If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
This week’s book:
Discourses and Selected Writings
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
Epictetus was born a slave around 50 ad. His owner was Epaphroditus, a rich freedman who was once a slave of Nero. Though he was a slave Epictetus was sent to study philosophy under Musonius Rufus.
Epictetus was lame and there are some stories it was caused by his master and others that it was caused by disease.
He was a freedman when all philosophers were banished from Rome in 89 by the Emperor Domitian. He then started his school in Greece, and had many students. He did not leave any writings from his lessons, but one of his students, Flavius Arrian, took notes and wrote the Discourses.
Epictetus did not marry, had no children, and lived to be around 80-85.In retirement, he adopted a child that would have been abandoned and raised him with a woman.
He died sometime around AD 135.
He might be my favorite Stoic teacher. I love his bare bones and very straight forward approach.
Following is a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of one of his lessons. Epictetus’s text appears in bold, my replies are in normal text.
OF CONTENTMENT
Concerning gods there are some who say that the divine does not so much as exist; and others, that it exists, indeed, but is inactive and indifferent, and takes forethought for nothing;[1] and a third set, that it exists and takes forethought, though only for great and heavenly things and in no case for terrestrial things; and a fourth set, that it also takes forethought for things terrestrial and the affairs of men, but only in a general way, and not for the individual in particular; and a fifth set, to which Odysseus and Socrates belonged, who say
Nor when I move am I concealed from thee.[2]
I am more in the first group, but I used to be in the second or third group. My wife falls more into the last group that believes God is watching and cares for each of us individually.
We must, therefore, first of all inquire about each of these statements, to see whether it is sound or not sound. 5For if gods do not exist, how can it be an end to follow the gods? And if they exist, indeed, but care for nothing, how even thus will that conclusion be sound? But if, indeed, they both exist and exercise care, yet there is no communication from them to men,—yes, and, by Zeus, to me personally,—how even in this case can our conclusion still be sound? The good and excellent man must, therefore, inquire into all these things, before he subordinates his own will to him who administers the universe, precisely as good citizens submit to the law of the state. And he that is being instructed ought to come to his instruction with this aim, “How may I follow the gods in everything, and how may I be acceptable to the divine administration, and how may I become free?” Since he is free for whom all things happen according to his moral purpose, and whom none can restrain.
While I do not follow the Gods, I do have a very strict moral code I follow. A lot of this comes from the bible, but not all. If I am dishonest or cheat on my wife then we will not be happy together. I believe that an honest life is more fulfilling and easier than one filled with deception. Fear of divine punishment does not factor into my decisions.
10What then? Is freedom insanity? Far from it; for madness and freedom are not consistent with one another. “But I would have that which seems best to me happen in every case, no matter how it comes to seem so.” You are mad; you are beside yourself. Do you not know that freedom is a noble and precious thing? But for me to desire at haphazard that those things should happen which have at haphazard seemed best to me, is dangerously near being, not merely not noble, but even in the highest degree shameful. For how do we act in writing? Do I desire to write the name “Dio” as I choose? No, but I am taught to desire to write it as it ought to be written. What do we do in music? The same. And what in general, where there is any art or science? The same; otherwise knowledge of anything would be useless, if it were accommodated to every individual’s whims.
We are all bound by rules that cover everything from language to how we drive. If we all made up our own rules for interacting with each other society would devolve rather quickly. For proof, look to an inner city where homelessness and petty crime run rampant, fueled by people following their own rules.
15Is it, then, only in this matter of freedom, the greatest and indeed the highest of all, that I am permitted to desire at haphazard? By no means, but instruction consists precisely in learning to desire each thing exactly as it happens. And how do they happen? As he that ordains them has ordained. And he has ordained that there be summer and winter, and abundance and dearth, and virtue and vice, and all such opposites, for the harmony of the whole, and he has given each of us a body, and members of the body, and property and companions.
You don’t have to believe in God to understand that things happen that we have no control over. When something unwanted happens, the believer might say, “It was God’s will.” I might say, “It was simply fortune turned against me.” We are both acknowledging that there are forces that exist as an external thing that we have to deal with.
Mindful, therefore, of this ordaining we should go to receive instruction, not in order to change the constitution of things,—for this is neither vouchsafed us nor is it better that it should be,—but in order that, things about us being as they are and as their nature is, we may, for our own part, keep our wills in harmony with what happens.
