How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
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 is my favorite Stoic teacher. I love his bare bones and very straight forward approach.
We finally finished Epictetus.
Discourses and Selected Writings
Here are my favorite lessons from the fourth section of the book:
Of freedom
If a person can truly give up external desires and manage his internal reactions, his mind is free regardless of his physical circumstances. Not 100% possible, but a goal to strive for.
What things should be exchanged for what things?
An understanding that life is full of compromises and how to decide on different values to try to make the best decisions.
To those who have set their hearts upon living in peace
Understanding that a peaceful life requires balance and not letting one thing dominate your time.
To those who are vexed at being pitied
How to not be angry when weakness cause others to feel sorry for you. I struggle with this one because I still see myself as a strong 25 year old, but I know I am not.
Of freedom from fear
If I can live with no concerns for external forces, then nothing should scare me.
What ought we to despise and on what place a high value?
A look at what is truly important in life and an explanation for how to prioritize them.
Of attention
How to decide what is worth your time and attention. Then practicing not wasting time and attention on things that are not worth either.
That is the end of the Epictetus recap, if you only read one Stoic philosopher, he is the one I would recommend.
Starting next week I will start going through the lessons of Gaius Musonius Rufus if I can find a good digital copy of them.
I will be mostly in the garage for the next few days working on my truck, but I will try to check in from time to time.
I will be mostly in the garage for the next few days working on my truck,
That will certainly test your stoicism….
At least it’s not an old Mack.
That’s a test of stoicism.
Just putting the drive shaft back in after getting a new carrier bearing pressed on.
Then I’ll put the door back together after putting a new window regulator in.
Shouldn’t be too bad, but we’ll see if she has any surprises for me.
It is hot though, currently 93 in the garage and humid.
“How to not be angry when weakness cause others to feel sorry for you. I struggle with this one because I still see myself as a strong 25 year old, but I know I am not.”
My line of work has a very physical aspect- climbing to work at heights, carrying heavy equipment like sample pumps, pulling the equipment up to the sample location on a rope…
I can maybe do 50% of what I could 20 years ago.
I’m around 1/3.
It’s sucks.
Check your level of stoic here.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/lawsuit-could-give-members-of-congress-millions-of-your-money-along-with-a-five-figure-raise/ar-AA2787F7?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6a47d310a82c4d4b9498b778f11882da&ei=32
If TL:DR the BLUF is: Fuck the XXVIIth amendment. We can’t give ourselves a raise w/o an election inbetween. So we’ll give ourselves a a “cost of living adjustment” instead. Since we didn’t due it because of the optics we will sue to force the tax cattle to give us all that sweet sweet back pay.
So double or more the average American’s salary for doing next to nothing. No wonder they have to resort to insider trading to get the promised millions.
I’m confused on the reasoning here. An amendment that blocks current congress critters from voting themselves a pay raise that session/before an election is being used to argue that Congress can’t decline pay raises and that they are due automatic bumps in standard of living?
What exactly is the legal reasoning here?
The 27th says they can’t vote to vary their own pay before an election. Keeping it static is the…not varying it. SO just a a glance this seems rather absurd even before we take into account the actual intent of the 27th amendment.
So I suppose it’s because the COLA adjustments are automatic and take place the following year. So yea, weasel use of the 27th that cuts completely contrary to the intent of it, but technically correct based on the text.
Go back to a part time legislature.
They should have to have jobs, not be barred from having jobs.
Repeal the 17th.
Who cares about their salaries? It’s the rampant theft via NGO and insane agency budgets that piss me off. The salary is at least public and taxed. The other 99% of their loot is the real problem.
As written, it certainly allows raises in perpetuity under a single law that authorizes them, so long as the first raise is delayed until after the first election.
And let’s not kid ourselves, anyway. Congress could vote itself a $1MM/year salary, and it wouldn’t cost any of them their seats.
They vote down the pay raises to begin with because they’re all making money from “side gigs.”
They did not give themselves the COLA each year because they didn’t want to face people during the 2008 melt down, the 2020 panicdemic etc. THEY did it to themselves. Going back for up to 18 years of backpay each, using the courts so they can deflect blame from themselves is chickenshit.
The Revolution was kicked off for a lower level of BS. I don’t care if you think you are owed the taxpayers paying so you can have two households. Nobody drafted you for Congress, you chose to pursue it (over and over) knowing the requirements full well.
