Stoic Friday CLXII

by | Jul 24, 2026 | Advice, LifeSkills, Musings, Stoic | 103 comments

Daily Stoic

Meditations

How to Be a Stoic

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor

Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic

If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness.

Today’s lesson comes from: Musonious Rufus’s Lectures

We don”t know much about Rufus’s life, he was born between 20-30 AD. By the rein of Nero he was a leading Stoic teacher. He was banished twice under different Emperors. His most famous student was Epictetus and like him, Rufus did not write any of his own lessons. The lessons and fragments that remain were written by his students. We do not now when he died, but in 101 AD Pliny mentions him as deceased.

Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.

That man is born with an inclination towards virtue.[1]

1 All of us, he used to say, are so fashioned by nature that we can live our lives free from error and nobly; not that one can and another cannot, but all. The clearest evidence of this is the fact that lawgivers lay down for all alike what may be done and forbid what may not be done, exempting from punishment no one who disobeys or does wrong, not the young nor the old, not the strong nor the weak, not anyone whomsoever. And yet if the whole notion of virtue were something that came to us from without, and we shared no part of it by birth, just as in activities pertaining to the other arts no one who has not learned the art is expected to be free from error, so in like manner in things pertaining to the conduct of life it would not be reasonable to expect anyone to be free from error who had not learned virtue, seeing that virtue is the only thing that saves us from error in daily living.

I wish this were true, but it seems there is a two-tiered justice system arising. Though it is not codified in writing, in practice it works against good order and minimizes trust in the system. I do agree that if the desire is there, the average person can live a moral life. I have seen many people in the Marines lose a good career because they were unwilling to control their urges.

2 Now in the care of the sick we demand no one but the physician to be free from error, and in handling the lyre no one but the musician, and in managing the helm no one but the pilot, but in the conduct of life it is no longer only the philosopher whom we expect to be free from error, though he alone would seem to be the only one concerned with the study of virtue, but all men alike, including those who have never given any attention to virtue. Clearly, then, there is no explanation for this other than that the human being is born with an inclination toward virtue. And this indeed is strong evidence of the presence of goodness in our nature, that all speak of themselves as having virtue and being good.

Everyone believes their choices are correct. When the choices are obviously wrong, people have an ability to justify them to themselves. In all my occasions to be involved in punishments for Marines that screwed up, it was rare for them to admit they were actually in the wrong. I have a high standard for myself and do not always live up to it, but I am very good at pointing the finger at myself for being an idiot.

3 For take the common man; when asked whether he is stupid or intelligent, not one will confess to being stupid; or again, when asked whether he is just or unjust, not one will say that he is unjust. In the same way, if one asks him whether he is temperate or intemperate, he replies at once that he is temperate; and finally, if one asks whether he is good or bad, he would say that he is good, even though he can name no teacher of virtue or mention any study or practice of virtue he has ever made.

This is true, everyone (including me) thinks they are intelligent and moral. I do have the ability to see things I don’t understand and realize I could have no good ideas for the issue. I think there is a level of stupid that is so profound you are unable to see past your own opinions and are therefore extremely certain of them.

You do not have to study the law to get a basic understanding of right and wrong. Maybe because it seems like it should be intuitive, it is easy for people to twist their wrongs and justify them.

4 Of what, then, is this evidence if not of the existence of an innate inclination of the human soul toward goodness and nobleness, and of the presence of the seeds of virtue in each one of us?[2] Moreover, because it is entirely to our advantage to be good, some of us deceive ourselves into thinking that we are really good, while others of us are ashamed to admit that we are not. Why then pray, when one who has not learned letters or music or gymnastics never claims to have knowledge of these arts nor makes any pretense of knowing them, and is quite unable even to name a teacher to whom he went, why, I say, does everyone profess that he has virtue? It is because none of those other skills is natural to man, and no human being is born with a natural faculty [for them, whereas an inclination toward virtue is inborn in each one of us.][3]

What makes a person “good”? There is a broad understanding of what it means to be good, and most people would claim to be inside of that description. The ones that know they are not good and admit it to themselves are rare.

