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Unfortunately, it is not about availability. It is about government intervention. Lumber can be grown at a very fast rate. With more supply, lower costs. But government is preventing private forests through environmental and tax intervention. Property taxes are just plain too high. Cities and counties have overly restrictive building codes. And the enforcement by untrained bureaucrats causes compliance costs to go through the roof. Minimum wage causes all the little expenses to go up. And they add up pretty fast. Put it all together, and there is no way to build a cheap home.

Hey, we all work from home now anyway, and I'll bet sellers would get on the delivery-drone bandwagon real quick... (And don't you dare go asking how employees are going to get to work to load and fly those drones, I'm enjoying my imaginary isolation over here, so they're just going to have to build better robots!)

We bought our home in 2009 at 225k. It appraised about a year back at 620k. We did finish the basement in that time, so that explains some small part of it. But we don't have a big fancy house by any means. This made me think of the interviews I've seen recently with Michael Malice and his anarchism philosophies. He has some interesting ideas. I like a lot of his thoughts. But no government? Really? That's gonna work out.

Moroni 7 (Moroni's recounting of Mormon's teachings to the people of the church) v2: When you are called, remember who it is that called you. Be humble and grateful. v3: If you follow Christ, you will strive to be "peaceable" and obtain hope. In Mormon's day, this must have defined the followers as there was so much wickedness and violence that only those with a firm hope could have followed Christ. v5-21: @askandanswer has demonstrated the difficulty of defining and judging what constitutes good and evil. Mormon's words, "by their works ye shall know them", and using the third person: "a man" and "him" and "he", sure sound like "here's how to tell whether another person is good or evil". But he goes on to speak about how God will judge the described actions and their motivations. So perhaps Mormon is instructing people in what to do and not do to be judged righteous by God. Whatever he intended, we cannot judge another's intent (unless they (or the Spirit) tell(s) it), so when I read these things, I read from the perspective not of how to judge what anyone else is doing (or at least, not to condemn or unrighteously judge), but how to know what I should do. To that end (in the following, "thing" might be an object, person, event, thought, emotion, behavior, etc.): When you do what is right (e.g. offer a gift, pray), do it with "real intent". Don't begrudge the gift you intend to give (figure out how to change your heart so that you don't covet your own possessions, so that you can truly be generous). Pray with real intent - the only meaning I can think of for this is "pray with the intent to act in harmony with whatever answer God gives you". This is harder than it sounds. It requires serious humility. Follow Christ. If something comes from God, choose to receive it as good (even if you don't like it or don't want to - reject the natural man reaction and force yourself to accept it as good). If something comes from Satan, no matter how appealing, reject it as evil. If a thing encourages me to do as Christ did (good), or to love and serve God, it's good. If it discourages me from following Christ, it's bad. Rely on the Spirit of Christ (what some call your conscience) to teach good from evil. By choosing good, one's perception of this guidance is ever honed and refined so that what you thought good as a child is no longer good enough as an adult, etc. I have personally experienced this. There are things that my younger self thought acceptable that my older self cannot accept - they are not good enough. If it encourages me to believe in Christ, it's good. If it discourages that belief, it's bad. If it discourages me from serving God, it's of the devil. Lots of things discourage me from serving God. And I think things can flip - if I want to stay home from Sunday meetings, or ministering, or whatever good work so I can go fountain pen shopping, (my attitude and behavior toward) those pens have become evil. But if I use them to take notes in Church, to write a thank you card, or encouraging letter, now they are helping me to serve God and are good. If a thing cannot be used to serve God, it may well be something that should be removed from your life. Beware of the phrase, "there's nothing wrong with" - if the best you can say about a thing or behavior is that there's nothing wrong with it - if you can't say, "here is what's right / good with" it - then maybe it's not worthy. Invite the light of Christ into my life. Move ever into it, never away from it. Enhance my tolerance for that light (the natural man hates this light). Strengthen my ability to be in that light. Diligent effort is required to search, by the light of Christ, for what is good or evil - it's not obvious! (v19) We must work for it. And when we