My thoughts on almost Independence Day. Amendment XXVIII Section 1. No person shall serve in any body of Congress for more than twelve years, for a lifetime. Section 2. The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Pass a law restricting birthright citizenship as suggested by Kavanaugh AND pass Amendment XXIX as proposed by Senator Paul. XXIX “A person born in the United States may only be considered ‘subject to the jurisdiction of the United States’ if the person is born in the United States of parents, one of whom is — 1) a citizen or national of the United States; 2) an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States whose residence is in the United States; or 3) an alien with lawful status under the immigration laws performing active service in the Armed Forces.”
I’d add one more – no immediate family member of a federal elected official is eligible for elected federal office or appointed office requiring Senate confirmation.
“No person shall serve in any body of Congress for more than twelve years, for a lifetime”
Ditto the Federal Bureaucracy, and also once you leave you cannot become a lobbyist. Too many treat their time in the government as a kickstarter for a more lucrative outside job representing an industry or an NGO.
Working on Element brakes. Stupid non-integral fiddly clips and slider pads on the calipers. Give me a set of six piston AP calipers.
Six piston?
I think I’ve only ever owned three rigs that had dual piston brakes.
Six is wild.
Someone asked for a link to the article on the plight of Muslim men in the West.
There’s a bit more nuance in the meat of the article which I admittedly didn’t read. It was just the blurb I posed. But it’s still trying to gin up sob stories and connect the shit that happens on college campuses with what many third world migrants in their neighborhood.
If any nation allows them in at all they should be gelded when they apply for entry.
young man from Syria or Morocco or Afghanistan risks everything to reach Europe. – send him the fuck back
I am of the belief there is a tad too much exposed young female flesh these days. Be that as it may i have no sympathy for clash of civilisation talk. You go somewhere you adapt to that civilisation.
I also admit that some women want constant attention dress in basically underware and complain about a glance from any man they find unattractive. You should see some of the women at the gym I go to you see every detail of their vagina through the painted on shorts
I like how they all pretend that they don’t dress to get attention from men. It’s to get compliments from other women.
General rule of thumb – nearly anything a woman thinks is creepy is only creepy if the wrong man does it. If the man she is attracted to does it she loves it.
They buy shoes and purses for other women. They get the tightest daisy dukes they can fit in for attentiona. Dunno about the states but here they start at 14 or so. This amd afghanis dont mix
In Hawaii the micro-kini is more and more seen on sub adolescents. On teens and up they are the predominant style. Even the one-piece suits now are primarily butt floss. But, it is only the women. The sexual dimorphism of the human species is seen out here in swimsuits as well. Men wear loose fitting board shorts that extend to around the knees.
If you are a male and wearing a speedo (aka banana hammock) you are crying out “Everybody look at me, I am European!” Many a female side eye will be cast your way- unless you are young, attractive, and can be identified as wealthy.
you are crying out “Everybody look at me, I am European!”
To be fair screaming I am superior does not always go down well.
Also 0 of my friends wear spedos. In romania mostly men 60+ do it
Castrate him and send him back.
Spay and neuter dangerous wildlife.
#metoo
And yet somehow lowly westerners have generally figured out how to deal with it.
To celebrate setting up the most expensive vacation of my life i have bought a cigar at twice the usual price i buy, but i have to admit you can taste the difference. Alas i will go back to the cheaper stuff
flor de selva salomón 30 años
Sometimes you have to spoil yourself.
I spoil myself a little too much overall but such is life
I spoil myself a little too much
Euphemism?
Safe travels Pie.
If you ever hit the greater Philadelphia area, we can hang out and have some steak and whisky.
I have had philly cheesteak here in Bucharest. It is decent but too much bread.
i’ll take you up on that whisky as long as it is above 100 proof and 6 years of age
Steak, Pie. Not sandwiches.
Driving along the freeway from PA entering into Ohio, there’s nearly immediately a billboard advertising a vacation destination… in Frankenmuth, Michigan. About 4 hours away by car.
In stupid algorith booking recomandations i got since i am visitin northern NY why not take a detour and visit Orlando. Really?
And righ behind it why not explore Miami? Appartments in south beach.
“What do you mean you’re not booking flights on our expensive sponsor airlines?”
UCS it feels to me like south beach is the perfect plsce for you have you ever thought of moving there?
It’s Miami – too urban, too hot and humid, not enough hills.
