Monday, September 7, 2015

Caught up in you & music & Marx & Mill

The featured celebrities of this post are, from top left and proceeding clockwise, Karl Marx, Barack Obama, John Stuart Mill and a security-conscious centipede who refused to reveal his true identity .... I call him Centi Actual ....

Three sort of villains & a good guy

I remain lazy.

So, what else is new? Everything and nothing. It might be time to get another dog and to pack up a couple of rifles and to head into the hills and to live off the land -- happily ever-after.

The world, it seems to me, is pretty much on a direct line to hell and the United States and Western Europe are leading the way by abdicating even a semblance of leadership. As for the playboy capital of the world, known to most as the United Nations, the word impotence was invented to describe that organization. It is a horrendous failure and rip-off in terms of securing world peace.

Barack Obama and his ilk proclaim global warming to be the greatest danger facing the United States and the world. Really .... he has said that, several times. Never mind that thousands of men, women and children are being barbarically murdered by Islamic extremists and thousands more have become homeless refugees to escape a real and actual and immediate threat to their very existence.

This is not ignorance; it is deliberate malfeasance of responsibility and a subterfuge for the purpose of increasing political power. Obama and his cohorts are preaching Marxism in Twenty-first Century form.

Anyway ....

Anyway, besides feeling lazy I also remain in a nostalgic mood. In that sense, I am putting up one of my favorite bands, 38 Special, and its live performance at the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, way back in 1999. Seems like yesterday. Well, I guess it sort of was yesterday -- a blink of the eye, for some of us.

If you sometimes look at the screen and wonder if somehow this video moved from 38 Special to Lynyrd Skynyrd on stage, you are not hallucinating. There is a reason. If you do not know it -- the relationship between the two bands, I mean -- do as I sometimes say: Do your own research, baby. It is half the fun.

Along the same lines, if the name Sturgis, South Dakota, does not ring a bell, check it out. Washington, D.C., might be the center of the political universe (sort of, in the minds of its occupants, at least) and New York City might be the artistic capital of the world (sorry, Paris and London, in the minds of its occupants, at least), but the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is pretty much the center of the cosmos for a few days every summer.

If you have a yen to go, you are too late for this year; the celebrating ended back on August 8.
 
One of the more interesting times at the rally was when Elizabeth Taylor showed up there with Malcolm Forbes (the magazine magnate) in 1987. Forbes was a biker, and even gave a pink Harley-Davidson to Taylor. Did not know that, did you ??

So, then .... rock on, guys .... love the hair .... love the hats .... love the boots .... and, see the rest of you in a day or two or three ....

The difference between John Stuart Mill & me

I have been a declared agnostic since age fourteen. (I understood my beliefs earlier than that, but was hesitant to openly express them.) When I was young, I used the John Stuart Mill argument while verbally clashing with others, including clergy. For those who say life/the earth/the universe could not exist had there not been a creator, Mill replied, to the effect, if there must be a creator, who created the creator.

All I know for certain is that while accidents happen, life/the earth/the universe are not here as the result of an accident. All these things can only be part of a design, part of a purpose, part of a dream. Maybe, after death, if not in this life, I will know the truth.

Like others, I cannot answer Mill's question, but I no longer care about it. I have "matured" to hold my own position regarding life here on this earth and will discover, knowingly or not, what is on the other side when I arrive there.

In the meanwhile, I will patiently wait with a snarl on my lips (well, sometimes a smile or a smirk) and a Colt 1911 in my back pocket (for sure about that), for I am not among the meek and have no wish to inherit this earth. I suppose the meek could be the rabbits and the sheep and the centipedes.... well.... more power to them .... from my perspective, they can have the earth .... at least as it exists in the here and now ....


10 comments:

Anita said...

Goodmorning Fram!!Quite post for me to read early in the morning.
what do get my attention is that you go are getting a dog!!!Wow!!

So nice!!

About Taylor I didnt know she got a bike from Forbes!Or was it Burton?
Love the old actresses..Ingrid Bergman is one of my fav..Right now seeing TraVEL TO ITALY 1953 by Rosselini

Politics Fram.We soon have a selection here in Norway..but hell i dont know which party to choose..they are ridiculous all of them--Serve only king and queens

See you later!

Big hugs!!

Anita

Fram Actual said...

Well, this time I can say "good morning" in return, Anita. I have been up literally all night for eight of the past nine days and sleeping during the daylight hours. I often think I should always do this. I am a night person, a man who prefers darkness in many ways to the light of day. (Do you recall me writing about these things just a few days ago ?? About sleep and a sense of sight in darkness ??)

You missed a word or two in my post. I did not write that I was getting a dog; I wrote that sometimes I think of buying a dog and heading off into the hills to live off the land. Should I do that, in all probability it would be the last you would hear from me. I know a man who did that about two years ago; he has not been heard of since then. I am fully capable of living in a wilderness environment if I would be willing to begin hunting again .... that would be very difficult for me to do, and is the greatest obstacle preventing me from walking away from our so-called civilization.