No matter what happens or why we believe it happens we have to live with. It is better to understand that what we can’t control we should not waste energy being miserable about them.
For, look you, can we escape from men? And how is it possible? But can we, if they associate with us, change them? And who vouchsafes us that power? What alternative remains, then, or what method can we find for living with them? Some such method as that, while they will act as seems best to them, we shall none the less be in a state conformable to nature.
I don’t understand most people. I spend time at work with others and can sort of fit in, but they think I am different. I don’t think they see that as admirable, but they don’t give me a hard time about it.
20But you are impatient and peevish, and if you are alone, you call it a solitude, but if you are in the company of men, you call them schemers and brigands, and you find fault even with your own parents and children and brothers and neighbours. But you ought, when staying alone, to call that peace and freedom, and to look upon yourself as like the gods; and when you are in the company of many, you ought not call that a mob, nor a tumult, nor a disgusting thing, but a feast and a festival, and so accept all things contentedly.
I don’t gripe about the times that I am in public, and even enjoy being in a large crowd for a concert or a hockey game. I do have a very short list of people that I hug. I said this to my niece once when we were talking about how my brother (her dad) and I don’t like people touching us. Neither of us has ever had a professional massage and probably never will. She said, “But you always hug me.” I told her that’s because she is on the list.
What, then, is the punishment of those who do not accept? To be just as they are. Is one peevish because he is alone? Let him be in solitude! Is he peevish with his parents? Let him be an evil son and grieve! Is he peevish with his children? Let him be a bad father! “Throw him into prison.” What sort of prison? Where he now is. For he is there against his will, and where a man is against his will, that for him is a prison. Just as Socrates was not in prison, for he was there willingly. “Alas, that I should be lame in my leg!” Slave, do you, then, because of one paltry leg blame the universe? Will you not make a free gift of it to the whole? Will you not relinquish it? Will you not gladly yield it to the giver? 25And will you be angry and peevish at the ordinances of Zeus, which he defined and ordained together with the Fates who spun in his presence the thread of your begetting? Do you not know how small a part you are compared with the whole? That is, as to the body; for as to the reason you are not inferior to the gods, nor less than they; for the greatness of the reason is not determined by length nor by height, but by the decisions of its will.
Learning to be happy in challenging circumstances is difficult. Not learning to do that will drive a man insane. I learned this lesson when I was stuck on the couch, depending on my wife for everything. Once I was able to accept reality, I was an easier person to deal with and that made my wife happier as well.
Will you not, therefore, set what is for you the good in that wherein you are equal to the gods? “Wretched man that I am; such a father and such a mother as I have!” Well, was it permitted you to step forward and make selection, saying, “Let such-and-such man have intercourse with such-and-such woman at this hour, that I may be born”? It was not permitted you; but your parents had to exist first, then you had to be born as you were born. Of what kind of parents? Of such as they were.
I am not a fan of the parents I was born to, but I learned how to appreciate my step dad and learn from him how a man should be. I also had some section chiefs in the Marine Corps that were very influential when I was 18 years old.
30What then? Since they are such, is no remedy given you? Again, supposing that you were ignorant of the purpose for which you possess the faculty of vision, you would be unfortunate and wretched if you closed your eyes when men brought some color before them; but in that you have greatness of mind and nobility for use for everyone of the things may happen to you, and know it not, are you not yet more unfortunate and wretched? Things proportionate to the faculty which you possess are brought before you, but you turn that faculty away at the very moment when you ought to keep it wide open and discerning. Do you not rather render thanks to the gods that they have allowed you to be superior to all the things that they did not put under your control, and have rendered you accountable only for what is under your control? As for parents, the gods have released you from accountability; as for brothers, they have released you; as for body, they have released you; and for property, death, life. Well, for what have they made you accountable? For the only thing that is under your control—the proper use of impressions. 35Why, then, do you draw upon yourself that for which you are not responsible? This is to make trouble for yourself.
