The state is a bad manager that only generates bureaucracy, it has no incentives to offer better services

Roman historian and senator Tacticus writes in about 116 AD about the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, where he references Christians (this is one of the two earliest non-Christian sources of information about the historical reality of some dude named Jesus the Christ and of the Christians). He is writing about the fact that most people felt that Nero started the fire himself, and then used the Christians as scapegoats.

"But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind."

"Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed."

Nero propelled Christianity from a popular fad into a two-thousand-year-long belief system.

actually, that happened in weeks, it's sedimentary rock layers that formed during the Great Flood

how else could they be so flat

in actual fact they could be as fresh as 6500 years

and the erosion happened mostly around the same time too, that carved this sliver out as the waters drained back out to the sea

my certainty about whether our space brothers, born of common ancestors, will actually come back to save our asses is not 100%

but my certainty about needing to navigate a way to avoid the blatantly stupid people who are going to drag everyone around them into the abyss, is 100%

so i'm going to escalate my efforts to live without excessive dependencies, nay, to cut all dependencies on the stupids as much as possible

i have another 50 years or so, probably, and it's worth it for that

but if a lady catches me i'd like to be focused on ensuring she and our spawns don't either get caught in such dependencies and are mentally prepared for a zero electric life as might happen for a time in the future while everything is wild out there in our galaxy

Fourth of July

Made me want to cry

Spurned me on to try when them men rode free.

Fifth of July

Made me want to puke

To see they had rebuked

What I read in a book.

#PoetryCorner

If you were to craft the campaign of your ideal candidate into three points what would it be?

#asknostr

Today in 1977, 47 years ago: The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.

#OnThisDay

#AskNostr

should I have made this a thread 🧵

or is it good how it is ? Long note. nostr:note14xuaxjy44pp0urcswxy7grk37ezd6mclve408y5t69yrj8jmz7dqcc3upv

I would suggest you read this and believe it

The Day of the Lord Will Come

3 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,[a] not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies[b] will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.[c]

11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Final Words

14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

There are people who believes themselves to be organized into States which claim authority in those places, yes.

It took hundreds of years for the modern conception of the State to develop, and as we have seen (in the USSR and elsewhere) the modern total State is itself unstable.

Do you believe that the English were especially godless and insolent, and that this gave rise to the modern English State? Is there any evidence of this?

"...despite its impressive legacy, the US Constitution does not, and cannot, restrain the total state. The founding fathers were deeply inspiring, but the problem of tyranny has spread far beyond anything they ever envisioned" (from Ch. 11)

Still unfulfilled.