I have no knowledge about what gifts Richard Burton may have given to Elizabeth Taylor, but I do know Malcolm Forbes gave her a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He was an avid biker. And, the two were at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 1987. If you are not aware of that event, you should do a bit of research. I think you might be surprised. It is a "mecca" for motorcycle enthusiasts -- both tame ones and outlaw ones. It is an event like no other.

I have given some thought to changing my blog over entirely into a political one and turning it into a business instead of having it simply as a social site for me to hang out on occasion. In many ways, I am a political animal. You might recall from past posts that I have mentioned I once worked for a member of the U.S House of Representatives and could have moved to Washington, D.C. I have written a few speeches in the past, and that is only the tip of one political iceberg.

In any case, I doubt I will get a dog and move into the wilderness and I doubt I will change my blog into a political site, but I do think about both of these things and others and definitely need some sort of change.

So, thank you, Anita. I am glad you were here this morning to greet me and that you left a comment for me. Yes, see you later .... take care, and I hope your day is pleasant and pleasing ....

Anita said...

Of course I say hello and see how you are doing.Not a dog !Well I think as me we have to much obligations.May be later in life.

I wonder about your plan to visit Europa.Will it be soon?


Wish you a good day Fram(BTW.The name Fram..Actually someone is named that down in California.Looking at Animal Planet.One of the shark hunters .)

Greetings!

And dont change your blog!

Fram Actual said...

I am awake again this night, Anita, and listening to classic rock music on the radio and looking at guns on internet auction sites and thinking/thinking/thinking.

Hmmmm .... I hear the hammer of Thor in the distance ....

When I was a "happily" married man, there were five dogs in the family. Think of that. I imagine it was quite a sight when we all went for a walk together just before sunset on a summer evening. Divorce can interrupt many things, but it cannot obliterate happy memories. Whatever .... I will repeat, I am looking for a new path to follow in my life again, and if a dog should become a part of it, you can visualize me snowbound in a north woods cabin .... for a few years, anyway.

I am thinking about Europe .... every day. My thoughts still revolve around the end of October or early November, but I am being very indecisive about deciding exactly when or where. I have a daughter who will be in Europe in February, and she has said that she would like to visit me there. It is a fascinating idea, but I really would like to be there before then and to spend New Year's Eve in Poland or Germany or .... ?? We shall see, I guess ....

It does not surprise me someone should have the name "Fram." You might recall my story of how I took the name of Fridtjof Nansen's ship, Fram, to be the name of my first canoe when I was a teenage boy and had the dreams of a teenage boy in my head. When I began the blog, I took the name for myself. It means "forward" in Norwegian, and I always think of myself as moving forward toward whatever fate has in store for me.

So, then. It does not surprise me that someone would actually name a child Fram. There probably are a few of them around. By the way, one of my actual names is Norwegian and another is very recognizably German. By the way, again .... look at a photograph of a young Nansen and you will see the wolf's eyes. We have that in common.

All right. I will not change my blog. Not this year, anyway. All is well and safe in that regard at least until January 2016.

Thank you, then, for coming by to say hello. Not everyone is so kind, but such is life. I will have a good day, and I send the same wish to you, Anita.

PhilipH said...

Hmm ... you do seem to be in a reflective mood dear chap. Night hawks R Us could be your alter ego or nom-de-plume.

The pink Harley to Ms. E. Taylor! Never heard THAT before. As our actor cockney bloke, Michael Caine Esquire would say: "Not a lotta people know that!"

You're right about the wooly-headedness of Nato, the UN and politicians in general. How the heck can they keep muttering platitudes about the barbarity and carnage that places like Libya, Syria, Iraq and other hotspots are going through. Millions of innocents are now homeless, dead or badly injured.

And now we have our wimpish Labour and others questioning whether it was right and proper to kill a couple of the ISIS bastards, so-called British men, by sending them to their Paradise and 21 virgins via a drone attack! If we know where there are madmen like Isis lurking we should Napalm the lot of 'em.

There are no borders nowadays, certainly not in Europe. It's open house to all, no questions asked. We have about 10 million people in the UK alone who are not indigenous. The open-door policy in the EU has a lot to answer for.

I give up.

Oh, the music? Not today, thanks anyway. Loud, yes. Good drummer, yes. Not my bag, as the saying goes.

Fram Actual said...

The night, rather the darkness of night, has been a security blanket of sorts for me since I was a boy, Philip. Rather than feel uncomfortable in darkness, or even fearful, I prefer it in many ways. I think this ties in both with instinctual and learned characteristics of being a hunter. Maybe, an actual bit of alter ego, too !!

I suppose the world will never change .... the people in it, I mean. There are those whose primary concern in life is self-interest, those who relish being do-gooders and those whose wish is to do what they perceive as the necessary thing -- like it or not. Unfortunately, it is the self-interest group which usually has the drive and the desire to gain political control.