I try to enjoy life and work to control myself better. If I can not see the beauty of my own choices and instead focus on how much somebody else is paid (this was a point of contention with a couple co-workers), then I am doomed to a miserable life even if I do gwt materially richer from focusing on that in the short term. Instead if I focus on my state of mind as well as keeping my wife happy (the results are out of my control, but my effort is not) hen I will be truly contented, no matter whether fortune rides with me or turns against me.
Music this week is from Aaron Lewis.
He originally was the lead singer of Staind and I like 2 of their songs Mudshovel and For You.
Most of their other stuff seemed whiny and most songs sounded the same to me.
He came out with some country music and as a metal head that grew up on a farm, I like it.
This song makes a lot of sense to me: Country Boy
Good truck driving tune: The Road
A song about country music today: That Ain’t Country
Sweet.
I was raised Evangelical Christian, but I think I’m somewhere in one of those two groups.
I was raised Presbyterian, but have lost all of that.
Thanks for the Aaron Lewis. I knew he was doing country, but for what ever reasons, I never got around to listening to him. I’m surprised they don’t play him on SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country channel. I wonder why not.
I don’t know, I like him, I think I found him on Pandora.
“I try to enjoy life and work to control myself better. If I can not see the beauty of my own choices and instead focus on how much somebody else is paid (this was a point of contention with a couple co-workers), then I am doomed to a miserable life even if I do get materially richer from focusing on that in the short term. ”
Indeed. If you cannot be happy at work, you are wasting half your life.
I never had a job I didn’t like, even though I had some crappy jobs. I went to work, planning on enjoying myself. Had some bosses along the way I didn’t enjoy though.
My mother said “Don’t work for anyone dumber than you”. A few times in the army that challenged me, though.
I definitely broke this rule in the Marine Corps.
Those were the exceptions, most of them were good.
“I learned this lesson when I was stuck on the couch, depending on my wife for everything.”
What is this paradise of which you speak?
It was after surgery got infected and it was making me miserable, until I was able to look at my attitude dispassionately and realize I was being a baby.
I jest. I would love it if my wife would wait on me while I was on the couch. Has never happened.
Well, it’s 30 minutes past. And apparently I’m the only one here anyway, so I’m going OT:
Anyone with a Chevy that has the spare suspended up under the rear end. Go through a little flat tire drill once a year and make sure that tire comes down. I had one hell of a time getting my spare down yesterday. It involved a grinder, sparks, and lots of cussing. I did not have a Stoic morning yesterday. Huh, I guess this was on topic.
*not just Chevy, but GM.
What am I , chopper liver?
You were posting as I was typing. 🙂
Dodge has the same thing.
A short while after I bought my truck, we were going through a parking lot with speed bumps, and the car behind me started honking.
My cable had frayed off and the tire fell out.
Luckily he wasn’t too close to me when that happened.
I can’t imagine the chaos that would have caused on the interstate.
Wow. Sort of the opposite problem of mine. haha. Yeah, an interstate drop could have been ugly.
I had that happen, but it was the right rear tire, not the spare.
A semi booted the tire and my car fish tailed across 5 lanes to about the only place within 5 miles that had room to run off.
The 60 freeway in LA County, near Pomona.
That sounds fucking terrifying. And I mean just the part about driving in LA traffic.
What’s the saying…
You couldn’t of pulled a pin out of my ass with a log chain and a team of mules?
My understanding is this applies anywhere there is salt on the roads.
Related, interesting deep dive on GM’s new universal 4 cylinder. They claim good turbo life, but we shall see. It’s still going to carbon up because of the direct injection. They tried to mitigate, but didn’t want to spend on both port and direct.
https://youtu.be/fU-bhEjflwo
I try to avoid turbos. Even when the claim is made that the engine is strong enough to handle it. The pressures and heat involved cause issues for gas engines. Especially in super hot climates, or mountainous regions.
My ’05 Saab is doing great after a junkyard turbo replacement.
210,XXX and going strong.
It’s hot here, but we are at sea level with no hills, so that probably helps.
I had two friends, each who bought new turbos. One Toyota and one Subaru. Both failed year one on road trips. Turbo issues.
Maybe that’s the problem, they were new.
I’m sure the newer ones are computer controlled and have more emissions crap.
Mine is vacuum controlled.
My wife has almost 100k on her Infiniti with the Mercedes turbo motor. No problems yet.
