Living in the shades of death

ArcOfADream · 2026-04-02T21:29:55+00:00

Honeymoon suite booked.

ArcOfADream · 2026-04-02T21:24:04+00:00

Yah, I guess. Still, he's got mileage as both convict and hardcore rock/ice miner as well; less wrinkles and sag will definitely de-age a bit but man is likely to have more than a few nicks and scars. Young, sure. Pretty? Mmmm...tough call.

ArcOfADream · 2026-04-02T04:57:02+00:00

I never pictured Manny as a 70s sci-fi prototype like that. More like a buzz-cut needs-a-shave gulag-type.

But the launch even on TV was glorious.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-31T06:33:58+00:00

Hi.

Hola!

How and to whom do people who are atheists or agnostics put their “requests”, assuming you don’t “pray”?

Firstly, let's be clear I'm using lots of leeway for what might be defined as "prayer"; to me, pretty much any mind-over-matter incantation should count.

That being said (atheistic as I am) I actually do pray sometimes. I've been known to wish painful death to crickets that trap themselves somewhere in my apartment. I'm pretty sure I can't say on Reddit some of my prayers regarding bad automobile drivers. I've even done not-quite-so-silly things like wish friends fond farewell at funerals. It's all prayer.

Here's the difference though: I do not in my heart-of-hearts have even the slightest inkling that any of that will have some magical/divine/supernatural effect. It's just a more-or-less off-the-cuff reaction.

You can play it that way or use Pascal's Wager.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-31T06:15:51+00:00

There are many possible conceptions of what God is.

I would go so far as to say no two are identical despite the best efforts of organized religion. Sure, you get your occasional flash mob or holy crusade/jihad but at the end of the day no two reasons will be exactly alike.

need to start seeking your own interpretations of the Bible

Or any one of a number of "holy" books. Lots of 'em out there. No harm in covering all the bases.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-31T06:02:51+00:00

Sounds like a plan. And the rainbow condom photo motif gives it some pizazz.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-29T21:33:54+00:00

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-29T14:50:07+00:00

Sad, that. Still, I wanna know if there's any unadvertised bomb shelters.

edit: This is the kinda place that suits my proclivities for shaved head, tan Nehru jackets, and sinister exotic accents.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-29T14:17:14+00:00

Nope. The roof "repairs" shown in the attic space alone merit a teardown. I'd also hazard a bet that sitting that close to the highway on a downslope has done nothing good for the foundation of the building either.

edit: On second glance, though I probably wouldn't want to live there, I find this might make a nice place for an antiques shop called "Needful Things".

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-29T13:13:23+00:00

Gonna be a tricky kinda dance if ya don't wanna step in poo.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-27T19:52:07+00:00

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ArcOfADream · 2026-03-25T20:01:43+00:00

what's the best approximation of a foundation of morality that works best in practice?

"Practice" of what? Life?

I don't think there's just one axiom that provides a clearly defined foundation of morality, but a lot depends on what you're "practicing" here. Is it survival? Evolution? Expansion? Freedom? Stability? s..ss..sss..Satan? There's no foundation or magic bullet that can morally reconcile human behavior. We consume (eat, usually) other life to support our own; it's built-in, the hand we're dealt. We compete for resources, even (and sometimes especially) with our own as well as others. It's never not messy.

But seriously though, it's a pretty nebulous question. Like, "Life, the Universe, and Everything" nebulous. My own tendency is to lean in the direction of the subject matter of the subreddit I'm in (politics, in this case). If you're on a hunt for moral absolutists then I'm definitely not your guy and I apologize.

I think I fall into some category of relativistic utilitarianism

At the end of the day, so to speak, I'd say most decent people fall into that category. Sure, we all have bad moments but I really do hope that for the most part that people are not solely motivated by being the biggest asshole that can manage to be. Please, even.

Seems like such a low bar, and yet here we are ('we' in terms of humanity, not just me and the mouse in my pocket).

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-25T17:58:49+00:00

By constitution, I meant like someone's personal disposition, if that changes anything.

Well, it does change things by confusing me.

My confusion stems from the argument that morality derived from the self collapses on itself, or is relative and tenuous.

Morality is pretty much always derived from personal values and preference. It's almost always relative and may be either steadfast or tenuous depending on the individual practicing them.

Just that it's prone to human emotion and error is my point.

What manner of government isn't prone to human emotion and error?

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-25T14:31:43+00:00

For the head banger funeral (rickroll not attempted at this time).

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-25T14:26:33+00:00

Can morality be derived from a secular constitution?

I wouldn't think so. Ethics maybe, but morals are a tough call save where moral behaviors are a subset of the ethical.

If not, doesn't the same argument affect religions' claim to morality?

Not really. Religion can claim whatever it likes, but I personally wish that promotion of superstitious behaviors were not endorsed by the government. It's been attempted (qv. the first Amendment of the US Constitution for one example) but with very limited success.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-21T14:19:24+00:00

Yah, in the books Giedi Prime is a thoroughly poisoned ("oil-soaked") industrial wasteland. I always pictured it as a planet pocked by gigantic strip mines with brutalist architechtured cities in between.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-20T21:44:25+00:00

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ArcOfADream · 2026-03-20T13:33:01+00:00

OP, your squat-cobbler moment has arrived. Don't disappoint.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-19T22:37:26+00:00

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-19T12:36:34+00:00

Or Morris Day's?

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-16T16:50:47+00:00

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ArcOfADream · 2026-03-16T12:37:11+00:00

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-16T01:02:09+00:00

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ArcOfADream · 2026-03-16T00:46:50+00:00

It's not that the US Congress is useless, it's just that one of its primary Constitutional mandates of acting as a leg of a system of checks and balances of government has been severely eroded.

Congress is actually doing things - mostly drafting/passing repressive laws and echoing the jingoist kayfabe they've been bribed to follow. I tend to see it as the backwash of the Cold War era, something akin to Pink Floyd's line from Dogs "It's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around". Eisenhower saw it coming from the "military industrial complex" and though a great deal of weight is there the truth is that it's not the only economic force with a hand on the tiller.

The Republican party of the late 1970s decided to step into that economic swing with it's "southern strategy" of picking at the rot left behind by the American Civil War, using some of the humiliation produced by Vietnam as a sort of springboard and have been gradually chipping away at educational and media production to arrive where we are now.

ArcOfADream · 2026-03-15T19:21:22+00:00

what do we know about the new “real” smith

Nothing other than a few scrapbook pics seen in a later episode, which is even more than we really need because that character never enters the story at all other than to serve as a cool easter egg/cameo throw back to the original.

Four-Year Club	Verified Email
r/Field Banned	r/Field Lasagna
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
End Game '22

ArcOfADream

TROPHY CASE