Those was jokes
Ugh, I’m done with hills.
Starting next week I will start going through the lessons of Gaius Musonius Rufus
Why do I foresee a string of “Do you work?” jokes?
Meanwhile ERIC BERGER, Top Man, Space Focus.
Despite the darkness, I still see signs of hope in America
You’ve cheerfully had your hand in my pocket for your space dreams and hitched yourself to the “anybody can be a woman” crowd. Fuck off Eric. Fuck off.
What a cuck.
AT;DR
Don’t know that person by my skimming eyes landed at “planet is warming” and noped right out.
The genius of Reddit (on women in combat arms and new standards put in by Hegseth):
It’s actually completely consistent unless you think about it in a backwards way and actually believe women and men are exactly the same.
no one wanted trans men out of mens sports. feel free.
But this is one of the most idiotic debates.
It is either one or the other
men and women are the same, then no need to have womens sports. Have Iga świątek beat Sinner in 5 sets and win the grand slam.
men and women are not the same, then no transwomen.
so either no women sports or no transwomen.
THAT’S DIFFERENT!
but the whole point about letting chicks in the army many years ago was if they meet standards. standard dilution was a right wing myth.
They had lower standards from the get go. Their PT system was entirely different and a high female score was achieved at an objectively lower standard than for men as one example. But even where they’ve gone with neutral standards it’s been a canard.
I saw another Reddit thread where people were pretending that the Marine Infantry Officer Course only implemented objective standards of pass/fail to weed out women. It’s true that they put it in place when the talk of putting women into combat arms began. But that’s more a case of covering their asses than creating a standard just to keep the women out of the boys club.
There’s no way in hell a subjective judgement of a male would be allowed to weed out women. When the disproportionate number of women in the course failed because they can’t hack it, it instantly would have led to cries of bias. The objective standard wasn’t to keep them out. It was to limit liability from the inevitable.
Very few women who tried could pass the IOC. Then the last few years they tweaked the standards. Made them gender neutral, but objectively lower. Suddenly over 50% of the women started passing. This jump from like 95% or more failing just so happened to start in 2021 where over 80% passed. Like a completely flipped script.
Gender neutral can be even more toxic than a double standard because it means men are also being allowed in who shouldn’t to justify the women who can’t hack it.
Then you get the “surveys” these cunts cite all the time on how men were initially against women coming on board for what it would do to unit cohesion. Then once integrated surveys showed that men changed their tune. They apply immense pressure for men to say what they want to hear. And when I was in command climate surveys were notoriously rigged. No one in my unit thought it was really anonymous.
I wasn’t in that long and I’m not the expert on military affairs by any means, but anyone I ever met in mixed POG units will tell you what a mess having women/men together in a unit causes. All the dumb shit you’d expect takes place on the regular. And I’ve heard the same thing from people in combat arms once they started to add women in. PFC DawnTaFook getting treated favorably by that creepy E-7 she seems a little too close to etc.
When the chain of command makes it clear they want a result, the people below are going to bend and do what they have to to achieve it or make it look like it’s happening.
And the reality is that there’s not a single actual benefit to doing this if we just look at it through the lens of what will win future wars. No one can sincerely argue that this is about mission preparedness or success. It’s about politics and modern narratives.
There’s not a single data point that’s come out that shows women benefit the mission in anyway in combat arms.
My unit was about 35% female.
It was a hot
Mess.
You could get promoted if you were the right skin color or if you were female and put out to the E7 and above group.
Except to those of us in the US military 20 years ago. We knew, and were proven correct, that standards would not be held to the same standard. The 25 mile timed, 60 lb minimum weight ruck march in SFQC. That standard made sense since it was not uncommon at the start of a mission to have near 100lbs on our backs and we would have to help each other to our feet while moving 20-30 km from our infiltration point to our primary mission area. That standard died. There were some parts of the course with no “re-do”, you failed to meet the standard and you were gone.
If the standards for infantry, armor, field artillery were held and only a small percentage of women passed there would be much less push back. A 155mm round weighs 90-115lbs (depending on type) and that doesn’t change for a woman. One Redleg picking up and moving those to the breach of a howitzer (over and over) is part of a gun drill. A M-240 MG weighs 27 lbs (unloaded) and a gunner carries it and 200-300 rounds-plus all their gear. The AG normally carries 800-1200 rounds, an M-16, and all their gear. All three branches live like the dirtiest animals you can imagine for days to weeks at a time. All of this is non-negotiable since it is the nature of combat and combat don’t give a shit about equity.
