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To quote Joseph Smith: "Happiness is the object and design of our existence..." To quote Lehi: "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." To quote Guide to the Scriptures: "The purpose of mortal life is for all people to have joy." Love is a divine attribute, incredibly important to be sure. But we do not develop divine attributes for the sake of having divine attributes. We do so because they allow us to experience a greater fullness of joy. It is the same with physical bodies. D&C 93:33-34 For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy. So if we want to narrow the purpose of life to a single reason it would be our happiness/joy, making everything else only a means to this end, including love.

In other news, here's how things are going for yours truly as a participant in the phase III Moderna trial: 1. Phone call: "Hi, this is the [COVID vaccine phase III trial people], calling for your routine health check. Any changes in your medical history?" "Nope" "Any changes to your medications?" "Nope" "Are you showing any COVID symptoms?" "Nope" "Thanks for your time, have a nice day!" 2. Text a few hours later: "Your Vaccine study debit card ending in XXXX has received funds in the amount of $27." I'm a year in next month. Probably have been paid a grand or so for my part in the study. Probably will get paid another couple hundred bucks over the next 2-3 years for the rest of the study. If I grow a toe out of my forehead or something, and can link it to the trial vaccine, all my medical bills will be covered. This is my first time through an experimental medical treatment program. They tell me this is on par with how they tend to work. Hence that classic Simpsons clip of Barney paying his bar tab with his medical experimentation winnings, and we see the back of his head shaved with wires hanging out. Other interesting things: - Whenever I have a change in my medical history (like having elective plastic surgery, or experiencing COVID-like symptoms after getting a shingles shot, or something), and I report it, after completing the medical interview about things, they pay me $90. Should I get sick and die of some random illness, that data would get entered into various databases like VAERS, and then ignorant folks who don't understand would claim "The vaccine kills some people up to a year after they get the shot!". - Every 3 or 4 months, I go in and give up to 8 vials of blood. One obvious test is the antibody test to see how long the vaccine remains effective. Some of the blood is frozen indefinitely for future tests they haven't thought to run yet.

In 2005, an episode (episode 7: Clash) of Justice League Unlimited aired which introduced Shazam (aka Captain Marvel) to the Justice League. Shazam, for those of you who don't know, is a 10 year-old boy (Billy Batson) who was given vast powers on par with Superman. This was depicted in the recent movie of the same name. While he magically has the "Wisdom of Solomon", there are times when the 10-year old boy's outlook overshadows that wisdom. The excitement that he felt when inducted into the League was a prime example. He showed a lot more eagerness than a mature, powerful superhero may have normally felt on such an occasion. Further childlike eagerness was displayed when sent out on his first several assignments. At some point, the Justice League noticed that Lex Luthor was doing some "humanitarian" work that was larger in scope and further out of his character than ever before. They obviously get suspicious. But Shazam looks at how much time and energy Lex has been spending on the good of the world around him and decides that he must have turned over a new leaf. He decides to give him the benefit of the doubt. The rest of the League, however, is not convinced. They cannot stand the fact that, with all their combined resources and abilities, they cannot figure out what Lex's true plan is. This festers and fumes until Superman decides to snoop a bit too much. When he determines that there is a lead lined underground area, that must be the location of the "true" plot. So he attempts to tear it apart. Realizing that this is against the law, Shazam stops Superman from destroying Lex's project. They eventually CLASH in a big way and end up tearing everything apart, partially due to Superman's rage and partially due to the fight they end up having. After things are torn apart and the lead lined area is exposed, they discover... Nothing. There was absolutely nothing wrong happening. The reason for the lead lined chamber was that the generator which created "clean energy" was powered by Kryptonite. And he didn't want it to harm Superman or anyone else. (For those who don't know, Kryptonite can do some damage to humans over prolonged exposure.) Lex takes it all on the chin with a "Well, no harm done. This can be rebuilt" message for the cameras (the news was all over the fight between Superman and Shazam). While the League is in the middle of a damage control meeting (publicity) Shazam shows up and declares that he's leaving the Justice League because "I wanted to join you because you were my heroes. But you just don't act like heroes anymore." All this is done to the point where, even the audience is wondering if Lex truly did change for the better. But then... The big reveal is that Lex planned the whole thing. He purposefully put on this huge charade where he truly was doing nothing wrong, just to enrage the Justice League to the point where they would not be able to contain themselves anymore. And for Shazam to get into that fight with Superman was just icing on the cake. Lex couldn't have planned for a better way for it to explode. Later... Shazam decides that if the Justice League are not heroes anymore, then he'll go work for the one guy who acted like a gentleman and a hero throughout the entire event... Lex Luthor.

