Hey Duckman!

Back as much as I can be. McFate throwing me curveballs. Mamason had emergency surgery recently, and we're trying to work past that.

Good to see you and the familiar names and funny people here.

Ciao.

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
― Marcus Aurelius

In reply to this comment by Duckman33:
You're back! :

So which is worse?
Sound?
Lighting?
Camera used?
Michele?
Marcus?

Okay, maybe I shouldn't have said Wrroonngg so quickly--but you presume that your readings about Rome are more extensive than mine.

Nero, Caligula and many later Emperors are examples of the human psyche let loose. Psychopaths with no restrictions on their behavior.

The Roman Republic lasted for almost 500 years--during which time--homosexuality was looked on as a vice and shameful behavior. Emperor Augustus imposed strict modesty and morality edicts--including homosexual activities--which didn't apply to him. So even in the later, Empire Era, Rome was hardly be considered, "one big, gay death machine."

"Marcus Aurelius was straight at least..." This one gave me a laugh.


The Love Letters of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Marcus Cornelius Fronto
Excerpts from My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries (1998), Edited by Rictor Norton

From Marcus Cornelliius Fronto to Marcus Aurelius

Your lover, too, as they say, composes some amatory writings about you in the hope of enticing you with this bait, if with no other, and attracting you to himself and catching you; but such things are a disgrace and an insult and a sort of licentious cry, the outcome of stinging lust, such as those of wild beasts and fed cattle, that from sexual desire bellow or neigh or low or howl. Like to these are the lyrics of lovers. If, therefore, you submit yourself to your lover to enjoy where and when he pleases, awaiting neither time that is fitting nor leisure nor privacy, then, like a beast in the frenzy of desire, will he make straight for you and be eager to go to it not the least ashamed. . . .

"But then they went through the phase where prostitutes could fuck any man they wanted, even while wed and in plain sight, and the Christian empress would have the man executed if he said something..."

The role of prostitution in other societies varies--ours is not the only moral way. And the actions of the Christian church are--during most of it's history--atrocious. I thought you were talking about early Rome with it's outright destruction and pillage.

"You get the point. Rome was confused but definitely bi with a leaning more towards homosexuality--despite their 'laws.'"

A whole country was BI? Wow--just wow.


>> ^Lawdeedaw:

@Boise_Lib
Now now, don't say I am wrong quiet yet. I just read up on Rome and have the advantage here (I read like fucking two days’ worth...)
Nero was more than gay (He married a man as his husband and a man as his wife...see slit in lieu of vagina,) and Caligula (Who was fucking a man while in the arena in front of everyone, then had that man beheaded during climax) was bi and Tiberius (Who was fucking Caligula after murdering his family) was bi and the typical soldier, and...wait, yeah, there were many more. Basically, 14 out of 15 were gay or gay-ish at least. By that I mean some were open, some closed. Commodus? Yeah, gay...
(Most were simply bi just to have a son btw. Otherwise it would have been just man on man.)
The whole conflict with homosexuality came in later--after the Roman Catholic Church gained power... Now, that's not saying it wasn't against the law in the early days--but that's the same as adultery, yet then orgies were common even though they were illegal... let's pretend the law doesn't matter here---because it didn't...
Marcus Aurelius was straight at least...
And yes, this was the early Rome, when it was brutal, but then that's what I was talking about when I said the world hated them. Later, yes, later they began to hate homosexual behavior. But then they went through the phase where prostitutes could fuck any man they wanted, even while wed and in plain sight, and the Christian empress would have the man executed if he said something...
You get the point. Rome was confused but definitely bi with a leaning more towards homosexuality--despite their "laws."
@shuac I meant the crimes of Rome itself, not homosexuals. It's kind of hard to forgive a nation that captured and enslaved your city and then raped your male children with abandon.
@hpqp
I don't think homosexuality is girly, but that's their reasoning... Sad, so sad because it is not true.

@Boise_Lib

Now now, don't say I am wrong quiet yet. I just read up on Rome and have the advantage here (I read like fucking two days’ worth...)

Nero was more than gay (He married a man as his husband and a man as his wife...see slit in lieu of vagina,) and Caligula (Who was fucking a man while in the arena in front of everyone, then had that man beheaded during climax) was bi and Tiberius (Who was fucking Caligula after murdering his family) was bi and the typical soldier, and...wait, yeah, there were many more. Basically, 14 out of 15 were gay or gay-ish at least. By that I mean some were open, some closed. Commodus? Yeah, gay...

(Most were simply bi just to have a son btw. Otherwise it would have been just man on man.)

