If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
August 13
“You’ve endured countless troubles—all from not letting your ruling reason do the work it was made for—enough already!”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 9.26
I have enough problems sometimes. Adding to them unnecessarily is counterproductive. I said something this week that my wife got upset about. This is a rare thing for her. I am not sure what upset her, but I know she misinterpreted something I said and was a little stand offish one day. I started to get upset about that, but realized I would create more problems by getting angry at something I couldn’t control. After thinking about it this way, I acted normally towards her and by the end of the day, we were back to normal.
August 14
“Philosophy isn’t a parlor trick or made for show. It’s not concerned with words, but with facts. It’s not employed for some pleasure before the day is spent, or to relieve the uneasiness of our leisure.
It shapes and builds up the soul, it gives order to life, guides action, shows what should and shouldn’t be done—it sits at the rudder steering our course as we vacillate in uncertainties. Without
it, no one can live without fear or free from care. Countless things happen every hour that require advice, and such advice is to be sought out in philosophy.”
—SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 16.3
I don’t study Stoicism for fun. I don’t do it to impress others. I do it to improve my outlook on life and improve how I relate to the outside world. It has truly helped me to make positive improvement in many areas. I have not found a better way for me to control anger and be able to deal with external forces I cannot control.
August 15
“This can be swiftly taught in very few words: virtue is the only good; there is no certain good without virtue; and virtue resides in our nobler part, which is the rational one. And what can this virtue be? True and steadfast judgment. For from this will arise every mental impulse, and by it every appearance that spurs our impulses will be rendered clear.”
—SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 71.32
I try to be an honest person and do the “right” thing all the time. This is the foundation my version of Stoicism is based on. If I control my thoughts and desires using this, my moral code is very easy to follow. When I allow myself to think of other things, I actually have to decide to do the right thing. As long as I use proper judgement, my choices are simple and I am happier as a result.
August 16
“Just as the nature of rational things has given to each person their rational powers, so it also gives us this power—just as nature turns to its own purpose any obstacle or any opposition, sets its place in the destined order, and co-opts it, so every rational person can convert any obstacle into the raw material for their own purpose.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.35
Before I had surgery in December, I had swelling making it hard to work out and it was also difficult to work on my truck. I had an infection after the surgery that kept me on the couch for 8 weeks.This led to me being as weak as a kitten. I use this memory to help me work out and run on schedule. It also helped me to be more kind to my mother as she is trying to rehabilitate after chemo.
August 17
“For nothing outside my reasoned choice can hinder or harm it—my reasoned choice alone can do this to itself. If we would lean this way whenever we fail, and would blame only ourselves and remember that nothing but opinion is the cause of a troubled mind and uneasiness, then by God, I swear we would be making progress.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.19.2–3
Whose fault is it when I get angry at the world? If I can remember it is mine, I can control it and not get as angry. I also have to remember that things outside of my control do not care if I get upset, so that is a waste of energy and stress. When I talked to my mom, I did get a little heated about her concern for “cases”, but I did control myself enough to not cause a rift.
August 18
“A good person is invincible, for they don’t rush into contests in which they aren’t the strongest. If you want their property, take it—take also their staff, profession, and body. But you will never
compel what they set out for, nor trap them in what they would avoid. For the only contest the good person enters is that of their own reasoned choice. How can such a person not be invincible?”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.6.5–7
Sometimes it is wise to pick my battles. I can jump into an argument with true believers, and have no chance to show them facts and actually convince them, or I can let them talk so I can try to learn if there is a solid basis for what they believe. As long as I control my mind and reactions, no one can upset me.
August 19
“It is said that if you would have peace of mind, busy yourself with little. But wouldn’t a better saying be do what you must and as required of a rational being created for public life? For this brings
not only the peace of mind of doing few things, but the greater peace of doing them well. Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility. As a result, we shouldn’t forget at each moment to ask, is this one of the unnecessary
things? But we must corral not only unnecessary actions but unnecessary thoughts, too, so needless acts don’t tag along after them.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.24
What do I do that is unnecessary? I watch too much TV and YouTube. I read too much for fun and not enough for education. I also don’t believe cutting all of these out would be a benefit in the long run. It is important to be able to understand what is necessary and what is fluff and maintain a balance. As far as unnecessary thoughts, I try not to waste my thinking on immoral desires or impractical ones.