I did like the Saab turbo we had until it was totaled. With a manual transmission you could really feel the turbo lag followed by the boost. I thought that was great fun once in a while – like an old 4-barrel carb.
In the rather long video one of the main engineers on the motor noted that the turbo took oil from the oil pump first even before the main bearings.
The bottom end is certainly stout and designed ground up to be turbocharged. From memory even the base motor runs 27 PSI.
I have a Turbo Cobalt SS with 127K on it. Still runs like new and I drive the dog piss out of it.
Did have to get the bypass valve cleaned out about 40K ago; stuck open.
For sure salt, but I believe dusty roads, too. I haven’t yet gotten the old one out to do a post-mortem, but I’m guessing mine is thousands of miles of dust and gravel.
Ford F-150s, plus make sure tire pressure is still up. I changed a tire in the winter, spare was nearly flat but I made it into town and got the flat fixed plus some free air. For many years I carried the spare in the back of the truck, with a topper, of course.
this was how I rolled many decades ago: pretty standard amongst my kind
Nice, I learned to drive in a 1970 something Chevy pickup with a 4 speed and a 350.
how I learned to drive, the universal true American post that every Glib can contribute to
~56 F100: some field work of some sort that I was too small and weak to much contribute to, so I was put in the truck to drive, the least important job at that moment; probably pulling a trailer for guys stacking hay….Ford admin, pardon the pun?
Mercedes W123 diesel! Non-turbo and a blistering 80 HP.
Yup. Pretty standard for pickups for many years, but now tonneau covers are ubiquitous. Mine will now ride laying down in the box and hopefully not get in the way of any future cargo.
that works
I usually keep tow cables in the bed padlocked to the factory hoops: you just loop them through the cargo (eg: bicycle) to keep honest folks honest while you run into the fast food for a piss
I get the cables that come with the plastic insulation so they don’t much scratch up anything pretty, gauged just thick enough to annoy even the kind of guy who carries pretty serious bolt cutters
That’s good idea. I have a few bicycle cable locks laying around doing nothing. I should put them to use back there. I don’t think anyone would steal my spare, but I guess you never know these days. Might as well lock it down.
…AAAAAND the wife just called and said she has a flat tire. On her Silverado. FML. Fingers crossed that spare comes down.
…when we were talking about how my brother (her dad) and I don’t like people touching us”
My two brothers were big on hugging, I was not. More recently I have sort of become more accustomed to it. Now I tell people when I say “Goodbye” it may be for real. I was at a Class Reunion a couple weeks ago, I told my classmates to look around, it’ll probably be the last time we’ll see everyone in the picture again.
So when I meet you next month, would you prefer a handshake or a hug? 🙂
He’s never offered me a hug, so I’ll be interested in his reply to your query. 😉
I hug the ladies but my hands are sticky with honey (MikeS knows) so be on your guard.
THATS how you euphemism.
Careful, he grabbed my ass.
My Mom hugged every family member she came within ten feet of. Dad would hug my sisters and his granddaughters and great-granddaughters, but boys in the family tended to get a slap on the back or some such. Dad was of an era where men weren’t very huggy, I guess, at least with other men.
Also, in the fifty-six years I shared my life with him, Dad never once told me he loved me. (Mom told us that all the time.) I always knew Dad did love me, but he never said to – again, he was of an era where men didn’t say that kind of thing to their sons. He told me something much better, though – he told me he was proud of me.
Can relate but I knew my Dad wasn’t getting up at 5 AM ’cause he enjoyed it. My dad wasn’t very demonstrative but always there. I can remember only buying him one drink, we got gas and I asked him if he could stand a “snort”. Of course he could. I always brought some refreshments home when I came.
I remember buying my mother a drink at the Newark Airport as we were waiting for her plane to leave. I shared many though with both. My son was visiting a year or two and he had a beer with his meal, he said it was the first time I’d bought him a drink. He just doesn’t remember all the tabs I picked up for him.
He just doesn’t remember
not that you meant anything like this, but
I can’t help but be bitter when I see my son posting about this skill I taught him or that thing I bought for him as if his mother had anything to do with it
I already know that memory is generally a picture we paint from our favorite colors, but I never thought it could render obscure whole histories wrought from love
to lose at love is to lose profoundly, irreparably
Sensei, re the Mustang Darkhorse R – that’s a spec race version. The street Darkhorse still ain’t cheap but tops out about half that w/ the deluxe version and all the bells and whistles.
