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 FAMILY AFFECTION
When an official came to see him, Epictetus, after making some special inquiries about other matters, asked him if he had children and a wife, and when the other replied that he had, Epictetus asked the further question,
What, then, is your experience with marriage?
—Wretched, he said.—
To which Epictetus, How so? For men do not marry and beget children just for this surely, to be wretched, but rather to be happy.
Nobody gets married with the plan of being miserable in the future.But either they are not careful and lucky with who they chose, or they are not trustworthy partners. While in one sense, I did get lucky with my wife, I was also very careful about the type of person I had long term relationships with.
—And yet, as for me, the other replied, I feel so wretched about the little children, that recently when my little daughter was sick and was thought to be in danger, I could not bear even to stay by her sick bed, but I up and ran away, until someone brought me word that she was well again.—
What then, do you feel that you were acting right in doing this?5
—I was acting naturally, he said.—
The man claims this was a natural reaction, which in the initial stages it might have been, but self control and taking care of your family is also a natural reaction.
But really, you must first convince me of this, that you were acting naturally, said he, and then I will convince you that whatever is done in accordance with nature is rightly done.
—This is the way, said the man, all, or at least most, of us fathers feel.—
Once my son had a fever when he was a baby, and it led to a seizure. My natural reaction was to drive 80 mph to the hospital and carry him into the ER screaming for a Dr.
While he was being treated, my wife and I were there, and you would have had to physically drag us out to get us to leave..
And I do not contradict you either, answered Epictetus, and say that it is not done, but the point at issue between us is the other, whether it is rightly done. For by your style of reasoning we should have to say of tumors also that they are produced for the good of the body, just because they occur, and in brief, that to err is in accordance with nature, just because practically all of us, or at least most of us, do err. Do you show me, therefore, how your conduct is in accordance with nature.
I have done wrong things that felt natural in first reaction, but the ability to see that and change course is part of being a strong person. It feels natural to jump at loud noises, but I usually immediately try to figure out what happened, or in the case of fireworks, to suck it up and stay there because my wife enjoys them.
—I cannot, said the man; but do you rather show me how it is not in accordance with nature, and not rightly done.
The man knows that he did wrong towards his family, but can not bring himself to admit it.
And Epictetus said: Well, if we were inquiring about white and black objects, what sort of criterion should we summon in order to distinguish between them?
—The sight, said the man.—
And if about hot and cold, and hard and soft objects, what criterion?
—The touch.10—
Very well, then, since we are disputing about things which are in accordance with nature and things which are rightly or not rightly done, what criterion would you have us take?
—I do not know, he said.—
And yet, though it is, perhaps, no great harm for one not to know the criterion of colors and odors, and so, too, of flavors, still do you think that it is a slight harm for a man to be ignorant of the criterion of good and evil things, and of those in accordance with nature and those contrary to nature?
Understanding of right and wrong is a pillar of character. To not understand this, is to not understand how to live properly.
—On the contrary, it is the very greatest harm.—
Come, tell me, are all the things that certain persons regard as good and fitting, rightly so regarded? And is it possible at this present time that all the opinions which Jews, and Syrians, and Egyptians and Romans hold on the subject of food are rightly held?
According to the beliefs of the different cultures, they are all correct, which means the others are wrong.
—And how can it be possible?—
But, I fancy, it is absolutely necessary, if the views of the Egyptians are right, that those of the others are not right; if those of the Jews are well founded, that those of the others are not.
—Yes, certainly.—
Now where there is ignorance, there is also lack of knowledge and the lack of instruction in matters which are indispensable.
—He agreed.15—
You, then, said he, now that you perceive this, will henceforth devote all your attention to the criterion of what is in accordance with nature, you shall apply that criterion and thus determine each special case.
Once it is apparent what is right and wrong, it is easy to apply that knowledge to your daily life.
But for the present[1] I can give you the following assistance toward the attainment of what you desire. Does family affection seem to you to be in accordance with nature and good?
Because the man does not have that deep understanding, Epictetus simplifies the lesson to apply to the sick daughter’s situation.
—Of course.—
What then? Is it possible that, while family affection is in accordance with nature and good, that which is reasonable is not good?