Music this week is from a band we listened to a lot on our road trip back and forth to Deep Creek Lake MD.
Ethics
Doing the right thing when no one is watching
Can I do the wrong thing when people are watching? I never get to do the wrong thing.
Why not? Our Congressmen and Senators do it ALL the time!
You’re welcome to pull a Toobin in the Zoom tonight.
I’m currently having a back and forth with someone about the differences between ethical and legal. They seem to have difficulty differentiating.
Throw in moral.
“The ethical man knows he shouldn’t cheat on his wife, whereas the moral man actually wouldn’t.”
— Dr. “Ducky” Mallard, NCIS
Putting people in jail for possessing a natural weed: legal, but is it ethical?.
Ejecting people from public spaces based on skin color: was once legal. Would this person consider that ethical?
Slavery was once legal. Adultery was once illegal. It is legal for members of Congress to trade securities that will be effected by legislation they are writing.
It’s actually the inverse that they’re struggling with.
I find something to be unethical so they think I believe it should be illegal.
This is in reference to the reintroduction of the smallpox vaccine for monkeypox and pushing it for children. I think it’s unethical, so their immediate criticism was “Why do you want to make it illegal to obtain?”
That’s Stockholm syndrome from years of living in the U.S., constantly being subjected to people who ban shit on both sides of the fence. Drugs bad! Alcohol bad! Gasoline bad! Cigarettes bad! Guns bad!
My perception of this guy is that he’s a cosmotarian who has an immediate distrust of people with non-libertine tendencies.
Well, just lean over and set his hair on fire when nobody is looking.
I use slavery in the 1800’s as an example of the difference.
100% legal, 100% immoral and unethical.
also Dredd Vs. Scott and Jim Crow laws.
Now do we have an example of something that is ethical but immoral? Or vice versa?
Taxation: legal, considered ethical. But clearly immoral stealing of other’s hard labor.
Ethical by who?
That is an issue with morals and ethics unless you want to legislate them.
Would this person be a lawyer by any chance?
Stoic Iron Maiden fan. Epic as always, Ron!
They were my first “Heavy Metal” band.
My cousin introduced me to The Number of the Beast when it was new, I was 13 or 14 and I still listen to the often.
I was talking with my mom about my cousin, I hadn’t seen or talked to him since I was 16.
I asked her if she knew how he was doing, and I commented, “It wouldn’t surprise me if he was in jail”.
My mom said he had straightened up and was doing real well, and he would probably say the same thing about me.
I started meeting friends from school again about 15 years ago. Most of them are doing OK. People rebound from crazy times more than we think.
Him and I were weed smoking idiots back then, but I was glad to hear he’s doing well.
He was a lot of fun to get in trouble with.
“This can be swiftly taught in very few words: virtue is the only good; there is no certain good without virtue; and virtue resides in our nobler part, which is the rational one. And what can this virtue be? True and steadfast judgment. For from this will arise every mental impulse, and by it every appearance that spurs our impulses will be rendered clear.”
I like this one. Simple, but covers a lot of ground.
Thanks, Ron!
I think that describes many Stoic tenets.
The Iron Sheik’s stoicism.
Thanks Ron!
You’re welcome.
“I said something this week that my wife got upset about. This is a rare thing for her. I am not sure what upset her, but I know she misinterpreted something I said”
I have to be careful what I say to my wife. Sometimes I tease her and she takes it literally. Occasional misunderstandings because of language differences. It’s often very quiet around my house.
Fortunately I control myself and do what she says, seems to be the safe mode.
Thanks Ron, for reminding me of my imperfections, few that they are.
I am rife with imperfections. I’d rather not think about them right now.
My wife is usually not sensitive(if she was she wouldn’t have dated me very long).
This time, we were discussing visiting my youngest brother’s family and she said we couldn’t go because hi wife would need time to clean.
I said, “she’s not as bad as you about that”, somehow this hurt her feelings, but I didn’t mean it as a negative towards my wife, and because she took it that way an apology would be useless.