I have to admit I was surprised to learn of the British drone strike in Syria which included targeting two Britons. There is no question in my mind that the Brits have any number of individuals with the talent and the training to take the war straight to the heart of any force which dares to attack them. This has been demonstrated and absolutely proven time after time. It has only been a wavering political leadership which, from my point of view, too often lacks the wisdom and the courage to follow an intelligent course of action.

As for what is happening now with the refugee situation, it all stems from the failure of Western European leadership and, mostly, from the absolute incompetence of the Barack Obama Administration to fight fire with fire before the blaze went out of control. He will go down in history as the American Neville Chamberlain.

Southern rock has a sound of its own, and a rebel yell does not appeal to everyone. That is for sure. And, I wonder what happened to the pink motorcycle. It has to be somewhere.

Thank you, Philip. I am glad you came here and I appreciate your comment. We seem to see eye-to-eye about the right way to pursue disposing of evil.

Smareis said...

Olá Fram!
Achei muito curioso e bem inteligente seu TEXTO. O universo anda perdidos com esses políticos sem noção. Políticos são todos iguais só muda de cidade e País. Ando tão insatisfeita com a política, as coisas aqui anda de mal a pior com a presidente... Não sei muita COISA a respeito dessas três CELEBRIDADES, “poderosos” (Karl Marx, Barack Obama, John Stuart Mill)... mais acho que a centopeia é bem divertida, gostei da imagem dela kkk. Risos.

Eu nunca fui assisti comício de políticos, eles já mentem tanto na tevê e nos jornais, e nos comícios eles são mesmo uns caras de pau. Não sei como as pessoas conseguem ouvir tantas promessas mentirosas. Acho o povo muito inocente, acredita em tudo que ouve. Gosta mesmo de ser enganado.
Então Fram, se o universo anda dessa forma o único culpado é o homem. O Criador deu livre arbitro para o homem. O que a pessoa colhe é a parte do que plantou. Assim é a vida.
Acho que só depois da morte que o mistério vai ser desvendado. Quem sabe?!

Gostei da banda musical, ainda não conhecia essa música.
Fram até mais. Um punhado de sorriso!
Fica bem!
Ótima noite!
Ótimo fim de semana!

P.S: Daqui alguns dias devo estar atualizando o blog... Ainda não sei quando, mais... Vamos ver, deixa a vida seguir...

Fram Actual said...

There is a cliché to the effect that well-intentioned people enter into politics because they want to do good things and be of service to their constituents, but after they are elected, they become corrupted by the system. I once believed that, but I no longer am so sure it is true. Rather, I think wanna-be politicians might believe that of themselves, but that they probably are deluding themselves.

Essentially, I now think most who seek political office simply are people who believe they know what is best not only for themselves, but for everyone else. And, the longer they are in public office the more power-hunger they become, the more narcissistic they become, the more arrogant the become. They forget or ignore the fact that they are no better than anyone else. Not all people who become politicians are like this, but most are, I believe.

Two other points:

1) In the United States, lying by politicians has become every day, standard operating procedure. This is particularly true in the case of the Barack Obama Administration and bureaucratic operations closely associated with him. Spokesmen from the White House and the departments of state and defense lie at virtually every press conference held.

2) Quite often, for reasons unfathomable, many media outlets have stopped being purveyors of news and have become political propagandists.

Anyway .... most of us already are well aware of these things ....

And, yes, mankind has been very busy turning an earthly paradise into a war zone.

And, yes, we agree. If our questions about life are ever to be answered, the only possibility for that to happen is when the end of our earthly existence arrives.

I am glad you liked the band .... thank you, for your smile .... it has been a good night and we shall hope for the same this weekend -- for you, as well as for me -- and, I will be waiting patiently for your next post, whenever it might be ....

Thank you, Smareis, for your presence here and your words here. Now it is time for me to enter the realm of dreams .... good night ....

P.S. Thank you, also, for your thoughts about Sylvia Plath. I will write more when I have finished the books.

A Cuban In London said...

Blimey, mate, for a second I thought I had strayed onto the set of "Have I Got News for You?", a satirical quiz show on which the panel is presented with four pictures in the same way you did and it is up to them to pick the odd one out. In yours, it has to be Karl Marx. Even the centipede knows that Marxism never worked and never will.

Greetings from London.

Fram Actual said...

Well, first the proverbial and quite genuine comment: Welcome back to the sea of blogs, CiL.

Yes, we are in complete agreement about Karl Marx. He spent his life developing and promoting an implausible theory, but, I suppose, he could have spent his time worse ways. The unbelievable aspect to me is that so many people still pursue his concepts today. Whoops, I had best be careful what I say before someone notices my inconsistency of thought in other similar matters.

Although you chose to open only one of the four doorways in regard to the photographs, I believe I have a sense of your thought patterns in the others, as well.

In your role as an observer of the human endeavor, I would enjoy reading your remarks after having spent a few days at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. About one-half million people attend the event each year, held in a city with a population of fewer than seven thousand. Someday, maybe ....

Thank you, CiL, for your visit and your words. Again, I am glad your holiday (I hope it was a good one) is over and that you are back on the blogs.

Something special ....