If a person has never studied morality, how do they know they are good?

The golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”, was taught to me in Sunday school, and has been a foundational belief for most societies throughout history, even if the rule did not apply to other classes of people.

Slave owners could brutalize slaves and still consider themselves to be God-fearing. The Lords did not have any concept of humanity in the peasant class, yet by their own standards would say they were good.

About The Author

ron73440

ron73440

What I told my wife when she said my steel Baby Eagle .45 was heavy, "Heavy is good, heavy is reliable, if it doesn't work you could always hit him with it."-Boris the Blade MOLON LABE

103 Comments

  1. UnCivilServant

    The obtuse hiring process is a trial of my self-control.

    I know Why the various rules are in place, but it’s gotten so mangled it’s far from fit for purpose.

  2. R.J.

    I will read this more in detail a couple of hours from now. But I have to say this now: Studying the Stoic philosophy of Rufus brings to mind a certain muppet and brings me great amusement.

    “Do you people even work?”
    –Rufus

  3. Drake

    Smarter people are usually more capable of seeing the limitations of their intelligence than the dumb ones. Can create a weird dichotomy where the idiots think they are the smartest people on the room.

    • UnCivilServant

      What does it say when the people around me are doing their darndest to prove that I am the smartest person in the room?

      There’s too much pressure in that role.

      • Fourscore

        Meet my friends, Mr Dunning and Mr Kruger

    • Threedoor

      The idiots that take risks thinking they have the skills and fake it till they make it are the most frustrating to me.

      It’s awesome that they are successful, on the other hand they fit the ‘idiots with money’ stereotype perfectly.

  4. Drake

    This whole week as a project manager at the giant financial corporation has been a trial.

    Early in the week I had to take yet more risk management training because they are crazy about the subject. Yesterday they laid off all the Risk Advisors in our business unit. How I’ll ever get another project done is now a mystery.

    I requested a change approval from one of my Sponsors on Wednesday, reminded him twice yesterday to approve – once in person. He never did and is now on vacation.

    This afternoon, I have to meet with the tech team that has been promising an August delivery for 2 months (since they missed the July window). They’ll make a bunch of excuses, explain why it has to be pushed to September, and pinky-swear they’ll get it done. There is a giant external deal going down in November dependent on the tech implementation but that doesn’t seem to worry them.

    • Sensei

      I requested a change approval from one of my Sponsors on Wednesday, reminded him twice yesterday to approve – once in person. He never did and is now on vacation.

      My favorite kind of coworker / manager.

      • Fourscore

        “I’ll get back to you on that”

    • creech

      Sixth grade teacher: “Excuses are patches in the garment of failure.” Tell them they can be “heroes or zeroes” with the next deadline. Maybe they will get the point.

      • kinnath

        Actually, that scene doesn’t bother me in the least.

        It’s an animated comedy for young people using a modern soul group to function as the Greek chorus.

        No one is presenting this as a historically accurate period drama.

  5. Sensei

    I’m trying to be stoic about NJ and the 2nd Amendment.

    I’ve been trying to avoid changing my address on my Firearm ID, but it looks like at least part of my retirement will still be in NJ. So I’m biting the bullet and putting the paperwork through for my current address.

    I applied 7/5. It’s now 19 days later and I’m on my third email with the cop in my town about the process. Mind you there was an online form with the NJ state police that I filled in with all this information.

    I really didn’t want to stick my hand up as a gun owner in this town, but here we are. Next up is to repeat the process two more times. Once again for a pistol purchase permit for something of appropriate carry size instead of the full size stuff I had before the boating accident. And again one more time for concealed carry.

    Sigh…

    • UnCivilServant

      Care to do a writeup to contrast other unconstitutional processes previously described?