“…because she took it that way an apology would be useless.”
You might be surprised.
No, I know my wife.
She would ask why I am apologizing and it would start something.
28 years of marriage and I think this is the third time she has been mad at me for something like this.
Right on, right on.
Three times in 28 doesn’t sound too bad! 😂🤣
Well if he had done it one more time, he could be the Seven Year Bitch.
What is the proper way to say “Make me a sammich?”
These weekly lessons are wonderful. Your efforts to relate them to your life helps to give me some context as well as a way seek to apply them.
Thanks,
By the way Maiden still rocks. I have them on my calendar for October in NJ. It’s become a yearly event for me and a group I met at the first show 10 or so years ago.
Seconded. I’d hang around and comment more but work is heating up. Thanks Ron!
I’ve seen them a few times, always a great show.
The wheels of the newcular gods grind exceedingly slow…I want one of these to power my house.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tiny-modular-nuclear-reactor-just-184500363.html
If it gets small enough will the Nucleon be revived?
That should be just enough to power the flux capacitor.
Good news!
Now the econuts will sue against any actually being built.
This winter will be instructive for the econuts.
“T’was the winter of our discount tent…”
“The NuScale team spent over 2 million labor hours to develop the information needed to prepare the design certification application, which included 12,000 pages, 14 topical reports, and had over 2 million pages of supporting information,” Diane Hughes, vice president of marketing and communications for NuScale, tells Popular Mechanics by email. “In turn, the NRC spent over a quarter-million staff hours reviewing the application. That said, the NRC review process took 42 months, which was the fastest design review in the NRC’s history.” Hughes attributes this feat to NuScale’s simple design.
America: we get things done.
Eventually…..usually after the reason it was started in the first place was forgotten or no longer relevant.
Yeah, stuff like this makes it obvious why the industry has been at a standstill. Making these modular and simple as possible means they can be “pre-approved” and will shorten the overall review process (which is still going to be a major time and money suck, I assume, just not as bad as usual).
The mythical man month. Not just for computer projects.
In a major earthquake, how long does the shaking itself last, exclusive of foreshocks and aftershocks?
It feels a lot longer than it actually is.
I was in 29 Palms and we had a 7 or 8 earthquake and I might have panicked.
My wife says I was running in circles around the couch.
Maybe it was as bad as you feared, you were remaining still and the couch was circling you?
I’ll have to remember that next time she mentions it.
I saw a ground wave cross a field during the Whittier quake in 87.
87… so no chance of a video I guess.
I don’t know what the school policy on cameras was. I couldn’t afford one.
Holy shit.
That would be an impressive thing to see.
Check later in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t2xxKMN-Ic
Hell, check the whole thing.
Liquefaction is eerie.
LOL. When I was dating my wife in San Diego we had about a 6 or so hit in the middle of the night.
I got up and stood in the doorway, she began running around the apartment, collecting her valuables.
The quake stopped and I asked her if she was going to put everything back before coming to bed.
You have a comfortable couch?
To answer your question.
Long enough to shit your pants.
Ain’t that the truth.
You are standing in a large glass atrium with much hanging ornamentation …
10-20 seconds for the ones I recall.
Thank you.
In most of the world: too long.
In DC and under CCP HQ, not long enough.
I’m just brainstorming ways to shake up a story I’m working on. (Pun intended)
Ponder it over a nice gin and tonic, and since you’re in IT, make it with tech tonic.
Not a rum and OpenCola?
When will LibreCola fork?
When Oracle acquires OpenCola.
They feel longer than they are. The start of major quakes also feel like most minor quakes. You get a little shaking like a train or heavy truck passing then a few seconds later the big waves hit. If it wasn’t too bad you hope it isn’t a foreshock. If it was bad you hope the aftershocks are minor.
The PoV character in the story wouldn’t have a frame of reference for a train or truck, but I can work with that, thank you.
Yer doin’ it right! ;^) Wait, were you still taking about earthquakes?
You know who else felt the earth. move. under. her feet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6913KnbMpHM
Funny, but enraging at the same time.