“But if women are not in those three branches they will never lead a division or the Army.” Yep- and it is the same for men. That fact isn’t based on sex, but on the reality that every branch in the Army is there to support the infantry at the bloody tip of the spear. Almost every branch of the Army is vital, but they all support the big three.
In the later stages of my career I served with some great female Soldiers. My chosen gunner for my vehicle in 2003-2004 in Iraq was a female who was a virtuoso with that weapon. That doesn’t mean that she was capable of being a weapons sergeant on any of my earlier A-Teams. She knew reality and served with distinction.
Under Obama and biden all hope of holding standards was lost in the pursuit of “equity” for women and teh trans. In general I am not a fan of the current Sec War. The job is too big for him. But I do support his attempt to return to combat standards.
Everything is politics.
We are not only politicking our way to losing the next war, we are going to politic our way out of being a species.
From my perspective as an armchair goof-off it’s clear there are probably plenty of places for females in the military. But because politics, that is not the point. The point is to claim that “a woman can do anything a man can do” which has been transparent bullshit for all the decades activists have been spinning it except you’re not allowed to say it in “polite company” anymore.
I try to understand opposing arguments even though I disagree with them. But some are too stupid to understand.
Women should be heavily
Restricted from being in the military.
Support roles in the non deployable rear for 99.9% of them.
Frankly, with few exceptions, anyone who is non-deployable should be separated ASAP.
Then don’t have them in at all. The military exists to fight, and fighting means first filling a battle roster. If you are permanently not going to be on a battle roster to deploy then I don’t need you.
In 2004 I had one Soldier (E-7) try that “I can’t deploy because I have a documented allergy to the mold in canvas.” I gave them 24 hours to consider their decision. When they confirmed their decision I then administratively had them tossed from the military. (No retirement for you.) I had some push back from the MG who had to sign off, but when I explained that 80% of my people just returned from Iraq, 15% of my people were currently in Iraq, and my remainder were going on battle rosters for the next turn in the barrel in Iraq- he agreed and signed off.
You go somewhere you adapt to that civilisation.
*faints*
Unless you are from a civilization that hates itself and then you are expected to let conflicting and even harmful civilization walk all over you and destroy you – just to prove you are progressive.
Despite the darkness, I still see signs of hope in America
Kiss my ass, you prissy douchebag.
The “darkness” is the age old envy of those who want something for nothing, who will deny your rights in order to serve themselves, who cannot abide the fact that some are more clever, more intelligent, and more diligent in creating a better life for their family and their customers, who “want crops without plowing up the ground (F. Douglass)”. The hope is that there are still enough people who believe in the American dream and individual rights to push the darkness back for another generation or two.
Finally, reality itself has a way of fighting back against lies and propaganda.
If I had to guess, I’d say he’s not referring to the undeniable fact that Miami is not yet underwater.
What, is that from the Ars piece?
Holy shit, the irony. Another sign of my thinking that two belief systems are talking past each other and cannot hold a rational conversation. That guy probably does not have even a passing knowledge of actual “reality”.
I picked up 4 porterhouses today. 7 lbs. 🤠
Fantastic.
I have to KISS with all the construction going in over here. So hot dogs, burgers and jalapeño poppers.
I’m making chili tomorrow with beans, the way God intended.
“How to not be angry when weakness cause others to feel sorry for you.”
This is a good one. Hrm. First thing, just accept it’s better than them being angry with you, and they’re not out to get you. (Though it can feel that that, they rarely are.) Even when (you at least feel) they’re being overbearing, and won’t give you any time to do things for yourself, and you’re helicoptered so the precious delicate adult doesn’t dare reach for a Kleenex himself… there’s a solid chance to practice your stoic Descartes: You think, therefore you are. You CAN think, so you’re still here. You have many thoughts. They might not be understood (one way or another,) but they’re there. There’s a whole big fuckin’ dollop of THERE, there.
That’s a fairly good base to build on. You’re still there, as opposed to the opposite, and even the really annoying rubber-neckers are still there. (But at least they’re ‘trying’ to be nice.) Things can always be worse. Cherish little moments, even if they’re aggravating. *shrug* You ain’t dead, yet, boy. If you’ve got time to bitch about such *trivial* little things, you’re wasting it.