      On the topic, I still don’t have a good carry gun. My full size pistols are just too big to be practical everyday carry. Love the 1911, but it’s bulky. The Shadow 2 fits in the same foam footprint, and the 686 is a .357 Magnum, so it’s not small either.

      • Sensei

        Once I get through it and my annoyance settles down – that’s not a bad idea.

        As a prior to the boating accident my Glock has been essentially flawless if ugly. It’s likely going to be “replaced” by a G43X MOS.

      • Drake

        I don’t really either. I have a tiny .380 with a pocket holster that I walk around with. But I can’t shoot it for crap. Everything else is a bit too big and heavy. Was thinking of trying something like a Taurus GX4.

      • EvilSheldon

        Tiny .380s and J-frame .38 revolvers are among the hardest classes of guns to shoot well. There’s often not much frame to get a good grip on, they’re light, so they tend to have awful muzzle blast and recoil, and the triggers suck as a rule.

        I’m a big fan of .32ACP and .32 H&R Magnum in pocket pistols. They tend to have a lot less recoil, and the terminal effect is indistinguishable. I’d even rather have a .22 than most pocket .380s.

        One piece of hardware that has really helped me carry in any/all conditions is the PHLster Enigma: https://www.phlsterholsters.com/phlster-enigma

        Basically it allows you to carry appendix-style at any position between your hip-bones, without having to use a belt. It’s amazingly comfortable and easy to conceal, and it still allows very fast access to the gun.

      • UnCivilServant

        I think I saw a .32 at the localest of my local gun stores (~4 miles to that one). Maybe I’ll take a closer look and see if it works with my sausage fingers.

      • Sean

        Love the 1911, but it’s bulky

        Look at a Kimber Micro 9.

      • kinnath

        My wife and I both have Springfield EMP 1911 (3 inch barrel; 9mm), I can carry it comfortably in a shoulder harness, but I rarely do.

        We also have Sig p938s (9mm). These are the BRG with rubber grips. The folks at the range consider it to be “snappy”. But I think the grip solves most the problems. I can reliably put most of the rounds in the 7+1 magazine in the 10 ring at 5 yards. My wife (who not strong) can shoot it quite accurately as well.

        I also have the Springfield 911 in 9 mm. That one actually hurts to shoot. I doubt that I will ever carry it.

    • Drake

      When we retire, my wife would like to live up north at least part of the year. I’ve told her that NJ, CT, NY, and MA are non-negotiable no-go areas.

      • Sensei

        You’ll still have to possibly go through those states to go somewhere else in the northeast unfortunately.

      • UnCivilServant

        They’ve taken up atlantic yachting.

    • Dr Mossy Lawn

      Since I am in a NJSP covered location (No local police) they have always been reasonably efficient. No nonsense and the follow the statewide standards.

      The online carry permit renewal was issued within a day after the 4 references were complete.

      Three pistol purchase permits were approved in about a week.

      In reality you could have just asked for the pistol permits at the new address, they issue a new e-FID every time you go though the pistol process, since it is the same validation. Just submit it all, the firearm officer in the PD would rather just do one background check.. not three.

      • Sensei

        Good to know!

        I want some range time with what will be a new pistol and still need to qualify so pistol permit and CCW will months apart.

        The emails have all been today and polite and professional. It’s just they have my original number on the app.

        However, to give the cop credit, he may be asking details about the original issuing town not requested on the app to speed things up.

      • Dr Mossy Lawn

        You can qualify for CCARE with any pistol, they don’t record what you used..

        Technically they ask for the make and serial# when you fill out the form for the cary permit, the form says “as required by statute” but I’ve read the 2023 law and I couldn’t find anywhere where it mandated recording of that information.

        I guess I should get Nappen’s 25th anniversary book and see if it is addressed in there.

        As far as I know the investigation is entirely through the computer database and mental hospitals. They won’t go to the original town.

      • Sensei

        You may want to hold off on the book given the recent 3rd Circuit smack to NJ on magazine capacity and assault weapons.