—By no means.—
That which is reasonable is not, therefore, incompatible with family affection?
—It is not, I think.—
Otherwise, when two things are incompatible and one of them is in accordance with nature, the other must be contrary to nature, must it not?
—Even so, said he.—
Whatever, therefore, we find to be at the same time both affectionate and reasonable, this we confidently assert to be both right and good?
—Granted, said he.20—
Being attached to your family is natural, and good. This means that any reasonable action should be aligned with this affection.
What then? I suppose you will not deny that going away and leaving one’s child when it is sick is at least not reasonable. But we have yet to consider whether it is affectionate.
—Yes, let us consider that.—
Were you, then, since you were affectionately disposed to your child, doing right when you ran away and left her? And has the mother no affection for her child?
—On the contrary, she has affection.—
Ought then the mother also to have left her child, or ought she not?
—She ought not.—
What of the nurse? Does she love her child?
—She does, he said.—
Ought, then, she also to have left her?
—By no means.—
What about the school attendant? Does not he love the child?
—He does.—
Ought, then, he as well to have gone away and left her, so that the child would thus have been left alone and helpless because of the great affection of you her parents and of those in charge of her, or, perhaps, have died in the arms of those who neither loved her nor cared for her?
—Far from it!—
And yet is it not unfair and unfeeling, when a man thinks certain conduct fitting for himself because of his affection, that he should not allow the same to others who have as much affection as he has?
The man believes that he was right to leave his sick daughter, but is appalled at the thought of others that love her doing the same thing he did.
—That were absurd.25—
Come, if it had been you who were sick, would you have wanted all your relatives, your children and your wife included, to show their affection in such a way that you would be left all alone and deserted by them?
—By no means.—
Of course he would not be happy if the people he loved left him in the same circumstance that he left her.
And would you pray to be so loved by your own that, because of their excessive affection, you would always be left alone in sickness? Or would you, so far as this is concerned, have prayed to be loved by your enemies rather, if that were possible, so as to be left alone by them? And if this is what you would have prayed for, the only conclusion left us is that your conduct was, in the end, not an act of affection at all.
Personally, if I was sick and possibly dying, I would not want many people coming to see me. My wife and kids would be the only ones I would want by my side at that time.
An elderly friend of my wife has a husband that is terminally ill and he doesn’t want us to come see him because he doesn’t want to have our last memories of him to be sick in bed. I understand this impulse and will probably do the same if I find myself in similar circumstances.
What, then; was the motive nothing at all which actuated you and induced you to leave your child? And how can that be? But it was a motive like that which impelled a certain man in Rome to cover his head when the horse which he backed was running,—and then, when it won unexpectedly, they had to apply sponges to him to revive him from his faint! What motive, then, is this? The scientific explanation, perhaps, is not in place now; but it is enough for us to be convinced that, if what the philosophers say is sound, we ought not to look for the motive anywhere outside of ourselves, but that in all cases it is one and the same thing that is the cause of our doing a thing or of our not doing it, of our saying things, or of our not saying them, of our being elated, or of our being cast down, of our avoiding things, or of our pursuing them—the very thing, indeed, which has even now become a cause of my action and of yours; yours in coming to me and sitting here now listening, mine in saying these things. And what is that? 30Is it, indeed, anything else than that we wanted to do this?
In the end, we only do the things we decide to do. Last night I stayed up too late reading and was pissed at myself this morning because I woke up tired. Obviously, I wanted to be tired this morning, or else I would have went to bed on time. I say I like waking up feeling good, but sometimes I choose to be sleepy.
—Nothing.—
And supposing that we had wanted to do something else, what else would we be doing than that which we wanted to do? Surely, then, in the case of Achilles also, it was this that was the cause of his grief—not the death of Patroclus (for other men do not act this way when their comrades die), but that he wanted to grieve. And in your case the other day, the cause of your running away was just that you wanted to do so; and another time, if you stay with her, it will be because you wanted to stay. And now you are going back to Rome, because you want to do so, and if you change your mind and want something else, you will not go. And, in brief, it is neither death, nor exile, nor toil, nor any such thing that is the cause of our doing, or of our not doing, anything, but only our opinions and the decisions of our will.
