NWGuy

Some gave all. Never forget.

Forget Nero. Forget Caligula. The worst Roman emperor in history was a 19 year old who thought he was the reincarnation of Hercules. If you saw the movie Gladiator, you know him as Joaquin Phoenix's character. His real name was Commodus, and the reason his story is so dark is that his father was Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher king who wrote the Meditations. When Marcus died in 180 AD, Commodus inherited the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. He immediately abandoned his father's wars on the German frontier, made a humiliating peace, and rode back to Rome to play. He fought in the Colosseum 735 times. He won every match, because his opponents fought him with wooden swords while he used a real one. The Senate was forced to pay him a million sesterces every time he stepped into the arena. He once gathered men who had lost their feet to accident or disease, dressed them from the knees down as serpentine giants, handed them sponges to throw at him as "rocks," and clubbed them to death in front of the Roman public for sport. On another day, he decapitated an ostrich in the arena, walked up to the senators in the front row, and held the bloody head up at them with a smile. The historian Cassius Dio was sitting there that day. He writes that the senators chewed on the laurel leaves from their crowns to hide their hysterical, terrified laughter, because they understood the head was a promise. He renamed the city of Rome itself "Colonia Commodiana." Colony of Commodus. He renamed all twelve months of the year after his own twelve titles. He declared himself a living god, dressed publicly in a lion skin, carried a wooden club, and demanded to be addressed as Hercules, son of Zeus. His own sister Lucilla tried to have him assassinated. He survived and had her executed. His wife Crispina was exiled to an island and quietly killed. His chamberlain Cleander began openly selling senate seats and consulships for cash. In one year, twenty five different men were appointed consul. On New Year's Eve, 192 AD, his mistress Marcia found her own name on his execution list for the next morning. She poisoned his wine. He vomited it up. So she sent in his personal wrestling coach, a man named Narcissus, who strangled him to death in his bath. The very next year, the imperial throne of Rome was literally auctioned off to the highest bidder by the Praetorian Guard. Five different men claimed the title of emperor in twelve months. Civil war never really stopped after that. Edward Gibbon, who wrote the definitive history of Rome's collapse, opens his entire 3000 page book with the death of Marcus Aurelius and the rise of his son. The Roman Empire would limp on for another 284 years in the west before it finally fell. But the Pax Romana, the longest stretch of peace and prosperity the ancient world had ever known, died on the German frontier with Marcus Aurelius. His son made sure of it.

I just went to war with a patch of thistle growing in the rough just over our property line. I think I might have had a small taste of blood lust, or, uh, chlorophyll lust. It felt so good to bring death upon those prickly monsters.

"#NFIB reports only 18% of #smallbusiness owners plan to raise compensation, well below the 32% peak of 2022. That forward-looking signal is the right one. There is no sign of employers gearing up for another wage chase," reports @rc_markets Read it here: realclearmarkets.com/articles/2026/…

i lied.

@DanShaha This is a grand thought process. As I've thought or pondered on the end of times, what would I have to have as you described. For me it would have to counter the feelings of love and warmth I felt at 1a under a street lamp in Aug, when I prayed to know if it was true. It is!

I had an interaction with a critic of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the other day that has fundamentally changed my views on the Church and the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. After some back and forth about one of a dozen recycled anti-Mormon tropes he asked me a question; what evidence did I need to see to prove that Joseph Smith was false prophet and that the Church was founded on a lie? I had to pause and think about my answer. I don’t want to tie my testimony of the Restored Gospel to an event, person, or policy. That seems like an easy way to have my convictions undermined. But I also don’t want to come off as a zealot acting on blind faith, either. After thinking for a while I answered; I would need to have a significant spiritual experience equal to or greater than the experience I had when I first read The Book of Mormon, or the first time I went to the Temple, or when I got married, or when I first held my kids. I’d need an experience so significant that it would outweigh my previous experiences. The conversation ended there. My testimony of the Restored Gospel comes from God, as revealed through the Holy Ghost. God is the objective source of all truth. I may not have all the answers. Some of my beliefs may not make logical sense. But God has made it very clear to me that objective, eternal truth is found in the Restored Gospel and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Paulsbo, WA

@JasminRappleye Jasmin, can you explain more about the Initiatory and what it is symbolic of?

This is one reason why Latter-day Saints have temples even though the temple veil was torn by Jesus.

@timburchett But, why?

I gave up salt sugar and caffeine. It’s been a rough 30 minutes.

Truth via Humor

#shunnedatafuneral banger song. open.spotify.com/track/7H5GN6ew…

Beautiful day in the #PNW

I have a confession. I don’t like Root Beer

@Latterdaytruth Jimmy Hoffa

What is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hiding in its archives? Wrong answers only.

The same way that a ten-dollar bill given to me was turned into something with priceless value, our life can be something of eternal value through the sacrifice and Atonement of Jesus Christ.