        It’s likely to be updated. However, it will be interesting to see how NJ will pretend to ignore the decision. So possibly nothing changes.

      • Dr Mossy Lawn

        Nappen maintains all updates from the book on his website, Current litigation, stays etc..

        The question is “will NJ ask for a stay by the 31st?”

        The 3rd circuit en-banc didn’t seem very amenable to waiting for SCOTUS.

        If not, will SCOTUS approve an emergency stay, given their previous two decisions and that they will be deciding Viramontes.

        I suspect NJ will concede the total ban, but immediately treat the AW’s like pistols, and require training and paperwork, they already have a AW possession license on the books, they can administratively activate it, just admit that the “for good purpose” isn’t valid just like it wasn’t valid for Carry.

        Perhaps location requirements like pistols, and Hollow Points.. Home, range, direct necessary travel only, mandatory secure storage when not being “carried”, all to delay the inevitable.

  6. Brochettaward

    Just curious how many here have heard of The Campaign of the Saints?

    I had never heard of it until last night. Just reading the summary it’s funny as fuck how spot on about how the West would deal with a migrant crisis is despite being written in the ’70’s and it’s more proof that leftwing propaganda has been pretty static for decades now. It’s all the same bullshit on repeat for every generation. Slight rebranding of the same bullshit and the nouns change, but it’s all basically the same.

    Modern European governments are not fond of this book (if you can imagine). It was removed from Amazon just a couple months ago before being restored.

    • Sensei

      I read recently about pushback to it. I hadn’t heard about it previously.

    • R.J.

      I saw an article about that book somewhere. It is on my list to get a copy. It does sound very interesting.

    • The Other Kevin

      Oh, is this one of those “banned books” I can find at the front table in my local book store?

      • UnCivilServant

        No, this one is anti-migrant, so the bookstores don’t carry it.

      • The Other Kevin

        So banned-banned, not “banned” banned.

      • Brochettaward

        It seems like there aren’t official bans in place in Europe. I don’t know how widely available it is in America just in terms of translations and prints. But Amazon did remove it and they are probably the top book seller in the world. Can’t be bothered to verify that.

        I wonder if any critics of the book ever stopped and pondered that they seem to just repeat the talking points of the “allies” of the migrants in the books. Like word for word.

      • rhywun

        LOL

  7. Furthest Blue pistoffnick (370HSSV)

    I had dinner with 1 of my 3 estranged children last night. It went well. She wants to see me again next week.

    /cautiously optimistic

    • The Other Kevin

      That is great news. Good luck to you.

      You have me beat, 2 of my 3 are estranged. They are ok checking in with me, but apparently my wife completely ruined their lives because she yelled at them when they were kids or something. Although right now it’s been weeks/months since I heard from them.

      • Drake

        Weird. My 25-year-old son looks at some of his cousins and thanks us for not indulging him when he was a kid.

      • The Other Kevin

        My youngest has repeatedly told us she learned from her sisters’ mistakes growing up. Funny how she did, but they didn’t.

      • UnCivilServant

        Sometimes you can see the cause and effect in the actions of another, since you have no investment or responsibility in the bad decisions.

      • Sensei

        I’ve got issues with my parents. We all do. But I’ve never gotten close to the point I wanted to estranged from them.

        Even when I completely disagreed with them, I always felt they did what they did because they thought it was to my benefit.

      • The Other Kevin

        My wife found an article in the WSJ this week about the possibility of therapists actually causing harm. (We’ve had that discussion here.) She saw a lot about my daughters in that article. We talked about the trend of cutting off “toxic” people from your life. Except by “toxic”, they mean people who disagree with them or hold them accountable.

        My oldest isn’t in therapy, she just doesn’t want people calling her out on her unhealthy lifestyle and her lies. The middle one has been in therapy for years, but somehow she’s as angry and isolated as she’s ever been. I feel like she’s getting worse.

      • UnCivilServant

        Therapists do not have an incentive to help their patients no longer need therapy.