Totally hear you and agree with this assessment. I simply didn't read the Buzzfeed article further since that type of "Trump lies" bias is repetitive old news at this point. If 'journalist' would give me something new that was biased I'd most likely read it. I'm not opposed to hearing the other side, but once I've heard it, I don't need to hear it 99 more times to get the point. 👍

I stopped reading after that. Is any media/news outlet unbiased any longer? I think journalism has gone the way of the dinosaur at this point, extinct. All we are left with now is opinion pieces disguised as news. Oh, you are not wrong to have a bad reaction at the transparently blinder-wearingly-one-sided bias here. But something to consider: When you play golf, you think about the wind direction, and you swing to the left or right because you expect the wind will blow the ball towards the hole. It's the same deal reading news - any news - from any source. There is always a wind direction, the secret is to be able to tell which way the wind is blowing and adjust your information gathering appropriately. The buzzfeed article, for example - presents many useful facts (the hole). The biased commentary is just the wind. IMO, you do yourself a disservice when you refuse to expose yourself to known bias, just because it ain't your bias. Because: - Sun Tzu's "know thy enemy" is good advice. - The (probably fake) Ancient Native American wisdom to "walk a mile in a foe's moccasins" is good advice. - The Lord's commandment to "love thy neighbor" and "forgive thy enemy" are both much easier if you understand them. And they're also good bits of advice.

Same. I felt like garbage after my second shot, but it’s better than actually having Covid.

Sorry to hear about the 'fun' day you're having. The stress headache probably doesn't have anything to do with the shot. If you have symptoms, they'll likely show up tomorrow. Common ones include fever, or sore arm, or general fatigue/feeling lousy. The symptoms tend to disappear totally within a day, so if anything shows up tomorrow, it should be gone by the day after. I remember when I got my 2nd shot I had that general achey/feeling lousy feeling the next day. Of course it was my day to clean the church, so I had to groan my way through it.

I do not believe that anything can be described without a bias. There is no such thing as news or history without a bias. In my mind the problem is not that there is bias in news or history - the problem is the attempt to cover up any and all bias. The most evil of opinions are the opinions that do not understand their bias or deliberately lie about it. If my personal bias is not obvious - I will be glad to state it clearly. The Traveler

I honestly do not believe that there has been an honest election in my lifetime (75 years). The argument that there is not enough illegal votes to sway the election is about the most damning political argument about elections I have ever heard. But I am becoming as concerned over the rhetoric. It seems that there is more desire to divide our country than to unite us. I think we are moving more towards burning down whatever is left and starting over with something new than fixing the real problem - which I believe to be the refusal to follow the rule of law when it does not result in what we think we want. The Traveler

Oldie but goodie.

My mom wouldn't stop nagging me, so I got my shot today under the condition that she be there with me in case I had a reaction. Today is the only day of the week I don't have fixed plans for work or other activities in the evening, so it's my only real shot. ...But dad decided he had plans for today on top of what mom already had, and so it was close to 2:30 PM by the time I got my shot. On a normal Tuesday, I'd have done my errands around 9 AM, gotten home, and gotten right on my paperwork. Instead, I waited until about 11 AM to give them the benefit of the doubt before doing my own errands because I wanted to give them time, and instead it was 2 PM before they finished up with theirs. Had I done things to my schedule, I'd have already been done with paperwork when the office called to let me know some customers hadn't gotten their papers. Instead, I had to drop everything *yet again* to run, re-deliver those papers, and come back. I'm now several hours behind, missed an important message about some people from church getting spoof friend requests (meaning I'm now worried about my Facebook account), and now have a blazing stress headache. It's 6 PM local, and I figure it'll be about 10 PM local before I'm done with what I need to do. This is the kind of snafu I was hoping to avoid, but she just wouldn't stop. She knows I have issues with stress, she knows I'm likely on the autism spectrum to the point that I need to get in to see someone, but she just wouldn't let up. Once again, her drama became my drama, and I'm paying for it. (And no, so much of my paycheck goes for Obamacare that I can't even afford regular medical checkups, let alone rent on a place of my own.)

