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Not through governmental force. Not through governmental force. He wasn't for hating your enemies. But claiming that the same Jesus who was the Jehovah of the OT wasn't for ever killing enemies is woefully short-sighted. But moreover, once again...individually. The idea that government's shouldn't be killing enemies in certain circumstances. Well...we've got an entire Book of scripture compiled by Mormon that explicitly teaches otherwise through plain text AND the examples of almost every prophet therein -- Including Mormon himself. But not through governmental force. Only if it's through governmental force. Yeah...if it's through governmental force. Yeah. It's called freedom. So were the Nation's founding fathers. Liberal is not a concrete viewpoint. It's a relative one. Definitionally, actually, Trump is EXTREMELY liberal and progressive. Moreso, maybe, than any president I think we've ever had. He's not a capital L Liberal or a Leftist or capital P Progressive. But what he's doing is hardly "conserving" things. He's making significant change, not trying to conserve the status quo. It's like you're arguing that because some Latter-day Saints are against taxes that they're also against tithing. It's not persuasive as an idea. Do you believe the conservative General Authorities are/were not following Jesus? Seems like that's the argument you're trying to make. You have a chip on your shoulders about this. No one thinks you or any "liberal" is evil for believing in welfare. We simply disagree with it as a governmental policy approach in the same way you see it. Even then, I don't think anyone here would argue doing away with ALL governmental welfare. The reason we think "liberals" a.k.a. leftists are "evil" is because of things like the support and drive to push for abortion, homosex, trans stuff, removal of freedoms, anti religion, anti God, and the like. You know...evil stuff. Show me a General Authority who's pro evil stuff.

I must have missed the chapters where Jesus sought to redefine gender, institutionalize radical theories of pronoun use, seek to destroy government institutions he considered systematically racist, and rejoice in cancel culture and the criminalization of raising your own children. I heard "render unto caesar" and thought I understood things pretty well. Or maybe you need to think a bit more on the definition of "leftist" and how it differs, sometimes violently, from "liberal" or "progressive".

Of interest, the church unveiled a new statue of the 5 bridesmaids (virgins) found in the scripture recently on temple square (at least according to an article I read recently).

Hamilton (in my opinion) has exactly one brilliant piece of music: Which...even then, could be much better, but the basic verse melody and instrumental arrangement is legit good stuff. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a good melody/song writer. His style is...okay...but gets a bit same-y. His hip-hop/rap stuff though...while, as I've said, I get...is just not to my tastes at all. And his half-rhyme practices (common to any form of contemporary popular music) drives me crazy. Half rhymes are SO lazy. Work harder people!!!

I work in the high tech industry where I walk past an inspiring wall of patents on my way to my desk. We design chips, and that means you have to build a special thing for a million bucks that makes the chips, and the first time you try it, it fails, and you toss the million dollar thing in the trash and start again with a new one. Sometimes 2-3 times. We have competitors that pretty much all of their R&D spend consists of buying one of our things and trying to reverse-engineer it into something that probably doesn't work as well, but is way cheaper. Our proprietary stuff is bleeding edge fastest and bestest, but whatever got invented 5 years ago is somewhere between 20-50% as good and you can get them cheaply. Someone occasionally comes home from a visit to china with one of our products, except it isn't one of ours. They tend to look the same on the outside, same name, but the serial number will either be stolen or fake. On the inside it's like someone took a few boxes out of a Radio Shak dumpster and shook it around in the box until the pieces all fit. Anything that makes it harder for countries like China to do stuff like this, will absolutely help us sell more of our things. Because our customers won't be getting their stuff from wish.com and then getting mad at us when it doesn't work right.

The guitar industry is the same way, but they DO sue. Fender and Gibson have been suing each other for decades, and they'll both sue anyone whose Strat or Les Paul clone gets a little too popular (with mixed results; PRS had to stop making their LP-style single-cut for a year, but then won an appeal). You hear "pre-lawsuit" quite a bit when talking about vintage guitars.

For the life of me I can't remember the sitcom (probably Will & Grace), but the guest actor was Matt Damon if memory serves me correctly. His character was pretending to be gay in order to join some musical theater group and at the end had to give some impassioned speech about how straight men should be allowed to enjoys musicals too.

Ok. Good point. When you said "intellectual property" I was thinking of "intangibles" (like software, audio/video, trade secrets, etc.). I still don't see a way to penalize that without a level of oversight that would be difficult to apply without serious civil rights infringements. But if they are using the design of a patented physical product and are reproducing them without credit/payment to the original designer, that becomes a tangible object which tariffs can effectively penalize. Funny Aside: For many years Korean auto manufacturers didn't do much innovation at all. They took an older model Toyota and/or Honda and cannibalized it for technology and design ideas to produce KIA and Hyundai vehicles. Over the years, they did figure out some things on their own when some of the secrets were not easily discernible through taking other cars apart. And they do have some decent engineers. But for some reason Japan has not charged Korea for patent infringement or any other intellectual property claim (AFAIK).

I'm already praying that the Second Coming will happen soon, but I think with my failing health, I probably will not be around to see it. However, the important thing is that it doesn't matter in that way, when the Second Coming is, the Second Coming for each man is upon his death when he goes to meet his maker. I only hope he is merciful to me when that time comes.

This is probably one big problem that Democrats have currently, and a problem they had during the election. Rather than support each other, there are a few of them (but a few that make a loud stink, as they have a very loud voice...as words via social media would go) that only seek to tear others down and divide themselves by saying someone isn't far left enough, or isn't supporting their policies enough. You kick enough of your own people out and you are left with less people then you had before.