Do I convince you of this, or not?
—You convince me, said he.—
The man has admitted that it was his choice to abandon his daughter and not some irresistible external force.
Of such sort, then, as are the causes in each case, such likewise are the effects. 35Very well, then, whenever we do anything wrongly, from this day forth we shall ascribe to this action no other cause than the decision of our will which led us to do it, and we shall endeavor to destroy and excise that cause more earnestly than we try to destroy and excise from the body its tumors and abscesses.
Once it is understood that we are responsible for our own decisions, then our excuses for wrong doing vanish. I know that when I get angry, the first flash might be natural, but my next choice will determine if I get angrier or calm myself using my mind and exercising self control.
And in the same way we shall declare the same thing to be the cause of our good actions. And we shall no longer blame either slave, or neighbor, or wife, or children, as being the causes of any evils to us, since we are persuaded that, unless we decide that things are thus-and-so,[2] we do not perform the corresponding actions; and of our decision, for or against something, we ourselves, and not things outside of ourselves, are the masters.
—Even so, he said.—
Now the man understands that his actions are under his control and there are choices to be made to either improve himself or to continue to be a coward and put his fears above his affection.
From this very day, therefore, the thing whose nature or condition we shall investigate and examine will be neither our farm, nor our slaves, nor our horses, nor our dogs, but only the decisions of our will.
—I hope so, he said.—
You see, then, that it is necessary for you to become a frequenter of the schools,—that animal at which all men laugh,—if you really desire to make an examination of the decisions of your own will. And that this is not the work of a single hour or day you know as well as I do.
Here Epictetus encourages the man to keep studying and learning how to control his actions. Although the concepts are simple, following and using them on a daily basis is not easy.
I am impressed by Epictetus’s ability to break the concept of self ownership and self control down in such a way to help this man see his errors and learn how to prevent them in the future.
Music this week is from The Allman Brothers.
WHIPPING POST
I saw a guy let fear paralyze him once. A lady had a blowout at about 1:00 AM on a busy Dallas highway. Her car swerved into the middle cement barrier and bounced off, into a lane of traffic. I stopped, along with a guy in another car. I hopped out and checked on her, in the middle of a high-speed lane. She was really shaken but was able to walk to the side of the highway. I asked the guy if he would help me push her car out of traffic. He was utterly paralyzed at the fear of getting hit by a car. He did overcome it, when he saw me struggling to get the thing off the highway. A blown tire makes even a little car hard to push. While helping me, I could see in his body language that he was completely afraid.
Was there a risk of getting hit by a stray high-speed drunk? Sure. Was I going to let that paralyze me into inaction? No. I am glad he overcame enough fear to help me. I was sorry he was so overcome by it.
In a crisis, my fear comes later. I freak out for a minute or two, then calm down, think it through in about 2 seconds, get ‘er done, then some hours later, fall apart.
I have surprised myself on a few occasions. One morning my wife was in the kitchen with the kids, and straight up fainted. The kids were freaking and yelling “Call 911!” I kept repeating to myself, “First, assess the situation.” I told the kids to get the hell out of the room, went over to her, saw she was breathing just fine, and knew this was manageable. No reason to panic. She came to in just a few seconds. We took her to the ER, nothing wrong, we think she just slammed her leg into a chair and the pain caused her to pass out. She’s just a fainter I guess.
Did you get her a fainting couch for her birthday?
Ha! Her birthday was earlier this week, that would have been a good one. She also fainted while deadlifting once, and she had that on video. It was a big lift. She dropped the weight, yelled in celebration, and fell back and hit her head. All caught on video. We had a few doctors look at it, and they said it had to do with increased blood pressure when she lifted, then instead of inhaling she yelled and that put her body over the edge.
That’s gotta a bit unnerving for her. My wife walked down stairs one day and then suddenly just collapsed (and face planted into a door frame). I took her in thinking possibly she’d had a heart attack, since she was complaining of some chest pain. Turns out her thyroid was all outta whack. Scary stuff when it happens. We can laugh about it now.
Your wife fell down some stairs and into a door, huh?
Suuuuuure.