Mormons pray for “rain”, but only give thanks for “moisture”.

Truth is not truth unless it's spoken by an approved source.

The CDC wants their cake and eat too, but they can't have it both ways. They want us to fully embrace their numbers when it comes to Covid deaths, but on the other hand completely ignore/discredit the numbers on VAERS Vaccine related deaths. Both stats derive their data from imperfect sources, so why are we told only to believe one and ignore the other? The VAERS database belongs to the CDC, but when/if the data doesn't support their narrative they want to distance themselves from it. The VAERS disclaimer states: The exact excuses (incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, unverifiable, biases) are the same reasons their Covid death numbers can't be relied upon either (See Death Certificate post above). Again the CDC says, "We have no biases, believe us, trust us, our numbers are accurate, but only if those numbers agree with what we want them to say". Like my girl Padmé, I have a vote of "no confidence" in the CDC right now.

I've tried to figure out Eve's leg in the past. Best I can figure out is the following, which makes sense... BUT is nonetheless just awkward in the piece of art.

I'd like to interject something not germane to the topic, but with this quote. It is important to note that Shakespeare never said this. He wrote it to be said by the character Plonius. The nit-picky distinction here is that Polonius was kind of a doofus. And these "pearls of wisdom" that he was imparting to his son as he was preparing to head out to school abroad were considered cliche'd and naive attempts at wisdom. Things that they teach you in kindergarten kind of things. The fact these very trite sayings were the best that Polonius could come up with were an indication of how much of a fool he was. Such was his lack of mental capacity. He also didn't follow his own advice. Today, people tend to invoke them as profound, when it was never meant to be that way by Shakespeare, himself.

The Moral: No matter how justified the "good guys" may believe they are in doing something wrong, they are always held to a higher standard.

Superman never asked. He just went barreling in without any permission or questions. It was only after the melee that Lex had the opportunity to explain anything. My fuzzy memory says that there was a brief moment where Lex even tried explaining, but Superman chose to ignore him. You also had to see the previous episodes that gave a HUGE backstory to his "change". But it was ALL a show. Yes, Shazam was impressionable. And even though the JLA was wrong about how they went about it, they were right about Lex being up to something. There was a longer term goal that went beyond disgracing the JLA. It was quite complex for a kids' show.

This member of the audience isn't wondering. Lex is bright enough to know he should have shown folks the kryptonite, rather than keep it a secret. Of course it was all done to sow dissention. Makes sense that Shazam, still an impressionable child, isn't yet well versed in how insidious evil can be, and falls for it.

A little more info: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahmimms/twitter-suspends-audit-accounts-trump I'm guessing Twitter's excuse may have been that these accounts tweeted photos of posts instead of actual posts, as a way to get around Twitter's AI. When did life become a chapter out of the book Neuromancer?

Oh, they'll still vote......

Today, both official Arizona audit Twitter accounts have been suspended. Suppose if you can ban a ex President, an election audit is nothing more than a minor speed bump to sweep under the rug.

To be pedantic and nit pick the stink out of this......... that's not really an "and". Killing a baby is included in "not having" them. (Unrelated anecdote: The other day I was playing a video game with my daughter (who's 4) and we were just shooting a wall over and over again and I just kind of commented casually, "Man, we're shooting the stink out of this wall!" A while later, mommy came in the room and my daughter jumped up and exclaimed, "Mommy, we shooted the smell out of it!")