Good to know!
I try to avoid turbos. Even when the claim is made that the engine is strong enough to handle it. The pressures and heat involved cause issues for gas engines. Especially in super hot climates, or mountainous regions.
I fucking hate turbos. They introduce/magnify heat in the system. If you are going to own a turbocharged car, you had better be ready to go above and beyond recommended maintenance, especially oil changes.
I see the point: less weight for the same power
but I like quiet torque: larger piston surface at any given power level and crank speed means lower BMEP, and therefore less engine noise
But CAFE!
Dude, wait till all you can buy is a twin-turbo 1.5L mated to a CVT.
It’s gonna be glorious (for the dealer service shops).
I’d be in a Camry right now, but fuck that noise, even from old reliable Toyota
My used vehicle shopping is trending towards V8s with no extras.
Hard to buy new ones at this point unless you’re in the commercial space.
no objections: worked for me for four decades
but I’m through with used: the part of life with replacing parts and outsmarting things and doing stuff myself or arguing with mechanics is just over; I got rid of my 20 year old work truck a few months ago and can’t see spending a minute more than it takes to get the oil changed on a car ever again
I have tried to stop telling people about childhood trauma or joys because I’m not sure my memory is very reliable. Lots of people who were there tell me, “It didn’t happen that way.” Also, I’ve been told many time, “You only remember the bad parts.”
So I have largely gone silent on the subject. I talk about it in therapy where a pro can dig in my head and pull out the contrasting bad/good to my good/bad memories.
UnCiv: Do you work with a SE Asian lady named Mona?
My cable had frayed off and the tire fell out.
My Explorer did that. I had no idea when it happened. I was under there one day, and “Hey, somebody filched my spare!”. I think it got cleaned off the bottom of the car when I bashed through a snow drift on the road to my house.
I actually had to use it one time, right after I bought it. What a giant pain in the ass. You had to open the rear hatch (must be fun in the winter) and wind the thing down with a long crank handle.
and if your rear end ever gets wrecked (rectum? hell, it damnnear killed ’em), check that they put all that back together right or the it won’t unlock or the shaft won’t turn or cetera
I was driving my MIL’s Chrysler minivan once and we got a flat tire n the middle of nowhere at night. The spare on that thing was underneath, between the driver and passenger seat. You opened a cover, winched it down, and then were supposed to catch it with the jack handle and drag it out from underneath the vehicle. What a PITA.
She had Triple A so I swallowed my pride and just let the tow truck driver take care of it all.
You’re in North Dakota. *Everywhere* is the middle of nowhere.
Hateful
but accurate.
I had two friends, each who bought new turbos. One Toyota and one Subaru. Both failed year one on road trips. Turbo issues.
My brother had an Outback with a turbo. I think he went through three turbos an at least one motor before he finally shitcanned it for a Honda (which he has probably had for nearly ten trouble free years).
I currently have 87k on mine, and the only problems are with a bearing and the computer.
Dude, wait till all you can buy is a twin-turbo 1.5L mated to a CVT.
1,5 why do you insist on having all that displacement, you Gaia-murderer? Nobody needs more than 600 ccs.
*at 4.5 bar of boost, to get your NHTSA-approved 4500 pound safety capsule into motion
My ’05 Saab is doing great after a junkyard turbo replacement.
210,XXX and going strong.
As I recall, the 99 turbo was limited to 4 or 5 pounds of boost. That makes a difference, too. That’s nothing, these days.
That’s nothing
right: those were the days of jumping the intake charge from 12PSI all the way to 16! woohoo: all the torque of a 454 from a 350!
now they need to get 289 power from a 1.5: needz moar air
all the torque of a 454 from a 350
misspoke: it was always about getting small, getting the torque of a 350 from a 250
*KAPOOOM!
“Did you hear a noise like a big metal balloon popping? Hey, why is the car slowing down?”
…and you find fault even with your own parents and children and brothers and neighbours. But you ought, when staying alone, to call that peace and freedom, and to look upon yourself as like the gods; and when you are in the company of many, you ought not call that a mob, nor a tumult, nor a disgusting thing, but a feast and a festival, and so accept all things contentedly.