So many people have thyroid issues. My 81 yo father takes a single med and it’s for thyroid.
It’s another of those things docs aren’t looking for enough.
Haha. That’s what we laugh about. I kept waiting for a visit from the cops to inquire about the bruising on her face and arm.
Valsalva breathing is your friend.
This guy gets it.
Same here. Mid crisis I am a rock. Then for some reason afterwards I freak out about how badly shit could have gone.
The few times I have been in a situation like that, I usually move without thinking. But, give me a couple seconds to think and I am not sure what will happen.
Seriously, I ran back into a burning house to try and put it out. Not always smart, but I have zero fear at that point.
Based on a very small dataset, I don’t freeze up or freak out. A couple of roadside car accidents, I did the needful (helped a woman out of her car, which had flipped and was leaking gas, got a car open that had gone off the road, sideswiped some trees and went head-on into the last one). I’m surprised how many people hang back and don’t do anything.
The second accident, the doors were jammed shut, the driver was unconscious. I didn’t think it would work, but the back hatch opened. The first thing I saw laying in the back was a child seat. That whole “cold sweat” thing? It’s real. The kid wasn’t with her, praise Allah. Once they could get into the car, the nurses I was with swung into action, but none of them tried to open any doors. Weird.
I’m similar. I don’t know why that is. When things get actually dicey, I tend to calm down.
It’s six months later that I’ll have a little snitfit over it. Maybe the suppressed reaction just makes its way to the surface later.
I really like using Nature as the basis of determining course. Nothing is a mistake – it all exists for a reason (drink!).
Dude was a coward because men evolved to protect – they are bigger, stronger, faster, more aggressive, etc. Behaving as he did was a denial of his most basic genetic code.
Pretty cool line of argument in this one. As always, thanks Ron!
I use the universe which I guess is Nature. I know there are things in my control and it is not much. Everything else just is.
I was listening to a podcast recently that really got me thinking about the word “should.” A dude was making the argument that it’s stupid and counterproductive to worry about how things should be because it is impossible. Utopia translates as “no place.” So instead of saying should, you need to learn to see things as they are and work on making yourself as good as you can, even though things aren’t how you think they should be.
I liked it.
Contemplating what should be gives you a direction to move. It is the foundation for deciding what making your self good even means, even if for all intents and purposes you may never arrive there.
Having an objective understanding of the here and now is still worthwhile and necessary. They’re the two elements of the trajectory you want to be on – from where you are and where you want to go. You never know how close to what should be you can get if you decide good enough is further back before you get started.
A coward dies a thousand deaths but hero dies only once.
Vice.
He who fights and runs away, lives to
fightrun another day.Naw. Good generals know when to retreat, whether that to save his resources or regroup for a different strategy. I’m not fighting a losing battle just to say I fought it.*
*Moral imperatives excluded.
Retrograde operations are an important part of conducting the most difficult of all tactical operations; the ‘mobile defense’.
Keeping the enemy engaged while avoiding getting ‘decisively engaged’, while trading space for time is not cowardice, it is actually one of the most risky of combat operations.
My tongue-in-cheek line above isn’t really about that; running from all conflict in order to avoid conflict works great until you run out of places to run.
/co-signed Gen Kenny “Gambler” Rogers
Another victim in the war on drugs
NYC is crazy with both gas and electric scooters on sidewalks.
I’m going with “good shoot” here.
The old Seinfeld bit about fun late-night Ron screwing over boring early morning Ron.
If you believe in God, you might be okay with my saying that I felt impressed to marry my husband.
We “met” online in a Mormon singles chat room in late February 2002. He called me that night, and we haven’t not spoken a day since. In May we met in person and he proposed. I thought, “This is supremely stupid, but I’m going to ride this ride and see where it goes.” I accepted. He moved here in July. We got married in September (Friday the 13th). We’re still together and happy. Although our life together has not been easy (money, kids, the usual), it’s been worth it.
I love that.
Plus the contest winnings!
I did OK in spouses as well. I count myself lucky there.
He just won $100 in groceries, $100 in BBQ, and $150 in lottery tickets. Like, today, he did that.
LOL!
That’s awesome.
