_________ On FRIDAY the THIRTEENTH _________

Fools to nonsense eagerly lend credence.

Reality they shun; it’s too complex.

Instead vacuity will take precedence.

Divorcing thought from action often wrecks

Any hope of living ruled by Reason.

Yet, it’s easier to follow than to lead.

This laziness makes for a crazy season

Harming our best chances to succeed.

Ignorance we cling to with great pride

Resisting solid knowledge with great strength.

The narrow we respect, reject the wide,

Enjoy old wives’ tales we’ve been told at length. 

Enraptured by Tradition’s constipation 

Nurtures comfort in stultification.

~ FreeThinke (9/13/13)

Meditation on a Tragic Anniversary

A radiant cloudless morning

_____ air fresh and clear

__________ sky the brightest blue

_______________ mood mellow

A lovely young day bright with promise ––

And then a gleaming silver shell appeared

_____ mirroring beautifully the morning sunshine 

__________ A Thing of Beauty –– but horribly out of place

_______________ like a spacecraft from an alien planet

Dipping crazily far too low upon the skyline

_____ before anyone could feel the menace ––

_________ it smashed directly into a gigantic upright construct ––

_______________ one of a pair ––

Twin monuments to Greed and Vain Ambition some were quick to say

But sudden violent death eradicated an entire investment firm

_____ in one horrific instant –– 

__________ dozens of bright young lives incinerated –– gone!

Before dazed onlookers could begin to understand what was happening

_____ another silver shell acting as a missile 

__________ crashed into the second of the giant pair.

Ugly buildings!  A hideous blot 

_____ on the once-graceful Manhattan skyline!

“Ada Louise Huxtable might secretly rejoice at this,”

_____ part of me though wickedly, for I had always resented

__________ the overbearing, outsized twins ––

_______________ bounders, interlopers, invaders!

But before that ruined day was halfway through

_____ three-thousand innocents had been

__________ burned alive, brains and eyeballs boiled 

__________ skulls pulverized, skeletons crushed

_______________ between twisting, white hot girders

_______________ pelted with falling rubble midst the flames

_______________ caught, crippled, crumpled, smashed to bits ––

__________ Smothered in collapsing stairwells and buried alive

_______________ in a torrent of red hot cinders and debris

In so many ways the scene must have mimicked the final hours

_____ of the residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum

And then there were those hideous echoes 

––––– of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire ––

Where so many jumped to their deaths

_____ to escape being burned alive ––

In an instant smashed skulls, broken bones and bloody pulp 

_____ were all that remained of their vibrant young lives ––

__________ and locked inside the ruined sweatshop –– 

_______________ cinders –– ashes and soot.

And just a year ago in Benghazi –– to mark the anniversary 

__________ of this Great Triumph of Barbarity over Civilization

_______________ our young, handsome, well-meaning, 

_______________ hopelessly naive, ambassador to Libya

_______________ was surrounded in his quarters, 

_______________ dragged out into the streets

_______________ beaten, sodomized and brutally murdered.

But what does any of this matter? What difference does it make?

_____ Let’s just forget about it, and MOVE ON.

__________ Might as well. 

We are privileged to live in interesting times.

Kyrie eleison!

Kyrie eleison!

Christe eleison!

~ FreeThinke 

Farewell!

 The soul selects her own Society ––
Then shuts the Door ––
On her divine Majority
Obtrude no more ––

Unmoved –– she notes the Chariots –– pausing ––
At her low Gate ––
Unmoved, an Emperor is kneeling
Upon her Mat ––

I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one ––
Then –– close the valves of her attention ––
Like stone.

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

On this the First Anniversary of the day FreeThinke’s Blog began, our days of active participation in the blogosphere have come to an end. We have been planning for some time to cease operations altogether on this date.

The atmosphere throughout the blogosphere is malignant. It is bound to have a deleterious effect on our health both mental and physical, if we remain involved with it much longer. The blogs have become nothing but a repository for childish hatred, extreme cynicism, insolence, bilious rhetoric, malevolence, spite, and lunacy.

What we have learned about human nature through this experience is frankly horrifying. The recent spate of moronic hate mail in response to our efforts to foster an atmosphere of amity, comity, relative sanity and good humor has been enough to gag a maggot.

More and more we feel soiled by this process.

There have been a small handful who've shown understanding, kindness, appreciation and support, and for them we shall always be thankful, but a small handful is not enough to warrant our continuing to pour effort into an obvious exercise in futility. 

Our best efforts here have been largely ignored –– or perverted by willful misunderstanding. 

Only a seriously ill person would continue to drink from an open sewer on a daily basis. 

We wish you well, as we retire to pray our country may one day begin to grow and prosper mentally, morally, culturally and spiritually once again.

~ FreeThinke

I never hear the word "escape"

 Without a quicker blood ––

A sudden agitation ––

A flying attitude.