Found my thing to work on. Thanks, Ron.
you ought not call that a mob, nor a tumult, nor a disgusting thing
if they set up a CHAZ, then it’s perfectly civilized :/
Sometimes it a mob, I still get nervous in crowds and keep my eyes open, but I am way better than I used to be.
now they need to get 289 power from a 1.5: needz moar air
That moar air! stuff drives me nuts.
There’s a guy name Richard Holdener whose job is apparently blowing motors up on the dyno (nice work if you can get it!). He’l take some junkyard LS and strap a big turbo kit on it and say, “Look how much power we made!”
No shit, Shirley. Now take that same motor and, instead of just slapping an air compressor and bigger injectors on it, massage it and make it more powerful and more efficient from the same displacement. Then you can brag about your magic touch.
massage it
I grew up SBC, and it was all 2.02 heads, compression, cams, headers; the first engine I built cost me $454 (easy to remember that) in parts and machining
but I quickly learned that speed was really about throwing money down a crawdad hole: the only fun was in elegant efficiency and knowing your limits
today, that LS is delivering the HP/cube off the shelf that we were wrenching for back in Reagan: I can’t imagine needing more than the 400HP I’ve already got straight from Tonawanda
A looming insurance shock spells trouble for housing markets in Florida and California
Does this seem right to y’all? Or is there fuckery afoot?
it’s a market like anything else; the only question is what do insurance companies need in the way of revenue to more than cover their costs
assuming everyone is acting rationally, if it’s so bad why not pull out entirely instead of just minimizing new policy?
one thing I know: in most states to operate in one type of coverage usually the insurer is required to provide all the other related / normal policies, so the statewide decisions are being made on a portfolio basis, not on a discrete policy type basis
builders are wrong that it doesn’t impact sales: everything matters…it’s in the sauce somewhere; you squeeze the balloon and is squishes out wider the other way….There Is No Free Lunch
I’d add that most companies eventually get into weird situations between what they planned for expenses and what they secured in revenues. Insurance companies are paying today from the proceeds of revenues collected yesterday subject to all the vagaries and the old moving target problem. You think you’re insuring “houses” but don’t notice that cedar shake roofing just got popular in a hail-happy state and boom you’re buying roofs at a rate you could have never managed. Or you get stung by some “mold” thing until you make all your clients “choose” between a) signing a mold waiver to get the old rate or b) paying the new mold rate….after which, of course, the mold hysteria business went belly up and the majority of the entire game became moot.
The beach house thing is the same game but with the market mix lever thrown in. They loved the huge premiums on huge “houses” until they realized they had not been segmenting their business well; the beach houses were playing hurricane bingo while getting the quiet suburb rate.
Imagine if Chevy priced their trucks with 6.6 and 3.5 the same or accidentally installed leather in the LT.
Yeah, it absolutely does. Last time we bought a house we looked at a mid-century straight out of Madmen. It was an awesome property that also backed up to the south fork of Peachtree Creek. Original owners were moving out and it had since been put in a flood zone. The original owners were grandfathered and/or knew the house had been built to withstand any likely flooding (basement was largely unfinished and all the mechanical was several feet of the ground) and didn’t bother with insurance. In addition to spending thousands for surveying and a flood assessment (since it had never been done before), it was an extra $8K a year or so for the flood insurance. We noped right out. Shame cause it was a super cool place.
We could see the flood line from 2009 and it was 3-4 inches high in the basement. That would have been a pain, but not as bad as my wife’s (fiancee at the time) house got hit in 2009. Her house wasn’t in a flood plain and the crawlspace still flooded and took out the hvac and required a full day of me dicking around in a flooded crawlspace w/ a wet-vac.
We rented a house that had a bad drainage set up.
After we had been there a month there was a huge rainstorm.
While I was at work, the basement started to flood.
I told my wife to call the landlord and she texted him when he didn’t answer.
My Japanese wife got the words confused and typed that the house was floating.
She said he showed up very quickly and in a panic.
After he figured out what was really going on he showed her how to spell flooding.
She about gave him a heart attack.
California is correct, from a dozen self-inflicted factors. Not-so-natural disasters and crime, plus excessive regulation on construction is choking the state out of insurance.
