This is from Tolstoy, according to Colin Wilson in the book The Outsider, citing an Eastern fable:

“… a man clings to a shrub on the side of a pit to escape an enraged beast at the top and a dragon at the bottom. Two mice gnaw at the roots of the shrub. Yet while hanging, waiting for death he notices some drops of honey on the leaves of the shrub, and reaches out and licks them.”

Good lord! I realize that by comparison to many I have had an easy life. At the same time, I have had my share of tragedy, as we all must experience to wake up and grow. Through it all I have come out an optimist. There is meaning in life, and death is either the end of consciousness or a continuation of life in some other form … I cannot know but in either case, it does not scare me. Continue reading “Clinging to a shrub?” →

I have been waiting for our writer Steve Kelly to jump in in on the forest fires that are burning in Montana and other states. Looking at photos, it seems like a conflagration. People get very upset by them, as green forests are turned to char and dust. However, is a natural process. All of the organic matter is recycled. True, it is not pleasant to walk in a ghost forest, but people will be surprised when it is all over how much forest is still standing. The amount of smoke these fires put out is impressive.

Continue reading “Fires, glaciers, hurricanes and hype” →

Traveling and hiking in Switzerland there has been one constant: bad music. A few days ago we were waiting on a tram and did not feel we could leave the building and chance missing it. We felt like prisoners in a psychiatric ward undergoing torture. It was loud, and one bad singer after another assaulted our ears, often enough that throaty and emotive teen-something girl pouring out her deep and bitter angst.

Continue reading “Musical crap factories” →

“But if I really say it,
The radio won’t play it,
Unless I lay it between the lines.”
(Dave Dixon, Noel Paul Stookey, James Mason, “I Did Rock and Roll Music,” Performed by Peter, Paul and Mary)

The above lamentation is from a song from the early 1970s that has not weathered well. Artists named in it, Donovan, the Mamas and Papas, are relegated now to “oldies” radio stations. Those are disappearing now, along with the listeners.

There was pressure during that time to be free of censorship, usually concerning sex. In fact, there was a group from that time period, The Fugs, that simply bypassed the censors and let fly with masterpieces such as “Boobs a Lot” and “I Feel Like Homemade Shit.” We can easily see here how censorship restrained profound artistic expression.

Continue reading “When unspoken is best left that way” →

This link is to a rather long piece at the website Calcified Lies. The reading was, for me, difficult, and I intend to take another shot at it.It was supplied to us by [Annette and then] Inside Baseball under the Boston Marathon post below.

I was unable to find the name of the author.

Continue reading “Calcified lies” →

“Kevin,” in the past has spent tedious and long hours investigating the background of celebrities. This link takes you to the first of four papers in that series. (Hint: no one gets famous on talent alone, and often enough talent is not even a requirement. Right, Damon? Affleck?

He turns his sights now on a rich vein for exploration, evangelists, faith healers, preachers. The paper is called Faith Dealers, and I hope more research follows. In this first segment he takes down a woman who held me enthralled until her highly improbable (and likely fake) death on 12/25/2015 – Dorothy M. Murdock, or Acharya S. It turns out she’s part of the peerage, just another a spook. I always found her writing tedious and over-referenced, and now I know why – it was committee work. She was just a front for another Intelligence operation.

Continue reading “Recommended reading: Faith Dealers” →