      • kinnath

        Our experience is that you cannot help someone that does not want to be helped. Going to therapy isn’t evidence that they actually want help.

      • Furthest Blue pistoffnick (370HSSV)

        Going to therapy isn’t evidence that they actually want help.

        Not going to therapy is evidence that they don’t want help.

        My psychologist ex-wife refused to go to marriage counselling.

      • R C Dean

        I’ve got issues with my parents. We all do.

        I don’t.

      • Sensei

        I don’t.

        Count your blessing! I meant it more in the sense of disagreements during our relationship. Not so much as relationship defining “issues”.

        OTH, if they are no longer here like my wife parents – by definition – no issues.

      • Fourscore

        I feel blessed that my kids (2) talk to each other and to me. There were difficulties when they were younger, particularly with my daughter. I ignored it and she overcame it. Both consider themselves lucky to have been raised to take responsibility for themselves.

        We’re separated by distance but that doesn’t seem to be a problem. Al Gore solved it so 30 years ago. They’ll be working HH

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Yesterday they laid off all the Risk Advisors in our business unit. How I’ll ever get another project done is now a mystery.

    AI, duh.

  9. R.J.

    “Everyone believes their choices are correct. When the choices are obviously wrong, people have an ability to justify them to themselves. ”

    I am more like you, I see my errors and admit them. You cannot improve unless you do.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Wiki:

    It has also been criticized by both French and English-language commentators for conveying racist, xenophobic, nativist, and anti-immigration themes. The novel is popular within far-right and white nationalist circles.

    Sounds like a right horrorshow piece of lit.

    • Grumbletarian

      The people who rail against the evils of colonization are eagerly on board with the forced colonization of Western nations by wholly incompatible cultures, because skin color.

    • rhywun

      Alternately…

      “The novel is not popular within far-left and black and brown nationalist circles.”

    • R.J.

      OK. I went ahead and bought a copy for 10 bucks off of eBay. I’ll talk about it in the next “What are we reading?”

      • rhywun

        I saw it at Amazon just now FWIW

      • Brochettaward

        To be clear, Amazon removed it and then restored it a few months ago. So it should be readily available there at this point.

      • R.J.

        Jeez! Amazon wants $24-$50 bucks for it! It’s not banned, but the price is Too Damn High!

      • Fourscore

        I can be racist and xenophobic without reading it.

      • rhywun

        12 bucks on Kindle.

        I don’t buy plain prose books anymore and yes that breaks my “anti-subscribe” rules. I have the tools to break my purchases free of Amazon but I have been too lazy to use them.

      • Brochettaward

        It’s probably trivially easy to find a free copy online anyway.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    That’s what you get for being stupid

    A Florida man is suing OpenAI over ChatGPT-generated medical advice, alleging that its flagship chatbot failed to recognize early signs of a medical crisis and nearly caused his death.

    Brought by Scott Winters, a 55-year-old pastor and real estate professional, the lawsuit, which accuses OpenAI of negligence and of engaging in the “unauthorized practice of medicine,” is the first known case to argue that a general use chatbot should be liable for bad medical advice. News of the lawsuit was first reported by The New York Times.

    “I had serious symptoms of a pulmonary embolism for six weeks that ChatGPT had wrongly attributed to something else,” Winters said in a statement. “ChatGPT manipulated my own language and beliefs because it knew I was a pastor. Not only did I nearly die, but I also lost my job, my career, my ministry, my home, everything.”

    Next time ask a conjure lady.

    • Grumbletarian

      I’d be surprised if the response this pastor got didn’t have some kind of qualifier like “While I am not a licensed doctor, I can answer your question.”

      Which this dimwit will say is irrelevant, of course.

      • Grumbletarian

        And there it is:

        and at first, ChatGPT’s responses came with disclaimers encouraging him to seek additional insight from medical professionals.

        But the more he used the chatbot, Winters says, the further those guardrails eroded. The bot stepped “into the role of a medical practitioner,” the lawsuit reads, and “began to offer specific care directives without including the disclaimer to consult a medical provider.” The more Winters consulted ChatGPT about his worsening health, the deeper his trust in the chatbot grew.

