Daily Stoic: Cimerlini’s etching “The Aviary Of Death...”

In Giovanni Paolo Cimerlini’s etching "The Aviary of Death," a skeleton perched on a rock is setting a series of snares. The snares look like they are for birds, but they aren’t. These snares are for the group of people lounging and enjoying themselves in the foreground of the park. One man plays a flute. Another reads a book to a beautiful woman. The snares are death, and the parkgoers look shockingly stupid, clearly unaware of the traps being set for them. In fact, one man has already been caught and doesn’t know it. http://sarah-sauvin.com/images/stories/virtuemart/product/cimerlini_oisellerie-de-la-mort.jpg The point: Death is after us and most of us are embarrassingly ignorant of that fact, denying our obvious mortality because it makes us uncomfortable. There is another message in the engraving too. In the background, another skeleton chases a group of ladies. Clearly these ladies are terrified—not ignorant of their mortality—but they are running from the skeleton...straight into a net. The point there: You can fear death all you want, and it will still get you. Memento mori. Marcus Aurelius would say that death wasn’t something to be scared of (to deny its existence because you were scared of it): “It makes no difference whether you look at the world for this long or that long…” he said, so “death shouldn’t scare you.” Again, that’s not nihilism. It’s the opposite. In fact, the last lines of his Meditations deal with how to think about life and death. We can imagine, perhaps, that they were the last words he ever wrote. “To be sent away from [life], not by a tyrant or a dishonest judge, but by Nature, who first invited you in—why is that so terrible?...So make your exit with grace—the same grace shown to you.” Death is the final act in our play of life. No need to fear it. You know it’s coming. Just make sure you act the hell out of your role while you’re here.

Signing off for this week good citizens, have a safe and blessed weekend everyone! SM1/JoMike

Signing off for this week good citizens, have a safe and blessed weekend everyone! SM1/JoMike
by Jm Moran

February 23, 2018 at 10:00PM
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Today’s Stoic: “There is no Tomorrow...”

We’ve all had that friend: the one who is perpetually planning. They have elaborate plans for their health, their finances, their work, their friendships, their relationships. Plan after plan after plan. And yet, time passes, and nothing changes. Epictetus posed the best retort to the “diet starts tomorrow” issue: "How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?" Get impatient with yourself. Figure out why you aren’t changing and then change. Get started living—not preparing to live—the life you want.

Today’s Stoic: “How to Change Your Life...”

It was today in 1965 that Malcolm X was gunned down while delivering a speech in a New York City ballroom. Perhaps the most controversial of the Civil Rights leaders, Malcolm was a complicated man. His early life was defined by crime, liqueur and violence and it was a story that ended, as it ends for so many, in a prison cell. But in that cell, Malcolm Little, as he was then called, picked up a book...and then another book...and then another. “People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book,” he would say later. In fact, he would come to refer to “books” rather than college as his “alma mater.” We don’t know if Malcolm read the Stoics as some Civil Rights leaders did, but we know that he drank deeply from history and philosophy and religion and as a result, he came to at least one conclusion that sounds like it could have come from Marcus or Seneca or Epictetus. “There is no better than adversity,” he said. “Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.” It’s true. The impediment to action advances action. The obstacle is the way. We need to understand this simple but completely counterintuitive idea, and then we need to impute it onto our DNA and mind. Because, to paraphrase Malcolm, when we change our philosophy we change our attitude and when we change our attitude, we change our actions. And then, as he did, we can change ourselves and change the world.

Michael Oberndorf column “The 51st state: denial”...