That’s enough to have eggs for a week or two!
Is the BBQ money for a restaurant?
Yes. BB’s Lawnside BBQ and Blues. I am not fond of either the sauce or the volume of the music, but it doesn’t matter. Give me a nice slab of brisket (and maybe some chicken) and I can be in heaven with my preferred sauce.
Cool! That looks fun
He just won $100 in groceries, $100 in BBQ, and $150 in lottery tickets.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why your husband bothers to work.
Shouldn’t he just be buying MegaBazillions (or whatever you folks down there in Canada’s Underpants call ’em) lottery tickets?
I was acting naturally, he said.
Act Naturally
Same for my oldest. We couldn’t get the fever to break and he began speaking in tongues basically. There was not a red light I wouldn’t run
Those of us who went through military training hopefully learned to compartmentalize fear. First lesson of Boot Camp was to listen to the words of the berserk Drill Instructor and act on them – while putting aside how crazy he’s acting. A year-and-a-half later had to use the same trick when bad shit was happening on a battlefield. Same in other scary situations such near miss car crashes.
Not sure if it’s bravery or stoicism or just a form of discipline. I was in a foxhole with a Marine who’s discipline broke – a slap and quick DI impression and he had it back.
“I’m sorry, I can’t understand a word you’re shouting. Could you turn down the volume and enuncuate?”
Enunciate? Despite being red faced with veins bulging, every word is more precisely delivered than a professional thespian.
The scary moment is when they suddenly start talking at a normal level after screaming. Or worse, talking low and slow.
Yup. I must have picked that up from Pater Dean (Marine officer). People who know me, know that shouty RC is just blowing off steam; the quieter and calmer I get, the worse things are. Or will get, depending.
It’s an understanding that things can and will get worse and how we compose ourselves in that situation will at least help determine the outcome.
It’s happening so either resist or fight through it. Depending on what is happening will depend on how you react. That is at least what I got out of the military.
Training that embeds the correct reaction deep enough to make it instinctual is the other way around being paralyzed by fear.
Off Topic – My MadCat project is only about 1/4 finished, but I have to decide what to do about the damage done to the torso when removing the excessive supports. I’ve narrowed it down to A) paint the damage as if it were battle damage; B) fill in and smooth the damage over with epoxy putty; C) print a new torso with less aggressive supports and hope it comes out clean.
I am not fond of C because even if it works I still have the existing torso piece sitting around wasted.
D) Get a bottle of tequila & a bucket of fried chicken.
Okay, but that won’t help the miniature.
Paint it as is, and then burn it on video to post to you tube. Let it be a warning to other miniatures who dare to malfunction.
Dude, I have to wear a respirator to print out the resin. I do not want to know what it gives off when burned.
That’s what the tequila’s for.
Indeed. You can always burn it somewhere else, like your neighbor’s house. It might make pretty glowing drops as it melts.
Ignoring your (and machine) time as this is supposed to be a “hobby” – what’s the cost of the resin?
For filament printing my slicer (Cura) will allow you to input filament weight and cost and will calculate a rough cost estimate. That’s normally how I try to determine if I should modify or repair a part or just reprint it.
$25-30/kilo, depending on brand, color, and type.
The dollar cost of resin isn’t a major factor. Lychee also lets you put in the resin cost, but I’m not fretting over it.
My repair would be with Milliput, which is a bit pricier, but it’s a sunk cost in that I already own two boxes.
C also gains you more knowledge.
I’d do C and D
Does the chicken have to be in a bucket? I have a bunch of wings and a couple of thighs in my fridge I could fry up myself.
I’m also pretty sure I already have the tequila.
Excellent. Look at you go.
Pretty sure?
You could wake me up at 3 am, and I could give you a complete inventory of what booze is in the house. Probably not a good thing, but there it is.
B) fill in and smooth the damage over with epoxy putty
If the original plan was to paint it anyway, this seems like the way to go.
The original plan was always to paint up the finished assembly once it had been completed.
OTOH, if the damage is right for battle damage, that would be cool.
Look, I didn’t like the Tequila. It’s almost certainly sitting in the cabinet next to the canned veggies.
