patrick.net

Finally finished Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

The Byzantine Empress Theodora started out as an actress and prostitute.

She wished for a fourth alter on which she might pour libations to the god of love.

Woah. Rather roundabout way of saying she enjoyed it every which way.

Patrick says

She wished for a fourth alter on which she might pour libations to the god of love.

Woah. Rather roundabout way of saying she enjoyed it every which way.

Musta been a squirter.

Ceffer says

Musta been a squirter.

Patnet members opinions of squirters... anyone?

I have not experienced this squirting phenomenon.

Patrick says

I have not experienced this squirting phenomenon.

Well put it on your bucket list...Its pretty amazing.

Finished Decline and Fall and now I'm on to Fredereic Bastiat's "The Law".

30 pages in and it's very good. Didn't know they had socialism and communism in 1850.

Patrick says

Finished Decline and Fall and now I'm on to Fredereic Bastiat's "The Law".

30 pages in and it's very good. Didn't know they had socialism and communism in 1850.

Hi Patrick is this the one? I saw several different books with that title, just want to get the right one, same one you reading basically.
https://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-Roman-Empire/dp/1354279492/

I'd recommend this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_International_Jew

(there's tons of copies online).

Would also recommend The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

I have a particular fascination with what is considered banned, subversive, or propaganda. Rules for Radicals is a particularly hated book that I was told was filled with horrifically immoral, dastardly devious advice. The simple truth is, there's a lot of people that don't want you to read it. That's true of MOST books that are denounced.

FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut says

Hi Patrick is this the one? I saw several different books with that title, just want to get the right one, same one you reading basically.
https://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-Roman-Empire/dp/1354279492/

@FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut No, it's this one:

He really challenged my vocabulary, using a lot of words in archaic ways ("specious" means "good-looking" and "insensibly" means "gradually" for examples).

But you don't need to get every word or turn of phrase to enjoy it.

Patrick says

KgK one says

Side off tract:

Warriner's English Grammar and Composition. Should I get it for My daughters, they will be taking SAT in few years. ? I guess it can help with grammer.


Big issue has been reading comprehension. That's hard to learn, kids been reading tons of books mostly fiction but it might help.
Math I got 800, so helping them with it . One can get 720in 7th grade so I am OK with it

Yes, I would recommend "Warriner's English Grammar and Composition" though the version I have is from 1962. Hopefully it's not changed too much.

It pretty much hasn't changed from the '60's. For that matter, that was the high point of American English; everything else subsequent to this was downhill.

Back before the SAT was PC'd to uselessness, the vocabulary part was chock full of words that used Greek or Latin cognates. All you had to do was memorize about several hundred of these to ace the vocab section.

Interestingly enough, MENSA considers any SAT exam after the early 90's to be invalid proof of IQ. IFAIR, that's when we began the long slide into national and cultural bullshit.

Yes, wokeness has destroyed academic integrity.

Fortunately, it's never entirely over. We can and must fight back against the evil of wokeness.

Wokeness is a religion as harmful to free speech and human progress as medieval Catholicism or Wahhabi Islam. And you know for sure that if the woke get enough power, they will be burning people at the stake and beheading people in public.

Finished The Law by Bastiat. It's very short, only 67 pages in a small format.

His themes:

- The sole purpose of government is to ensure justice, so that no one may plunder or otherwise harm anyone else.
- Taxing some citizens to give to other citizens is still plunder and is unjust.
- Normally, the few plunder the many, using government as their instrument.
- Under communism, everyone is attempting to plunder everyone else at the same time, using government as their instrument.
- Legislators invariably see themselves as superior to the plebeians, who are to them merely clay to be molded according to the legislators' ideals.
- Legislators are not in fact any smarter than other people, and often make truly horrible mistakes with disastrous outcomes.
- When the masses of people expect the government to "give" them things, they tend to revolt when they don't get them.

He's the proto-Libertarian. He would not have the government provide schools because it is unjust to tax people and then have the government decide what will be taught using that tax money. I think I agree on this one. At least I would restrict schools to teaching basics like reading, writing, and math, and leave ideology entirely out of education.

He would not have the government provide anything at all, other than courts and police and military. That seems too far to me. I think public roads are a good idea, for example.

Just finished Going Solo by Roald Dahl, the children's writer. It's about his time before WWII in East Africa, and during WWII as a British fighter pilot.

It was very well written and interesting. Felt like I zipped right through it.

Being an RAF pilot was ridiculously dangerous. About 50% of them died in the war.