Michael Oberndorf column The 51st state: denial Michael Oberndorf Michael Oberndorf February 19, 2018 Denial is not a river in Egypt. Denial is a psychological condition where the person or persons suffering from it refuse to acknowledge that a problem or reality exists. Alcoholics are really good at this. They don't have a drinking problem. It's the rest of the world that has the problem. But over the past 30 or 40 years, Americans of all sorts have entered into what amounts to a state of national denial. For instance, the majority of Americans are patriotic capitalists, but we have allowed the Ministry of Leftist Propaganda, aka, the "mainstream" media, to convince us that we are a minority. This, in spite of election after election empirically indicating otherwise. And on the flip side of this, in spite of election after election having the candidates who claim to be conservative, patriotic capitalists that we put into office, almost immediately upon taking said office, vote with the communist/fascist cabal to spend, spend, borrow and spend, and take away our God-given freedoms. There's a reality that exists here, a genuine problem, that we seem unable to admit to ourselves. Denial. I mentioned the communist/fascist cabal. This is made up of most of the country's elected Democrats and a large portion of the elected Republicans, especially those in positions of "leadership," and an enormous group of multi-millionaires and billionaires "donors" who have essentially bought and paid for the politicians. They are milking the treasury dry – our hard-earned tax money – for their own benefit, using government to do it with things like Obama's "stimulus," ObamaCare, and "green energy." Again, there's a reality that exists here, a genuine problem, that we seem unable to admit to ourselves, and therefore, do little, if anything to correct. Denial. Murder in parts of America, especially in the cities run by the aforementioned Democrats is totally out of control. We have lost more Americans in Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, St. Louis, etc., than in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined. Instead of replacing the corrupt cabal members who allow this situation to continue, we accept their claims that there's nothing they can do to stop it, and that if we point out it's nearly all black and Hispanic gang related, then we are racist, and a bigger problem than the rampant mass murder that has come to characterize Life in the Big City. Denial. We deny, too, that we have allowed the left to intentionally degrade our culture, using Lenin's Big Three: Education, Entertainment, and the News Media. We choose not to recognize the fact that fully half the children who "graduate" from high schools are functionally illiterate, especially those from inner-city, Democrat-run, urban schools. We cannot seem to admit to ourselves that the constant barrage of movies and TV shows produced by Hollyweird and the TV networks all have messages that promote drugs, violence, promiscuous sex, anti-capitalism, anti-American revisionist history, and collectivism has undermined our morals and traditions. And perhaps worst of all – although the alternate media, like the site where you are reading this, are turning this around – far too many people cannot seem to grasp that the "mainstream" media, the newspapers, the AP, and the TV networks are in reality a virtual Ministry of Leftist Propaganda, spewing out an ever-growing stream of lies, and distortions, all aimed at undermining our free, capitalist, constitutional, democratic republic. Denial. We can't seem to get our minds to accept that our once-shining culture has become, thanks to the conspirators mentioned above, degenerate. Can you name America's great contemporary author? Playwright? Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Composer? No? Perhaps this is because the Ministry of Leftist Propaganda and their fellow travelers in Academia have replaced achievement with mediocrity and talent with "celebrity." Denial. However, what seems to be the area of deepest denial is the fact that these individuals and groups are NOT a loyal opposition, are NOT patriotic Americans who simply have a different viewpoint, are NOT people with America's best interests at heart, and that the goal of ALL of these traitors is the imposition of a totalitarian, collectivist police state. Serious denial. One last area of denial: that these problems will go away by themselves, or that someone else will fix them for us. Fatal denial. We have made some small steps towards taking back our country, our traditions, our history, and our lives. The Tea Parties were a good start, and so was electing Donald Trump. But we need to understand in our hearts and souls what Benjamin Franklin meant when he answered the question regarding what the Continental Congress had bestowed upon, We, the People, with, "A republic, if you can keep it." And, regardless of who actually said it, we must never forget, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." A small price, indeed. The son of a German immigrant, Michael Oberndorf is an archaeologist by profession, with a BA from Metropolitan State College of Denver, and an MA from Leicester University, in England. He's also the Chairman of the Freedom21 Legislative Committee. Over the years, he has lived and worked all over the country, and traveled in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. He sincerely believes in the old saying, "America, love it or leave it." Michael can be reached at: moberndorf@yahoo.com

The Coyote Principle...or...Dem is as dem does!

THE COYOTE PRINCIPLE California 1. The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor's dog, then bites the Governor. 2. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural. 3. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the state $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it. 4. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases. 5. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged. 6. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals. 7. The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote awareness program" for residents of the area. 8. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world. 9. The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The state spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training on the nature of coyotes 10. PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files a $5 million suit against the state. Texas 1. The Governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog 2. The Governor shoots the coyote with his state-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge. 3. The buzzards eat the dead coyote. And that, my friends, is why California is broke while Texas prospers.

Today’s Stoic: “How Not To Be Angry...”

The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn has written about how our denial of impermanence is what makes anger and resentment possible. We think we have unlimited time, and therefore the luxury of being mad at someone, or furthering some feud. “If we spend twenty four hours being angry at our beloved,” he wrote, “it is because we are ignorant of impermanence.” Let every thought be the thought of a dying man, the Stoics say, over and over again. A dying man doesn’t have twenty four hours to be angry. A person who realizes how fragile life is doesn’t take chances in saying things they’ll have to apologize for—because they know they might not get to. There are many reasons to be a good person, but perhaps the best one might be the fact that this could be your very last opportunity. Do the nice thing now—not later. Don’t hang onto anger you know you’re going to let go of later—let go of it right this second. Don’t contribute to some tit-for-tat argument that you know you’ll both acknowledge was a mistake at the end—stop it now. We don’t have the luxury. Life is impermanent...but this moment isn’t.