I never hear of prisons broad

By soldiers battered down

But I tug –– childish –– at my bars ––

Only to fail again.

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

~ § ~

__________________________________ Her House

________________ Creamy quiet rooms

____________________ filled with light ––

________________ Sparsely furnished rooms 

____________________ filled with light ––

________________________ almost black

________________ An island here and there ––

____________________ polished wood ––

________________________ darkly gleams.

________________ Beeswax and bureau scarves ––

____________________ echoes of lavender from Before ––

________________________ captured in a drawer.

________________ A solitary bee

____________________ for company.

________________ A dainty Hitchcock chair ––

____________________ a skeleton in black

________________________ against the light ––

________________ A churchyard framed in white ––

____________________ crisp unspotted white.

________________ A stillness so pure

____________________ one could hear

________________________ the waltzing whir

____________________________ of moth wings ––

____________________ Somewhere

________________________ in the attic.

~ FreeThinke, The Sandpiper, (1994)

A Pilgrimage to Amherst’

The great American poet, Emily Dickinson may have died in 1886, but even so she has functioned as the Big Sister I never had –– a soulmate –– a confidante –– and an endless source of empathy and inspiration since I discovered her in a high school English class at the age of 14.

I once made a pilgrimage to visit Emily's House and her grave in Amherst. It was March. Snow still lay on the ground. The house was closed to the public, but that turned out to be an advantage. I had the property all to myself, and derived a remarkable sense of oneness with its former inhabitant from walking around her snow-encrusted garden, gazing up at her window. Contemplating which of the trees had been there when she still walked the earth. Quoting her poetry aloud –– and some of mine. Thanking her. Praying for her.

I spent hours there absolutely transfixed. I was in tears much of the time, but it felt good. Probably the closest thing I've ever had to a mystical experience.

If anyone had observed me, they undoubtedly would have thought me insane –– possibly dangerous. Fortunately, I was alone –– a Great Gift. Solitude can make it easier to touch the Heart of Reality more than Confrontation –– or merely pleasant social interaction.

As sunset approached I walked the short distance to her grave –– a modest affair that took me some time to find –– and there I told her once again how much she meant to me. Then I thanked her, and left.

Dinner at The Lord Jeffery Inn –– a place I had known and loved with my parents in my pre-Kindergarten days –– helped bring me back to earth, although the place had remained remarkably unchanged in the nearly-sixty years since I had seen it last, and for a tremulous moment I felt I could see my pretty young mother in her yellow linen suit from Bonwit-Teller's standing next to her suitcase in black and white hound's tooth-checked leather trimmed with light brown alligator skin, and my handsome father in his Glenn Plaid double-breasted suit checking in at the counter.

Another emotional moment, but the excellent dinner I had there proved a comfort, and brought a welcome sense of closure to the experience I'd had that remarkable day.

"Much madness is divinest sense ... " she said. I cannot fail to agree.

The Desperate Times

 About Edward Snowden

Normally, I would be dead set against any American who wasn't strictly on "OUR SIDE," but when when "our side" isn't really ON "our side" anymore, I feel we ought to hail anyone who dares to expose the hideous fraud which administers "our" affairs in ways contrary to "our" best interests as somethng of a HERO.

That said, Ed Snowden's prison pallor and nerdy, geeky personality (sort of like that of Jack Loo!) marks him as a loser –– no one I'd want to meet for lunch or dinner.

I admit this is just a snap judgment on my part based on very little reading –– and as always in matters of this sort, "it all depends on who ox is being gored," –– I guess. 

I still hate Daniel Ellsberg's and the “Winter Soldier’s” effin’ guts, but I still believed in my country in those bygone days. Sadly, I no longer do, and if there were still a "New World" to escape to, I'd go there in a heartbeat.

LINKS to SNOWDEN ARTICLES at DRUDGE: 

SNOWDEN: US has been hacking China, Hong Kong for years......

Hong Kong wants answers... 

Asylum Request 'Could Take Years To Process'...

Feds hunted for whistleblower in days before story broke...

'If They Want To Get You, They'll Get You In Time'...

Embarrassing Photos Of Snowden Leaked On Net...

This is a Blogblighter

 We strongly urge compulsive mudslingers 

and cyber-graffiti artists to join

BLOGBLIGHTERS ANONYMOUS

Membership is offered free-of-charge as a Public Service. 

It's never too late to turn your life around. 

While there's life, there's hope –– even for YOU.

There's a TWELVE-STEP PROGRAM tailor-made just for YOU at BLOGBLIGHTERS ANONYMOUS. 

All you need to do to qualify for membership is to express your desire to stop being a bloody nuisance in the blogosphere.

Families of compulsive BLOGBLIGHTERS are cordially invited to join BLOGANON –– a support group for the families and victims of the criminally insane.