Re: belly scritches fot kittehs and Calvin and Hobbes from the last thread:
Pointy ends
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2020/09/12
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2021/04/15
I swear there are a lot of people who subscribe to that method nowadays.
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2015/08/08
Or this one.
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/09/29
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/salman-rushdie-stabbed-appearance-new-york/
Damn. All these years and someone finally tagged him.
Last I heard it was still only “Stabbed”. Stabbed is not dead. Stabbed is not good, or healthy, but it’s still a fixable state until otherwise indicated.
Was way too open about where he would be, including NYC saunas.
Saunas?
Obligatory.
Interesting that it happened right now, decades after the fatwah, when the Israelis are screaming bloody murder about about the Saudis and UAE making nice with Iran as well as the Iran nuclear deal revival in the works.
I’m just saying that there are a lot of parties who would like to see Iran get some bad press at the moment.
*buys more tinfoil, looks for property in Montana*
Back to raising rabbits?
*tinfoil hat swells like heated Jiffy Pop
I’d think the $3million bounty would be enough incentive, no conspiracy needed. And since it was a scheduled appearance, it wouldn’t require vast resources to locate the “target.”
At least they didn’t say what hospital he was airlifted to. They commented that he was “getting the care he needs.”
Too late, I’ve already written my manifesto and found my shack in the wilderness.
I would advise against publishing any manifesto. I have already written mine, and all of your work will only be eclipsed by its greatness. It will be several centuries before anyone will care about any other manifesto again.
My manifesto is in sonnet form and future generations will refer to me as the transracial Shakespeare of the 21st century.
Sonnet form?
Wouldn’t that be a manifirsto?
🤔
Wait… did he have a big ruby ring in his finger? Maybe it wasn’t the fatwa after all…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n_GOaRaTaJo
“The DoJ and the FBI would do well to explain what went on on Monday night and why. But in so many ways the damage is already done. Even if this unprecedented raid turns out to be entirely unjaundiced by the intense political climate surrounding it, there are many Americans who simply won’t believe what they’re being told. After years of watching the elites go berserk, desperately trying to put Trump and the deplorables back in their basket, you almost can’t blame them. Blame the elites, who after years of demonizing ordinary people now have the gall to demand their trust.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/11/the-mar-a-lago-raid-is-a-dangerous-moment-for-america/
good quick article on how the US is looking like a Dole based republic.
And spot on.
The Dems will get away with it if they ensure no Republican ever becomes president again. Watch the swing states carefully.
Strangely topical comic for today. Do we have yet another lurker?
SEcONDING. HUAH. WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR…ABSOLUTELY NOTHING…
The warrant and raid results are out
Not sketchy at all. Big, big fuck up.
Interesting.
More on that:
https://twitter.com/mrddmia/status/1558157587165589504
If they really did ask Trump to put an additional lock on it, then this looks even worse for the politicized DOJ because it implies that it was known what he had taken from the White House. Sounds like it was stuff he might need in putting together the customary Presidential Library.
Did we discuss the John Bolton “revelation” that Iran has him targeted for death. He wants to overthrow them, no surprise there. He isn’t wrong about killing the nuclear arms discussions. The former deal during the Obama era was worse than pointless and only fed more terrorisms in the region.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/john-bolton-target-in-alleged-iran-assassination-plot-urges-us-to-stop-nuclear-deal-talks-224843967.html
Jealous of the attention Rushdie’s getting?
Can we give them Bolton to get them to lay off Rushdie (if he survives)?
Who *wouldn’t* be OK with it if John Bolton kicked it?
Excellent magic trick:
https://twitter.com/PubityIG/status/1556323693780996098
Security system meets security system
https://twitter.com/pups_Puppies1/status/1557272476786331649
LOL
Awesome!
Love the head tilt.
That’s hilarious.
This might have been shared on Glibs earlier, but I just found it yesterday. It’s a long slog, but well worth bookmarking to read later.
It’s called “The Corruption of Medicine” and deals with the shift in physician education and real medical science to racial “equity” and the implications therein.
https://www.city-journal.org/the-corruption-of-medicine
For the rest of my life, I am going to try to make sure my doctors are old enough to have actually studied and practiced medicine.