Patrick says

Wokeness is a religion as harmful to free speech and human progress as medieval Catholicism or Wahhabi Islam. And you know for sure that if the woke get enough power, they will be burning people at the stake and beheading people in public.

Notice the flip from "Tolerance for all points of few" to "Deplatform 'hate' speech*, Cancel 'misleading' speech**" in about a decade among the Left.

* Speech I hate
** Speech that leads away from conclusions I prefer.

Patrick says

Finished The Law by Bastiat. It's very short, only 67 pages in a small format.

His themes:

- The sole purpose of government is to ensure justice, so that no one may plunder or otherwise harm anyone else.
- Taxing some citizens to give to other citizens is still plunder and is unjust.
- Normally, the few plunder the many, using government as their instrument.
- Under communism, everyone is attempting to plunder everyone else at the same time, using government as their instrument.
- Legislators invariably see themselves as superior to the plebeians, who are to them merely clay to be molded according to the legislators' ideals.
- Legislators are not in fact any smarter than other people, and often make truly horrible mistakes with disastrous outcomes.
- When the masses of people expect the government to "give" them things, they tend to revolt when they don't get them.

He's the proto-Libertarian. He would not have the government provide schools...

“If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?”― Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Patrick says

FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut says

Hi Patrick is this the one? I saw several different books with that title, just want to get the right one, same one you reading basically.
https://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-Roman-Empire/dp/1354279492/

@FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut No, it's this one:

Thank you

Now I'm on to The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Even longer than Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and much more dense. I'll see how it goes, not promising myself that I can finish it.

Ironically, those two books came out just about the same time, and use the same florid and convoluted English - Edward Gibbon was a fan of The Wealth of Nations!

Good quote from The Wealth of Nations:

It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms. The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily: and the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit, their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work, but many against combining to raise it. In all such disputes, the masters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a farmer, a master manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or two upon the stocks, which they have already acquired. Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a year, without employment. In the long run, the workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to him; but the necessity is not so immediate.

Relevance to today: the oligarchs can conspire against the rest of us much more easily than the reverse, and they can hold out much longer in any dispute.

Yes, one of my favorite bits of WON - the kind of bits that Free Marketeers like to gloss over.

The most deliberately misrepresented statement in the book:
By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he [every manufacturer] intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.

In other words, by pressuring the government to IMPOSE tariffs to help HIS business, the manufacturer does good he does not intend - in his own self-interest to draw more business to himself and AWAY from foreign manufacturers, he creates more wealth and jobs and larger tax bases for fellow Britons. Free Marketeers have long distorted the context of the Invisible Hand to promote preferring Foreign Imported Goods, which reduce jobs and tax bases, if not overall Wealth, when Smith claimed the very OPPOSITE; that Tariffs were Good.

I mention this one because actually reading the WON and coming across this passage was like a slap in the face, back when I was very Free Market. We could never support the Trade Deficit and mass importation we have in place now WITHOUT a fiat currency running on maximum printing speed; we'd be long out of Specie by now.

Is Mein Kampf on your list yet?

https://www.cnet.com/news/hitlers-mein-kampf-a-brief-kindle-best-seller/

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says

In other words, by pressuring the government to IMPOSE tariffs to help HIS business, the manufacturer does good he does not intend - in his own self-interest to draw more business to himself and AWAY from foreign manufacturers, he creates more wealth and jobs and larger tax bases for fellow Britons.

Ha! Looking forward to running across this. A good argument to slap those tariffs on cheap Chinese goods.

Booger says

Is Mein Kampf on your list yet?

https://www.cnet.com/news/hitlers-mein-kampf-a-brief-kindle-best-seller/

Yes, and I intend to read it in the original German, otherwise what the hell is my German degree for? I need to find a paper copy in German though.

I also have a copy of Das Kapital in German. I intend to read that too.

Patrick says

In my early retirement, I've decided to read at least an hour a night in real paper books. So far, I've read:

- my dad's old college English book (always felt I needed to improve my grammar)
- Candide by Voltaire
- Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche
- The Politics by Aristotle

Now I'm reading The Prince by Machiavelli, and really enjoying it. One tip: before invading, look for minorities who will help you because they resent their current elite. They may in fact invite you in to help them overthrow their own country. This makes me think that the Chinese have read The Prince and are using BLM, gays, and militant feminism as allies in their fight against America.

https://mondopolitico.com/library/thelaw/thelaw2.htm

On my reading list! so relevant today!
The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing Paperback – February 25, 2015
by Joost A.M. Meerloo

can add Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Patrick says

Booger says

Is Mein Kampf on your list yet?

https://www.cnet.com/news/hitlers-mein-kampf-a-brief-kindle-best-seller/

Yes, and I intend to read it in the original German, otherwise what the hell is my German degree for? I need to find a paper copy in German though.