~ § ~

It dropped so low – in my Regard –
I heard it hit the Ground –
And go to pieces on the Stones
At bottom of my Mind –

Yet blamed the Fate that flung it – less
Than I denounced Myself,
For entertaining Plated Wares
Upon My Silver Shelf –

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

 

Our lives are Swiss –– so still –– so cool

Till some odd afternoon 

The Alps neglect their curtains

And we see farther on.

Italy stands the other side ––

While like a guard between

The solemn Alps –– the siren Alps ––

Forever intervene.

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

TOMMY ROBINSON of the ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE  interviewed by BILL O'REILLY of FOX NEWS

One cold night, as an Arab sat in his tent, a camel gently thrust his nose under the flap and looked in. 

"Master," he said, "let me put my nose in your tent. It's cold and stormy out here." 

"By all means," said the Arab, "and welcome" as he turned over and went to sleep.

A little later the Arab awoke to find that the camel had not only put his nose in the tent but his head and neck also. 

The camel, who had been turning his head from side to side, said, "I will take but little more room if I place my forelegs within the tent. It is difficult standing out here." 

"Yes, you may put your forelegs within," said the Arab, moving a little to make room, for the tent was small.

Finally, the camel said, "May I not stand wholly inside? I keep the tent open by standing as I do." 

"Yes, yes," said the Arab. "Come wholly inside. Perhaps it will be better for both of us." So the camel crowded in. 

The Arab with difficulty in the crowded quarters again went to sleep. When he woke up the next time, he was outside in the cold and the camel had the tent to himself. 

CHURCHILL ON ISLAM

 Winston Churchill as a young man

Churchill as Britain's Prime Minister

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!  Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.  The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

“A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity.  The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

“Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.  No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.  Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.  It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step;  and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome ..."

[NOTE: The above speech was written in 1899 (The River War, 1899, first edition, is not available online). These words were delivered in 1899 when Churchill was a young soldier and journalist. They express the views of Islam many have come to hold today in colorful Churchillian prose.  Winston Churchill was, without doubt, one of the most significant leaders of the 20th century –– a brave soldier, a fine journalist, an extraordinary politician and statesman, and a great war leader as Britain’s Prime Minister to whom the Western world must be forever indebted.  A prophet in his own time he died on 24th January 1965, at age 90 after a lifetime of service to his country, and was accorded a State Funeral.]

SOURCE: Winston Churchill: The River War, first edition, Vol II, pp 248-250, London, 1899).

[FYI: SNOPES does not deny this, but takes considerable pains, of course, to denigrate Sir Winston as a racist, imperialist icon and an emblem of Western Shame in a series of responses left by leftists –– who else?]

Yesterday’s Red Herring 

Still Stinks Out Loud

 What was the gist of that post?

We received some intelligent responses, but all of them missed 

the point we were trying to make.

Poor reading comprehension on the part of readers?

 –– OR––

Poor communication skills on the part of the editor?

Let’s try it again.

WHAT WAS I DRIVING AT? 

What Was the Red Herring?

A. To stir up hatred against Islam?

B. To promote homosexuality?

C. To denigrate Marxism?

D. To condemn all religion?

E. To indicate how relatively trivial matters dominate the discourse and distract us from issues of genuine concern?

F. To trap readers into exposing their fundamentally destructive, pointedly negative orientation?

G. All of the above? If so why?

H. None of the above? If so why?

Please discuss ...

A SMELLY RED HERRING

versus COLLECTIVISM and ISLAM

Lest somehow you could manage
In every bed to be
There could be no advantage
To banning sodomy.

The state exists –– or should exist –– to protect us from criminals and from any and all forms of attack against our sovereignty or territorial integrity. We should be able to discriminate fiercely and decisively against enemies that arise within our own ranks. In a sane society the stinking red herring of homosexual marriage –– or any form of private behavior between consenting adults –– could never qualify as that powerful an enemy.

For good or for ill the state should have no power to legislate for or against matters of taste, style, or behavior, unless the overt expression of those things impinge on the rights of others to enjoy their lives as they see fit.


What is the choice? Give the state the power to discriminate against gays? Or give the state the power to discriminate against religions? ... I say get the state out of it completely.


I would agree completely again, if it were not for the issue of “religion.” I, personally, refuse to define or accept anyone else’s definition of ISLAM as a “religion.” ISLAM is NOT a RELIGION. It is a SUBVERSION, an INCURSION an INVASION, a CORRUPTION and a PERVERSION of every principle on which this country was founded, and as such it –– and all the other “enemies within” should be vigorously discriminated against. I said VIGOROUSLY not VIOLENTLY.

The idea that homosexuality per se –– a natural human phenomenon that has appeared in every culture at all levels and among members of every “faith,” since time immemorial –– should be classified as injurious to society is arrant nonsense.

The political objectives behind the Gay Liberation Movement, however, are a other thing altogether.  Satan makes use of anything and everything within reach to work his deceitful wiles. 

Satan, however, is not in sex, but in all the vile, psychologically maiming superstitions that grew up around sex.