first day had passed, the national reaction had been whipped to a frenzy, stirring the fears of every paranoid in society, and making it seem as if the entire nation was filled with anger and vengeful righteousness. Though I didn’t join in the paranoia, I could feel it happening all around me, as normally intelligent people became so angry they lost all sense of proportion, or for that matter, all sense of truth.

In the ensuing years, whenever the politicians have wanted to distract the nation from what they were actually doing, all they have needed to do was mention the word terrorism, or national security, to immediately put attention off of them, and onto the pitiful  group of fanatical Muslims they blamed for the attacks (completely ignoring all the reasons those same politicians had provided those fanatics  in the first place, with the justifiable reasons that were, in truth, actually designed just for that purpose, to stimulate an attack….). And thus, the Hunt for Osama bin Laden was on!

In this country, as a result of those attacks, approximately 5000 American lives were lost (that figure is larger than the actual number, purposely…. it is near enough to correct to make the point…). At this time, in the quest to find Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, over 50,000 Afghani civilians have been killed. In Iraq, which we somehow decided to invade, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, well over 250,000 civilians have died to soothe our national pride.

In that same period, we lost another 1000 or so soldiers in fighting and bombings, not counting those allies we convinced to support us in our insane paranoia. And, as a side effect, the US Bill of Rights has been effectively eliminated, by Executive Order, disguised as Homeland Security (June, 2013 — Now, the abrogation of those rights are authorized by what is so laughingly called the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012…. signed by President Obama on New Year’s Eve of 2011, while everyone was partying, not paying any attention to their so-called “rights”…..).

“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated” — George Bernard Shaw

So, what is my point here? My point is this…. those pathetic fanatics killed more Americans than they had ever been able to kill before, once…. yep, one time. Since that one time, our country has killed over 300,000 civilians in retaliation; you can call it what you like, I call it schoolyard revenge by bullies. It has caused every politician in this country to wrap themselves in the flag, not to proclaim their patriotism, but to manipulate the unreasonable fear they created in the public to keep them from realizing the truth of the matter.

That truth is this: we are in no real danger from Al Qaeda,  or Qaida, or whatever, or from any other splinter faction terrorist group, nor have we ever been in any real danger from any of them. They may be able to pull off stunts such as this one occasionally, but for the most part, the world has gotten pretty good at either catching them in hiding, or stopping their plots before they actually carry them out. Governments have a LOT more resources than terrorists, no matter how rich they may be personally.

No, the pathetic, desperate people who become terrorists are created by those same political pundits who are reviling them and hunting them down. They are not a real threat to anyone, as they don’t have the wherewithal to perform more than one act of violence at a time; they cannot wage a war, they can only try to act as guerrilla forces, at best. Mostly, they are just sad schemers, planning glorious deaths, that ultimately have no meaning, other than to provide the Western politicos another unreasonable fear to use against the American public, in order to continue their raping and pillaging among their own people.

The entire issue is one that is repugnant to me; I have watched in horror, not as terrorists have been hunted, but as the rights of the American people have been taken away in the name of “security”. Security from what? We don’t need more security from terrorists; those techniques for dealing with it are well-established, and effective, as they employ the very same methods used by the fanatics to achieve their ends. No, we need more security from our own pundits, who have utilized this tragic events for their own benefit, to the everlasting regret of every true patriot….. bloody assholes, every one of them…..

“I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background. I have seen a great deal of patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge of the scoundrel.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Judgement of Dr. Johnson, Act III

So be it…. gigoid has spoken….

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Since today’s material came from past Pearls, here is a poem of mine, one of the last I wrote in 2013…. I hope you enjoy it….

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Exactly a month after creating the above rant, in section one, I wrote this, a piece I re-post periodically, to keep things honest….. This was LAST posted on 7/16/2013:

I’m not feeling lazy, but, I AM feeling lazy, so I’m dipping into the past to come up with today’s third section…. It has been some time since I posted this, which I try to do at least once a year, to keep new ffolkes apprised of my history, and provide some background for the stuff I write here…. some of the back story, as it were…. So, here is my philosophy of Life, and some of the rationalizations that prompted its creation….. Though Peruaosophy originally was composed in the 1980’s, this article was posted on the site, GoodBlogs.com, sometime in early 2011, prior to starting this blog on WordPress….

In the dim, dark past, when I was, sort of, attending college at UC Berkeley, (1968-70) discussing philosophy was standard in many of the BS sessions in which I participated. In order to not be thought of as someone who was ignorant in the field, I naturally read the classic tomes by such philosophers as Friedrich Nietzsche, Soren Kierkegaard, Aristotle, Plutarch, Plato, Socrates, Epicurus, Solon, and Jung, as well as more modern folks, such as Bucky Fuller, Sartre, and John Lennon (yes, him too…his philosophy tends to lean way to the left…).

One day later on, sometime in the 80’s, I was involved in learning to raise kids, deal with a wife, and in general going quietly crazy trying to balance all the balls one must keep in the air to get by in today’s world. As I sat this particular day, it struck me how long it had been since I stretched my mind. It seemed as if I’d been buried in mundane details forever, and upon examination & reflection I decided I wanted to expand my consciousness, using the flight of imagination to lift me above the everyday cares and woes to which I had fallen prey. And I found, as well, that I had been unconsciously acting according to many of the precepts that I had learned in those halcyon days of my youth.

Encouraged by this revelation, I went one step further, and made the decision to codify my own personal philosophy, to put down in writing those things that I consider to be essential to becoming a well-grounded, well-rounded, productive and contented member of society. The process went more quickly than I had imagined, and I came up with seven basic concepts, all of which I hold to be an integral part of what I believe. Axiom #4 was added later as a necessary part of the whole, overlooked in the initial version, bringing the total number of axioms to eight.

The word I coined to describe this philosophy is Greek; “perua” means “pearl”, and of course, “osophy” is “the study of”.  Thus I give you Peruaosophy, the study of pearls of wisdom. Each axiom stands alone, and together they describe fairly well how I approach Life…..

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Regardless of how it may seem from your side, this was NOT an easy Pearl to put together…. It’s done though, so, I’m content, if not happy. Enough so I will now post this, and be done with it…. The Big Blue Room is calling…. See ya, ffolkes…..