      • rhywun

        And yet if he gets this in front of a jury, he’s a millionaire.

    • Brochettaward

      AI kind of mimics back at you and will try to find an answer that’ll get you to shut-up. Like your manager when you come to them with a problem and you continue to talk to them about even after they made it clear they don’t care.

      So it told him go to a doctor, he kept asking, and the AI just desperately wanted sweet silence so it told him whatever to get him to leave it alone. Who can’t relate?

      • Fourscore

        I ignore my doctor, why should I trust AI? That may be where he’s getting his information.

    • (((Jarflax

      Were you aware you were asking an AI when you asked your question? Yes. Case dismissed.

  12. creech

    So LeBron James decided to go to Philly 76ers. He must be sincere about wanting to only win a championship because he chose a location with 6.75% state and local tax vs. 0% in Miami. That will cost him $$millions. Also, he’s a golf fanatic so he passed up being able to play year round in Miami to come play in an area where winter golf is unusual (of course, he’ll be playing b.ball then). I guess the lure of joining Merion or Aronimink or Pine Valley trumped Doral.

    • rhywun

      Isn’t he like 50 years old or something? Seems like he has been around forever.

      • R C Dean

        He’s 41.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Egghead doomporn

    Space datacenters proposed by SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and others would release staggering levels of pollution that would probably alter the Earth’s atmosphere and be “catastrophic” for the planet, space industry experts and environmental groups warn in a new petition demanding a review of their impacts.

    Tech companies have collectively proposed millions of “orbital datacenters” and are pressing forward with plans, which require Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval. Among other issues, pollution from satellites and rockets burning up upon re-entry appears to be accumulating in the stratosphere at alarming levels. The spacecraft release black soot, rare metals, aluminum oxides and other pollutants with unknown effects.

    Some scientists fear the pollution could destroy the ozone layer, potentially expose some people to higher levels of ultraviolet radiation, or help further destabilize the planet during the climate crisis. The pollution could also end up back on Earth, and millions of satellites would create a major source of light pollution.

    What if all those satellites provide shade and save us from global warming? That would be bad, too, I guess.

    Progressives sure squawk about progress.

    • R.J.

      That is an awful lot of commie fapping. Get out the bleach wipes!

    • Brochettaward

      I like how life is continuing pretty normally across the globe, but they’ve moved past the “doom is coming” to “doom is here.” We are in the midst of the climate crisis. Can’t you feel it?

      • R.J.

        Excellent sarcasm. It’s always about 100 F when I mow the lawn. Limp-wristed Euro commies should just move somewhere cooler if that is what they want.

      • EvilSheldon

        Actually it’s really nice out today. I think I’ll sneak out early and go shooting.

    • rhywun

      I thought we already destroyed the ozone layer.

      • UnCivilServant

        Turns out the Antarctic ozone hole was natural due to the lack of the necessary amounts of the right kind of solar radiation causing the formation of ozone in the upper atmosphere.

        I want my Chloroflorocarbons back

      • Sensei

        Those refrigerants were going to go off patent anyhow.

        What’s important is that there are new refrigerants with new patents!

      • R.J.

        Me too. Dammit, Freon worked a million times better than the new stuff!

    • R C Dean

      Well, SpaceX rockets don’t burn up on re-entry, so we don’t have to worry about that.

      But they are basically saying “Don’t put anything in orbit for any reason.” To which I reply “Fuck you. May your bloodline end with your generation.”

      • Sensei

        No, but the satellites the put in LEO are designed with a finite life and to be deorbited and burn up.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    My wife found an article in the WSJ this week about the possibility of therapists actually causing harm.

    There is an untold story (which will remain so) about my younger brother which supports this hypothesis.