Florida has no major regulations choking off construction though, but the price of materials is. That’s the same all over, so doesn’t really count as a valid reason. There have been a bunch of hurricanes doing major damage, starting with the one a few years ago on Panama City. But… Just don’t provide insurance for houses right on the beach. That’s a tiny subset of all housing in Florida.
It’s become a very serious problem in Florida. The biggest issue is rampant fraud (roof scams in particular), lawsuits, and out of control attorney fees. Add in the threat of hurricanes, and companies are deciding they just want out.
https://www.iii.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/triple-i_trends_and_insights_florida_issues_brief_08082022.pdf
I forgot about all the fraud. It got so bad that the government made it a crime to do home repair without a license.
I’ve always dislike that saying. Honest people would never think about taking it and if they are thinking about taking it than they are not honest.
Every dishonest person was honest until that first time they weren’t.
And once the dam is breached, it’s over.
no objections: I tend to the absolute as well
it’s just an handy turn of phrase that says less about the quality of our neighbors and more about minimizing opportunism; I think I’ll start saying just that: minimizing oppportunism
My desire was for a Reuben sammich, so I made one.
My desires change, and I work and work and work to fulfill them, and as soon as I do, I get bored with it. Itbecomes a pretty trophy to put on a shelf and look at. If there is no visible/physical trophy, I will forget I ever did it.
I’m always on the search for a new trophy. Just working to pay bills isn’t enough for me. It’s like housework, a neverending grind.
If you’re ever in the Atlanta/Decatur area at lunch make a call to Community Q and check and see if the house smoked pastrami Rueben is on the menu. If it is go. It is not boring.
I will!!! Always appreciate a good Reuben.
The worst one I had was in a NYC deli. They put yellow mustard on it, and I think provolone cheese. I assumed I wouldn’t have to tell them what I wanted on it because … that isn’t a Reuben sandwich.
I love reubens.
Nowhere around here makes a good one.
When I go to my mom’s house, I stop at Penn Alps in Grantsville MD.
It adds about a half hour to the drive, but it’s worth it.
Mine aren’t particularly good because I use that cheap packaged Buddig corned beef. Grill it and the sauerkraut, and it’s passable. It’s convenient and cheap, and it’s on tap when I want one.
Tres loves rubenesque.
@Hyperbole, what was on that cordon bleu sammich? Bechamel? Some sort of dressing? Mustard? What?
No, but I am taught to desire to write it as it ought to be written. What do we do in music? The same. And what in general, where there is any art or science? The same; otherwise knowledge of anything would be useless, if it were accommodated to every individual’s whims.
But my parents and teachers say everything I do is great! Shut up! Shut up! *pouts*
AWW, it’s OK, here’s a gold star for you.
Judge who approved raid on Kansas newspaper has history of DUI arrests
The Kansas magistrate judge who authorized a police raid of the Marion County Record newsroom over its probe into a local restaurateur’s drunken-driving record has her own hidden history of driving under the influence.
Judge Laura Viar, who was appointed on Jan. 1 to fill a vacant 8th Judicial District magistrate seat, was arrested at least twice for DUI in two different Kansas counties in 2012, a Wichita Eagle investigation found.
She was the lead prosecutor for Morris County at the time.
Birds of a feather . . . .
“We had to seize and search through it all to decide if we needed to seize it or not.” What an absolute shit show. That it took a national outcry to start undoing this deep rot in that county shows how deep it runs. There were many people involved in this that apparently had no problems with it.
national outcry
I haven’t conducted a study, but I suspect that the outcry from normies is almost entirely in defense of the 1A: the paper has the right to write whatever….fair enough.
I wish the outcry were over police over-reach relative to lack of probable cause, shoddy process, incompetent adjudication, mostly stemming from an ignorance of and general disregard for the 4A….but I imagine most of our neighbors are as stupid as these police and this magistrate.
The outcry from the media seems to be that this was done to one of their own.
Do it to an ungoodthinkful press outlet and they’d be cheering it on.
That’s a good point. I fear you are spot-on.
Trust issues
The concern comes after decades of low public trust in the government given Hawaii’s history of colonialism and slow-moving bureaucracy.