Booming
But that “below-trend economic growth” isn’t happening right now, on the contrary, the economy has re-accelerated, and he said the Fed is “attentive to signs that the economy may not be cooling as expected.” And right now it isn’t:
“So far this year, GDP growth has come in above expectations and above its longer-run trend [Q1 GDP: +2.0%, Q2 GDP +2.4%, and Q3 has started out even stronger], and recent readings on consumer spending have been especially robust. In addition, after decelerating sharply over the past 18 months, the housing sector is showing signs of picking back up.”
“Additional evidence of persistently above-trend growth could put further progress on inflation at risk and could warrant further tightening of monetary policy,” he said.
How much of that “GDP growth” is government promises?
Given deficits, more than ALL OF IT.
Well, I should be sittin’ in an air conditioned office In a swivel chair
I am. And since no one else is in the other cubes, my office is friggin Huuuge!
Monday, it will be just another cube again.
Airplane porn for KK.
https://x.com/juleighperona/status/1695132104231960697?s=46&t=g7EG4Y-juKY6VXgHEzprrQ
This morning in Everett WA.
First they’re going on about UFOs, now xcom is a real thing.
That airplane isn’t crossing the road, it’s ferrying alien soldiers!
Look, aliens like bourbon and playing the tables in Vegas like everyone else. Not every alien is a soldier.
They have one of those airplane bridges at the Orlando airport. Little bit of a surprise the first time I drove under one with a plane on it.
Nice dox.
I just doxxed myself by following her.
Meh. I’m already targeted by all the FedGov TruAnons here in Canada.
And we shall no longer blame either slave, or neighbor, or wife, or children, as being the causes of any evils to us, since we are persuaded that, unless we decide that things are thus-and-so,[2] we do not perform the corresponding actions; and of our decision, for or against something, we ourselves, and not things outside of ourselves, are the masters.
I think this aligns with some thoughts I’ve echoed here a few times. Ultimately, I am the one responsible for the welfare of my family and safeguarding them from the evils of the world. Something like a school shooter/rapist/armed robber is no different than an attack by a rabid animal or being trapped in the Maui fires. It is inherent on me to take or not take the corresponding actions necessary rather than ceding that control and authority outside of myself.
Fine, everybody else is off the hook, but I’m still blaming my orphans when things go wrong. You can’t take that away from a true blooded libertarian.
Innovation hardest hit
Hiking interest rates aggressively, as the Federal Reserve has done over the past 14 months, doesn’t just fight inflation by tamping down economic growth in the short term.
The strategy also curtails the economy’s output and growth potential over the long run by discouraging innovation, according to a paper set to be presented Friday at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“Our findings suggest that monetary policy may affect the productive capacity of the economy in the longer term,” states the study by Yurean Ma and Kaspar Zimmerman, economics and finance professors at the University of Chicago. “A slower pace of innovation may then have lasting effects.”
——-
Economists traditionally have believed that the economy’s long-term potential isn’t affected by lifting interest rates to corral inflation or lowering them to stimulate weak growth, the paper says. But that view has been challenged by a growing body of research.
By making borrowing more expensive, higher interest rates can reduce consumer and business demand for products and services. That can make it less profitable for companies to develop new offerings and come up with innovations that increase efficiency and spark faster growth, the paper says.
Sharply rising rates also can lead to less favorable financial conditions. That means it becomes more expensive to take out a loan to launch a new product or business, the stock market is down and investors are more likely to put their money in safe bonds that now pay a higher interest rate than take a chance on a new venture.
Bring back the economic miracles of interest free money.
What I’m hearing here is that out of control deficits are stifling innovation.
Those deficits are investments in America. Why do you hate America? Also don’t ask what the ROI is on those investments.
This man gets it!
The crew started to replace the siding yesterday. Work from home is a bit noisier now.
It’s Friday. Just start the weekend early.
My wife has already left the house. So, it’s just the dogs and me listening to the tap, tap, tap of them hanging the siding. Yesterday, when they were ripping off the old cement fiber board, was quite loud.
See option D) above.