The whole conflict with homosexuality came in later--after the Roman Catholic Church gained power... Now, that's not saying it wasn't against the law in the early days--but that's the same as adultery, yet then orgies were common even though they were illegal... let's pretend the law doesn't matter here---because it didn't...

Marcus Aurelius was straight at least...

And yes, this was the early Rome, when it was brutal, but then that's what I was talking about when I said the world hated them. Later, yes, later they began to hate homosexual behavior. But then they went through the phase where prostitutes could fuck any man they wanted, even while wed and in plain sight, and the Christian empress would have the man executed if he said something...

You get the point. Rome was confused but definitely bi with a leaning more towards homosexuality--despite their "laws."

@shuac I meant the crimes of Rome itself, not homosexuals. It's kind of hard to forgive a nation that captured and enslaved your city and then raped your male children with abandon.

@hpqp
I don't think homosexuality is girly, but that's their reasoning... Sad, so sad because it is not true.

"What does not benefit the hive is no benefit to the bee."

- Marcus Aurelius -

*****

If you could imagine a ship with 10 people on it, and 1 person is hogging 50% of the resources and space, and everybody else is working and struggling to give that one person an even greater cut of the resources and space, that's what our world has become in a microcosm.

>> ^VoodooV:

Flash mobs aren't cool anymore. I too thought they were sweet when I first saw them..but they have definitely run their course and have joined the ranks of the Macarena and parachute pants.


thanks for the update, voodoo. things have been so much easier since you become the authority on what's cool. so, pixie sticks? cool or uncool? thanks, twat (i heard people in paris think using twat as a term of endearment is cool. confirmation?).

>> ^quantumushroom:

The song sucks. Not the message, just the song, a pedestrian ripoff of "Express Yourself."
Bad Romance is awesome, tho.


Eh art is all a ripoff, lets just enjoy stuff instead of comparing registers.

>> ^peggedbea:

so... do i have to be a seething, self-loathing, latent homosexual with a terrifying, sociopath wife to get a an army of gay barbarians to dance to gaga outside of my office????


No, but apparently it works.

Like it says. Or you can always google it.>> ^Kofi:

Darkus or Marcus? Classic

Darkus or Marcus? Classic

I think it's both hilarious and insane that you think Wal-mart simply re-arranges a local economy. A lot of Mom & Pop stores are niche market but make a lot of their profit off your everyday Joe & Jane buying garbage. That is probably the majority of consumer product in America - garbage. I remember I was really good friends with the owner of a record store in a small town but he made most of his money from larger "indie" rock bands on Atlantic records or some shitty metal band. 98% of everything else was underground punk, pop-punk, grindcore, power-violence, thrash, straight-edge hardcore, emotive hardcore, gravity style, D-beat, black metal etc etc. But, he made most of his profits from garbage. Don't think about anything folks, just work your shitty job and hope your wife doesn't cheat on you. Remember to pay your taxes. BLEH!

The other problem in my eyes is that a lot of middle-class & lower-class people inevitably shop at Wal-mart because of cheaper prices. I remember reading an article about how Wal-mart lost revenue last year but luxury stores (Neiman Marcus, etc) finances skyrocketed. The rich are now uber rich and they burned up the middle-class as well as their jobs so we could get them to new heights of wealth. Wal-mart and a lot of shitty huge corporate stores are VERY much apart of this topic & apart of the problem America faces. As long as there are huge big-box stores stamping out local business and selling product cheaper because they are such a gigantic virus-like company - local economies across the entire country will never get "well". Make these stores into Co-ops and maybe we'll get somewhere, we have to snuff out at least some of these greedy fucks.

It's still stunning to me that people are able to stick up for such a piece of shit company.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

Wal-mart... crazy rant about how it kills your neighbors...
I've never quite understood this argument. Wal-Mart doesn't kill local businesses. It rearranges them and then creates more jobs. Every Wal-Mart that goes up has about 10 restaurants, 2 car dealerships, 1 Gamestop, a couple book stores, and a bunch of other ancillary businesses sprout up literally overnight right next to it once it opens. These places employ - that's right - your neighbors. It has been demonstrably proven over and over again that Wal-Marts increase employment and revenue in the communities they enter. Do they shake up the environment and force local shops to change it up? Of course. But for every guy that curses Wal-Mart because he had to close his Mom & Pop, there are 20 other guys who are cheering Wal-Mart as they take showers in new business money.

"Marcus Bachmann hasn't found the right position."

the only doctored things in Marcus Bachmann's life are his heterosexuality, and his competence as a therapist.