“There’s a general distrust in the government,” said Noelani Ahia, a Maui born and raised indigenous healthcare professional running for Maui County Council for Wailuku-Waihee this November. She is one of the Native Hawaiian activists on the ground providing mental health support for people with post-traumatic stress disorder from the fires.
“The government they put in was white supremacy-centered from the assimilation and possession of our land,” Ahia said. “The government we have now are offshoots of that.”
Hawaii lost its last reigning monarch in 1893 to a government of nonnative American businessmen, plantation owners and politicians.
As a remote island chain that must be self-sufficient, the wildfire aftermath is a pivotal opportunity for officials to prove themselves as the community continues to show its resilience, critics say.
Driessen added, “If we left it to our local government entity I think the rebuild is going to be incredibly slow.” She pointed out how the state took over five years to build a small pier out of Lahaina Harbor but with military assistance and dollars, the community could move much faster. “People need to know that.”
Government sucks. We need more government.
Give me a fucking break. The government is nearly all Hawaiians. Hawaiians hate the white man. This is all on them.
I use that cheap packaged Buddig corned beef.
Splurge on something like Boar’s Head once in a while.
My mom made awesome Reubens.
Officials continue to say that they were unprepared for the “unprecedented” wildfires, which doesn’t sit well with much of the public, especially when a fire weather watch was issued two days beforehand warning of tinder-like conditions.
Maui’s fire chief and Herman Andaya, Maui’s top emergency management official, were not even on island during the time of the fires, according to Honolulu Civil Beat. In the aftermath, it’s come to light that Andaya has no formal education or direct previous experience in emergency management.
Just as long as they had their diversity and inclusion requirements properly prioritized; you have to know what’s really important.
Everything’s unprecedented these days. Fires, floods, hot weather, these things never happened before 2023.
History is just white tricknology to negate the lived experience of of gender fluid people of color.
So, LDSers,
With the whole “sealing” thing, how does a death in the marriage work? And back in the olden days, if the husband died, did all the wives have to remarry the same guy?
Well, it’s complicated and it depends.
Basic theology: The goal is to become a god. Since we believe that God has a (female) mate, you gotta do that in pairs. So you both would have to earn your way to the highest level (not heaven itself, that’s a given, just the highest level of heaven), and part of that is being sealed to each other for eternity. (For the rest of the requirements, you’re on your own.)
A dude can be sealed to more than one woman, but a woman can’t be sealed to more than one man. Since we don’t recognize polygamy temporally, this would be if a widower remarries and the woman has never been sealed to another man, she would be a sister-wife to the first one, provided the first one makes it to the highest level. I have never met anyone who wants to be sealed to more than one woman. Second marriages due to death are just “till death do you part.”
A sealing can be cancelled in certain cases of divorce, but it’s very hard to get that done (or it used to be). There are theological justifications for this, but I won’t get into it.
Huh. I knew none of that. Not even “The goal is to become a god.”
Are you automatically sealed when you get married, or is that another ceremony?
Depends where you get married. If you get married secularly/legally first, then the sealing is a separate ritual. You can get legally married and sealed at the same time, which is what my husband and I did.
I just found out that the auto accident up by the end of my street the other morning involved one of our next door neighbors! 😟 He only just got home from the hospital. Don’t know how bad off he is, but the words “trauma unit” came up. If you could spare a good thought or prayer for him, I’d be grateful. He’s a wonderful neighbor who’s helped us many times, so I hope we can at least partly return the many favors he’s done for us.
Done. What’s his first name?
Thank you! His name is Kenny.
Positive vibes incoming.
Thanks, Mike!
Hoping for a speedy recovery.
Thanks, ron!
Done and hoping for speedy healthy recovery
Thanks, OBE!
The deck guys are busy putting in the new deck. They are using these new fangled diamond pier footings. Seems like a pretty cool system. Except . . . . .
We have about 8 inches of top soil sitting on top of clay. We are two months into a drought. That clay is hard as concrete, and there are large stones scattered around in the ground. So, the got three of the four pins driven into the ground with a jack hammer (fun to watch two or three guys leaning into it), and somehow on the forth pin, the concrete footing has shattered. So, new there are just four pins sticking out of the ground, three of which are driven 4 feet into clay.
I have no idea what they are going to do next.
Angle grinder…?
Well, they still have to put a new footing in that space somehow.