I picked Mein Kampf up from the library when I was in high school. What a boring book! I think it was one of those books, like Obama's "Dreams of my father", that was not meant to be read but to be bought and put on the shelf to signal your virtue and financially support der Führer.

Google Leaks book - by the whistleblower one is the one I'm planning to read next. Want to know all the evil shit evil empire does inside.

Onvacation says

I picked Mein Kampf up from the library when I was in high school. What a boring book! I think it was one of those books, like Obama's "Dreams of my father", that was not meant to be read but to be bought and put on the shelf to signal your virtue and financially support der Führer.

I heard that the most commonly sold English translation is horribly botched (and there is even a conspiracy theory going around that it was intentionally promoted over a better translation).

Onvacation says

I picked Mein Kampf up from the library when I was in high school. What a boring book!

Yeah, Hitler should have ranted YouTube style in the book. It wouldn't have hurt if he had mentioned skullfucking his enemies a few times as well.

How about reading something a little more enjoyable...LINCOLN by Gore Vidal...The Journeyer by Gary Jennings (about Marco polo)....Shogun by James Clavell....or Jack London's collection. Maybe try Michael Lewis,,,,,,,Liars Poker about the people who came up with the idea of monetizing mortgages back in the 80s.

I did read Liar's Poker way back when.

komputodo says

Shogun by James Clavell

Strongly second this recommendation.

Jack London short stories,,,,To Build A Fire and A Piece Of Steak,,,seems to me that the movie Cinderella Man was loosely based on the latter.

The Man Who Lives with Wolves
by Shaun Ellis,

For well researched novels, read Michener's books.
Alaska
Tales of the South Pacific
The Source
Chesapeake
Hawaii
and many others.

richwicks says

Rules for Radicals is a particularly hated book that I was told was filled with horrifically immoral, dastardly devious advice. The simple truth is, there's a lot of people that don't want you to read it.

I've been saying this to deaf ears for a long time. The book was mostly forgotten till Obama mentioned it and a couple of authors even rewrote it for modern conservative readers around the time Occupy Wall Street was kicking off. I've seen a lot of people criticize the book, usually to the depth of using the title and author as pejoratives, but never have I seen a critique that addresses even a single sentence of the book's actual content. One of the key concepts has become ever more relevant as the middle class is squeezed out. People are polarized into binary categories of haves and have-nots. A lot of working people consider themselves "Haves" and assume the "Have-nots" are their mortal enemies. However, Alinsky points out that many hardworking folks are in a category of "Have a little, want more" thus have much more in common with the have-nots, yet are conditioned to treat them as mortal enemies while fellating the actual "Haves" who are systematically dismantling their way of life with the "Have-a-littles'" active and eager participation.

Automan Empire says

I've been saying this to deaf ears for a long time. The book was mostly forgotten till Obama mentioned it and a couple of authors even rewrote it for modern conservative readers around the time Occupy Wall Street was kicking off. I've seen a lot of people criticize the book, usually to the depth of using the title and author as pejoratives, but never have I seen a critique that addresses even a single sentence of the book's actual content.

It's wonderful, it's how the Left took over with those tactics. That's why Community Organizer instead of the more traditional/widespread "Agitator" or "Political Activist" was used as a job title.

Making your enemy live up to his own standards is a good one.

That's why I think everybody should be chalking slogans and watch the local DA, including alleged "Republican" ones pursue charges with ferocity, while the ACLU that defended BLM/Antifa Vandalism, Arson, and Rioting under the "Speech and Protest" rubric refuses to acknowledge somebody is being overcharged with multiple crimes for chalking "Biden Illegit" on a Wall or Sidwalk.

Automan Empire says

I've been saying this to deaf ears for a long time

Well said.

I just finished Jack London's WHITE FANG. A great short story about a wolf/dog through its eyes. They made 2 movies based on it. One with Ethan Hawke.

komputodo says

I just finished Jack London's WHITE FANG. A great short story about a wolf/dog through its eyes. They made 2 movies based on it. One with Ethan Hawke.

His books were pretty good, also great reads for the kiddos to redpill them. London would look in disgust about the leftoid retard snowflake mess the US, and specifically CA (Glen Ellen) where he built his lodge, has become. Based.

Yes, I loved White Fang when I was in middle school. Great book.