Stephen > Recent Status Updates

Seneca judges that liberal education prepares the way for students to acquire moral values, just as "grammar school" prepares the way for liberal education.

> Am I supposed to feel anxious when Saturn and Mercury are in opposition or Mercury sets in the evening in full view of Saturn, instead of coming to learn that bodies like these are equally propitious wherever they are, and incapable of change in any case.
Chad Seneca, holding to the Ptolemaic model (what alternatives at that time?) but rejecting astrology anyway.

> Am I supposed to feel anxious when Saturn and Mercury are in opposition or Mercury sets in the evening in full view of Saturn, instead of coming to learn that bodies like these are equally propitious wherever they are, and incapable of change in any case.
Chad Seneca, holding to the Ptolemaic model (what alternatives at that time?) but rejecting astrology anyway.

Gardner sure loves the word "animadversion" - he uses it in at least three or four separate essays!

Of course this ends with a fucking Indian teepee vision quest thing 🤪

The gang discovers, via remote viewing of biological/chemical weapons canisters, the cause of Gulf War Syndrome. The problem of course is that this is a narrative, published in 1996, and a Congressional report on the causes of GWS was published in 1994, so it's hard to say what was genuine about the Stargate results.

> "I'm supposed to make you do your summary before seeing this, but I'm going to violate the protocol just this once."
Great experimental design

David has night terror; David believes it was more than a mere dream; Debbie calls out the name of Jesus to help; David asks why she did that; Debbie freaks out and says she doesn't even know David anymore

100% normal human interaction

> Every night I told Debbie all the particulars of the day's training and let her read my secretly copied notes.
Morehouse is terrible at this whole "safeguaringd classified information" thing

> "It sounds to me like you are going stark raving mad and you've found some military unit willing to watch you do it while they take notes."
I'm with Debbie on this tbh

Book:
> [W]e were in Jordan training Jordanian Rangers—probably to kill Israelis
This scene is set in 1987 and the book was published in 1996.

Wikipedia says Jordan renounced any territorial claims against Israel in 1988, and signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. 🤔

> Maybe success comes from following one's destiny.
Maybe only if success *is* one's destiny you ding-dong

> My father taught me […] the most critical aspect of leadership. Without it you are only a manager; this is the plight of many of today's military executives. These men taught me how to lead.
Semantic gore

> Grinning in the darkness I mumbled, "I'm becoming a time traveler." Even *I* struggled to believe it.
same tbh

Also weird shit let's go

Seneca claims that pain is endurable because it becomes self-destroying (i.e. intense pain eventually kills the sensation). Is this true? It certainly seems like it could be in *some* cases.

"The men who pioneered the old routes are leaders, not our masters. Truth lies open to everyone."

Apparently there was a saying, even in Ancient Rome, that the winter holiday season "used to be a month but is now a year" - no department stores and marketing departments required!

The modern "how to be a real man" gurus wish they were 1% of a Seneca.

Dark elves more like Warhammer 40,000 than Drow (except for the evil spiders, that's the same). Also Moon seems to have a consistent theme of overcoming trauma, aided by people who understand and empathize. It's refreshing to see!

It's remarkable how well Paks's arc follows a Dungeons & Dragons character progression :)

In our world, LDS members invite you to play basketball

In Paks's world, Girdsmen invite you to practice weapons drill

Still very "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons," but in a good way. Exploring weird ruins in the mountains!

SHEEPFARMER'S DAUGHTER complete, 3.5 stars rounded down.

Southward ho! Duke Phelan's going to go full Sherman on the Honeycat!

Now in many ways like a low magic, ground level partner to THE BLACK COMPANY. Paks is slowly leveling up to paladin :)

Military fantasy that really reminds me of THE BLACK COMPANY in certain ways (Moon and Cook were actually in the US military, for one) but Moon here (and in ONCE A HERO) deals very forthrightly with sexual violence. Already!

An interesting consequence of this conspiracy theory is how, because the theory is so totalizing, robs history's obvious villains of agency because their crimes never would have happened if not for the (((international bankers)))... just one of the less immediate but morally disgusting elements of the book.

Conspiracy sleight of hand: yes, many "great men" of history were real bastards, and things don't go the way one might prefer... therefore every hypocritical powerbroker bastard is *actually* a puppet of (((international bankers)))?? It doesn't follow at all, but to the fertile imagination and reactionary character boy does it *feel* true.

> In order to understand the conspiracy it is necessary to have some rudimentary knowledge of banking
Uh oh
> and, particularly, of international bankers.
Oh fuck here we go