The corrections department decided that placing a "trans-woman" in a women's facility was probably not a good idea after he got two of his cell-mates pregnant. N.J. trans prisoner who impregnated 2 inmates transferred to men's facility

That is only one part of what I was referring to when I said: This is a dangerous game that Trump is playing. I'd say that if anyone can do it, it would be him. The problem is that he's basically taking on the entire world, including Americans who want to thwart his agenda. With all that working against him, I don't know if anyone can do it right. If he misses the mark, then it may or may not be any worse than what would have happened with another four years of Biden. If he does it right, then he's every bit the political/economic genius he thinks himself to be... and that many MAGA supporters hope him to be. I hope he does it right. Otherwise, start praying that the Second Coming happens soon, because it will be one MEGA-MAGA-disaster.

@zil2Thanks for going over the talk. I knew there were spelling errors, typos, etc. but was looking for content errors. Yeah, there is no specific verse that explains how Adam and Eve were distressed by the commandment to sacrifice a lamb. I kinda had a vision (day dream) that gave me the impression. The following scripture implies that at one point the burnt offerings invoked a broken heart and contrite spirit. And that they were done away with because they no longer did due to the callousness of the hearts of men. 3 Ne 9: 19 And ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings. 20 And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Our thoughts and feelings must be important during ordinances. Sorry it took me so long to respond. I forgot where I posted this and didn’t get an indicator that anyone had responded. This talk was difficult to organize and ever harder to present. But as soon as the Bishop asked me to give the talk I was impressed to go over the material.

The wife spoke the first 5 min. The Bishop told me that since it was Easter services we would only have 1 hour church so I could go as long or short as I wanted. I tend to be short winded but needed an extra 15 min to finish the delivery. The content deserved as much. The Bishop’s wife had 4 songs planned and the wife is the chorister so the last song was just a single verse. Sorry.

I testify that the tomb is empty, and He is risen. His grace, love, and power to become are available to all if we follow Him and allow Him to change our hearts. - Valeri V. Cordón, Easter: The Most Important Religious Observance Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot. - Moroni 10:32-33

This TikTok kid with the blue hair is worth his weight in gold in historical analysis. This is one of the first things that has made sense to me. v14044g50000cvqhtm7og65mq024c3qg.MP4

Oh...yeah. I understand the craft. Very much. I'm just not into all musicals, like some people I know. In my opinion, to be into all musicals, one has to have, essentially, no taste.

The libs are still doing the cancelling thing for anything with the "stink" of Trump on him. John Stamos Defends Emceeing Event at Mar-A-Lago: ‘Isn’t Political’ John Stamos Defends Mar-A-Lago Appearance | HuffPost Entertainment It was a charity event for nurses. You know, the people who help doctors with patients in hospitals. But because the charity event was held at Mar-a-lago, they want to cancel Stamos (a lifelong Democrat).

I grew upon Rodgers & Hammerstein plus Phantom and Les Mis, and in college I got into Scarlet Pimpernel and Jekyll and Hyde. Those—either due to the music or the story— all seemed to have an “epic” quality that the newer stuff (even Wicked*) seems to lack. *Full disclosure: I never liked “The Wizard of Oz” in the first place—it just seemed freakish—so in my book “Wicked” was already starting from a hole it was never able to climb out of. And rap may be a technical skill, but it is utterly without beauty and thus I reject it (and by extension “Hamilton”) as an art form. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Don’t sell yourself short bro. You’ve made musicals yourself. That requires a high level of knowledge and understanding of the craft.

Because it's good. Simple enough. I let a lot of stuff slide, morally speaking, in my entertainment loves, because I enjoy the movies. Like how my favorite movies of all time (which are, generally, the classic 80s movies. Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Karate Kid, etc...) are filled with 80s level cussing and I just ignore it. And I'm not sure how to feel about that. I'm hyper sensitive to gay/trans stuff though. And even more hyper sensitive when my children are potential consumers. All in all, it wasn't THAT on the nose in Wicked. When the handsome prince arrives several men are fawning over him (which could be taken as hero worship vs a desire to do gay stuff (though that is clearly not what was intended)), and the men in drag-related wear are background characters/dancers in a fantasy, otherworldy, quicky, everyone-dresses-a-bit-funny world. I can understand people looking past it. I'm overly sensitive, for sure.

Well, President Nelson want's us to love each other and to promote peace and love rather than hate and violence. I think that's a good thing to keep in mind over the next few months as turmoil is all around us.

In our mortal condition, no one is perfect. Even in our most diligent efforts to live the gospel, all of us will make mistakes, and all of us will sin. What a comforting assurance it is to know that through our Savior’s redeeming sacrifice, we can be forgiven and made clean again. This process of true repentance and forgiveness strengthens our testimony and our resolve to obey the Lord’s commandments and live our life according to gospel standards. - Ann M. Dibb, I Know It. I Live It. I Love It. I say unto you, that I know of myself that whatsoever I shall say unto you, concerning that which is to come, is true; and I say unto you, that I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth. And behold, it is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world, yea, the sins of every man who steadfastly believeth on his name. - Alma 5:48

So far, I'm through the first 3 podcasts (on YT, which only has 4, the rest are audio on the site), and it's seriously good stuff. The Ancient Tradition Essentially, the woman doing the podcasts has deep dived into comparative religion and is showing that they all come from one source. (She's a member, but doesn't overtly say that anywhere, as far as I know.)

Good stuff. Had me in tears multiple times. What scripture tells us this? There are spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors, and type-os that resulted in a real but wrong word. If you want someone else to point these out, let me know. Since it's only for you to read, I don't know that it matters.

Mahujah Nahom Pahoran Joseph Smith was insanely lucky with names.

When discussing sleep in the scriptures, Ether’s a safe bet.