    • R C Dean

      I find it to be almost trivially true. As near as I can tell, most therapy consists of relentlessly picking at psychic scabs. How that is supposed to be beneficial, I have no idea. It is all too easy, however, to imagine how it can be harmful.

  15. Brochettaward

    If your wife and you were at an event, and a salsa dancer came up and asked her to dance and she felt it’d be rude to say no (her version) and began to grind away on him in front of everyone, would you take that as a sign of disrespect?

    Social media scenario. The men are like 80-20 yes because while women will call any women who doesn’t side with feminist bullshit a “pick-me,” there are very real “pick-me’s” among men. Cucks and men who think by saying the same dumb shit that women claim to believe (because their revealed preferences tend to be different), they’ll get access to them. The women of course say something completely different. It’s insecurity and childish etc.

    I can’t think of any sort of boundary that I’ve seen a women claim online that the females in the comment section didn’t overwhelmingly support. Opposite for men.

    • UnCivilServant

      Stay away from those parts of the internet.

      Femisist Social Media commentary is easy to predict – women can do no wrong unless they side with men, men can do no right, even if they side with women.

      • DEG

        Seconded.

    • DEG

      If your wife and you were at an event, and a salsa dancer came up and asked her to dance and she felt it’d be rude to say no (her version) and began to grind away on him in front of everyone, would you take that as a sign of disrespect?

      Grinding crosses a line no matter what.

      If the event is a dance event, i.e. a Salsa or Swing dance, people mingle and dance with each other. Couples will dance with folks that they aren’t in a relationship with. However, grinding against someone you’re not in a relationship with crosses a line.

  16. Brochettaward

    Ben Shapiro isn’t even trying anymore. Think that link will work, but who knows.

    You can tell Israel pays him well because he doesn’t even care about his dwindling audience. And it sure as fuck isn’t principle.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    I get all my health and wellness advice from carnival geeks and rodeo clowns. It’s worked great so far.

  18. R.J.

    “For take the common man; when asked whether he is stupid or intelligent, not one will confess to being stupid; or again, when asked whether he is just or unjust, not one will say that he is unjust. In the same way, if one asks him whether he is temperate or intemperate, he replies at once that he is temperate; and finally, if one asks whether he is good or bad, he would say that he is good, even though he can name no teacher of virtue or mention any study or practice of virtue he has ever made.”

    I actually do not think that way. I feel I am an idiot, and have a slant towards mayhem which I must control regularly.

    • UnCivilServant

      I have both a vengeful streak and a strong conscience. I must restrain the first because I regret everything indefinately, even after the other parties have forgotten the incident utterly.

      I am chaotic but prefer order that I am unable to impose.

      I am seriously unjust, as that vengeful streak makes me inclined to harsh punishments in excess of the crimes. I expect others to be at least as intelligent or more intelligent than I am, even as they prove otherwise.

      I cannot name one teacher, because I have observed many examples of both good and ill morals and assembled the bevy of semi-anonymous to anonymous sources in my own synthesis. I cannot claimed to have studied the philosophies of Euithikós as I have done no such thing. I even just made it up as a Greek name meaning “good morals”.

  19. Sean

    #ows885 🔎 5/5 (00:53)
    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
    🔥 streak: 3
    puzzlist.com/onewordsearch

    • R.J.

      Honda tied their star to California and hence they reap the penalties. I wish they would figure a way to free themselves from that horrible deal.

      • Sensei

        Look at what Toyota has been forced to do. They have the same buzzy 4 banger in many of their Lexus models.

        It’s got an engine cover and expensive motor mounts, but it is still far from “luxury”.

        We all know what has happened with their compliant “large” motor the turbo V6!

      • R.J.

        I don’t know how Mopar did it, but somehow they manage to avoid that California curse. Although there is the foolish decision of winding down on the Pentastar to replace it with the Hurricane 6. The Pentastar should be kept until the cows come home.

  20. DEG

    it seems there is a two-tiered justice system arising

    It has been there for a long time. The tiers have changed and thanks to the Internet it’s easier to get information about the differences out.

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