This one hit close to home. My two oldest (as I have complained to you all) have made, and continue to make, terrible decisions. Over and over we’ve asked why they’d do such and such, and the answer is always “I don’t know”. We’ve never gotten them to admit, “That was my choice, and it was a bad one.”
“If you can’t answer why you did something, then perhaps you shouldn’t have done it. I was hoping that I raised a rational human capable of some reason and not an emotional animal devoid of free will and independent thought. Be better.”
– Me to my kids, when I’m feeling acerbic and they piss me off
You only have to use that one once or twice to get your point across.
We’ve said that first sentence plenty of times, but I like that second part. I’ll have to remember that.
When someone says “I don’t know” when you ask “what were you thinking?” be assured that they know but just don’t want to look even more foolish by telling you
I used to use a variation of this on my nieces. They always burst into tears when I did that, and they were already in their twenties.
I didn’t stop. Better part of two decades later, one’s learned the lesson completely and the other one’s at least figuring out the broad brush strokes. But man! has it ever been a pain to get to this point.
You know who’s not stoic today?
Christine LaGarde
http://www.worldgovernmentbonds.com/spread/germany-10-years-vs-united-states-10-years/
Holding that German yield down is getting harder every time Powell sticks it in her ass.
Looks like gibberish to me. What is the short answer?
The short answer is that with each tick higher in US Treasury yields, it pulls more capital flight from Europe.
The ECB is trapped and running out of ammo. Yellen is trying to save them by fucking us over, but she’s losing the battle to Powell.
thank you
I just got three blackjacks in ten minutes on Caesar’s Palace 2000 Millennium Gold Edition. I shall bet on Powell.
This should illustrate it a bit better. Expand the chart to 5 years.
https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/DE10Y-DE
The 10 year Bund yield keeps slamming against a hard limit that the ECB has set. Eventually, they will not be able to hold it down and all financial hell will break loose in Europe.
It’s telling that financial market news is constantly talking about how bad it is in the US, but they rarely mention the steaming shitpile that is the European banking system.
all financial hell will break loose in Europe
What effect does that have on us?
should have
or will have
Capital and industry flees Europe. If the US has not descended into total chaos, it will come here.
You can begin to see why some parties (*cough* Davos *cough* Soros *cough* London *cough* Brussels) have a vested interest in stoking the divisiveness, decay, unrest and lawlessness here in the States.
To test your Stoicism:
https://notthebee.com/article/german-daycares-introduces-sexual-exploration-rooms-freedom-childish-sexuality
For preschoolers in Hanover, hand jobs are ok, but oral is verboten!
Germans….
Why does it always have to be Germans?
Kids gonna fuck things, whatchagonnado?
How about watersports? Is that allowed?
diaper fetish
You’re right.
“sexual behavior by children” could not be “prevented”
That doesn’t mean it needs to be encouraged, ya frickin’ groomer.
🤢
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzOw8ZP4QRk
“Fish families”, Auntie Mame
Eugyppius, in what is (for him) somewhat of a departure from his normal fare, sent out an e-mail about just this thing this morning:
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/two-german-childcare-centres-in-nordrhein
It seems the order has gone out to all the old propaganda orifices, plus some new ones.
The lockdowns worked, masking worked, social distancing worked. You will repeat it.
https://twitter.com/royalsociety/status/1694635265925509464
(According to them) Individually they have little effect but taken as a whole they work like gangbusters (so you must do them all). Get fucked.
I’ll admit I’m a little shocked that it appears they’re going to try.
This could get really spicy.
I will not calm my tits this time around.
Also, fucking server squirrels…
I won’t be soothed! 🎵
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH82sJ898jg
So, they are making it up in volume?
I ignored them last time, I will ignore them this time.
https://twitter.com/rocknrollgarag1/status/1694907462933995692
Happy birthday, legend!
Aaah! Wasn’t ready to see him with a Santa Claus beard!
Some classic rock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmNSFqyg_Z8
fuck
that’s scary
The lockdowns worked, masking worked, social distancing worked.
Unequivocally!
There is no evidence to the contrary. Or, there won’t be if we can get our mitts into Twitter again.
deny deny and deny some more
Next up, “psychopathological mechanisms of dissent”
Most of us survived. Quod erat demonstrandum.