Stoic Tuesday

Beautiful: Parts of a giant, exquisitely-carved marble sculpture depicting the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius have been found at an archaeological site in Turkey. I wrote the Christian's Stoic Handbook, but couldn't find any publishers. In it, I wrote about Aurelius:

It has been said that the last of the great Stoics, the good and virtuous Marcus Aurelius, did not have the god he deserved. His philosophy gave way at the logical end to a resigned, and sad, nihilism: “A little while and thou wilt have forgotten everything, a little while and every thing will have forgotten thee.” He never heard of Christ's redemption and didn't know about the beatific vision–the vision the good Christian awaits patiently, with Stoic detachment and resignation.

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What? No warnings about hookers? The New York state Democratic party devoted a page in its information packet to three separate warnings to its delegation about how hard booze hits the system in mile-high Denver.
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Not a good enough Good Samaritan. Shoulda left him in the parking lot: Horrocks and some other teenagers were drinking hard liquor in a Vernal parking lot, said Uintah County Deputy Attorney Greg Lamb. Horrocks chugged so much booze he became unresponsive and someone called Collard, 24, for help. Lamb said people had to lift Horrocks into a car. But instead of taking Horrocks to a hospital or to his parents, Collard drove him to her home in Jensen, 13 miles away. Another adult found Horrocks to be unresponsive in the house at about midnight, Lamb said, and the adult called 911. The next day, Horrocks was ruled to be brain dead, disconnected from life support and died. Utah has a criminal statute for failing to render aid, but prosecutors decided to pursue a homicide charge.

This sad story reminds me of a high school incident. One of my good friends (a senior) was drinking with a bunch of younger kids. He drank way too much and passed out. The younger kids panicked and called an ambulance. He woke up in the hospital later with a catheter and wondering, "What the heck happened?" He said the incident wasn't too bad, until a burly nurse ("Genghis," I think he called her) came in, grabbed Him with one hand, and harshly jerked the catheter out with the other. He said it was the most painful thing he'd ever felt, and the hangover didn't help matters.