see a good thing, "lay hold upon" it! (If we don't, we will lose our perception or sensitivity to the light.) Faith is required to lay hold upon good things! (v21) (Remember, in the preceding, "thing" might be an object, person, event, thought, emotion, behavior, etc.) Judging good and evil is not an on-off switch. It is a gift and a skill we develop as we search in the light of Christ (hard to search for things in the dark). As we choose good and reject evil, our ability to distinguish between them will increase and we will increasingly choose better and then best. (Or worse and worst, I suppose, but don't go that way!) And while good and bad are in fact absolutes (God and nothing of God), during mortality, the choices for every person are relative to where they are and what they know at that moment. If you consistently choose the better option before you, you will become better and perceive better options than you previously knew existed until you are righteous. If you consistently choose the worse option before you, you will become worse and perceive worse options than you previously knew existed until you are downright evil. Chose the better and best options - seek for them, ask for the ability to discern them. v21: We're gonna talk about faith now. v22-23: The foundation of faith is that God knows all, and that "in Christ there should come every good thing", and that God has sent angels and prophets to teach these things. v24: After the fall, no good thing could come, except for Christ. IMO, pondering on this could help to define "good" and teach how to discern "good". At least in part, and perhaps as a beginning: the fall separated us from God. Christ offers a way for us to return to God. Thus, that which separates us from God is bad. That which brings us back to God is good. Mormon is clearly talking about the ultimate good here. Not: "cake and ice cream - good, Brussels sprouts - bad" (or vice versa, ), nor "new car - good, broken car - bad", nor "healthy - good, have the flu - bad". But rather: "separated from God - bad, with God - good". Thus, we could define our measuring as: does this bring me closer to God or does it keep me separated from God? v25: We exercise our faith in Christ by living as God has instructed - keeping commandments and covenants. This is how we "lay hold upon every good thing" - now "good thing" starts to be more specific. v26: And now we learn what to pray for - that which is good, that which God has spoken, that which will bring us back to God - but we must have faith, believing that we can in fact be brought back to God. v27: Interesting that it now goes straight to miracles with no apparent transition. Receiving the things prayed for in v26 is perhaps the miracle addressed in v27. "...to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men" - The Atonement is what allowed Christ to claim these rights. The Atonement isn't what helps you and I, Christ is. v28: Have faith in Christ so that he will claim you as his - and have mercy on you. If you have faith in Christ, you will "cleave" to good things (that which brings you back to God, which is Christ, his gospel, ordinances, and covenants). v30: Strengthen your faith and firm your mind. "in every form of godliness" - in other words, in the covenants of the temple! v31: The work of angels is to call people to repentance and the work of covenants. It occurs to me that this includes the covenants we make in the temple - the Father makes promises to us as well as we to him, and angels minister "to do the work of the covenants of the Father". Bear testimony of Christ! v32: Share the gospel with "the residue of men", so that they can have faith in Christ! v33: Faith in Christ gives you power to do Christ's will (not some arbitrary thing, not what you want, what Christ wills). v35+: If miracles and ministering angels and the Holy Ghost are missing from your life, repent, come unto Christ, and exercise faith in him. v39: Those with faith in Christ will be meek. v40+: Faith and hope feed one another. Faith in Christ, hope for the blessings Christ promises. v43: Meekness and lowliness of heart required for faith and hope (after all, you're trusting Christ for everything - no room for pride here). v44+: We need the gift of Charity. Plead for it (v48), practice it, pursue the virtues it encompasses (v45). Be a true follower of Christ (v48) or you cannot receive it. v47: Love Christ with all your heart, and you will receive his love for all others.

I'm not sure government and taxes is sufficient to explain the fact that our house is worth 3 times the amount we originally bought it for 15ish years back though.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, Rush addressed only one president after Obama (which would make Rush's total count only 19), but the way the vision reads, there has to be two presidents after Obama (in order to get the 20 found in the vision), and the second of these (Biden) will serve for a shorter time than the first of these (Trump). Rush didn't need to know who would come after Trump, but just from the vision, it's clear someone would. Rush missed that altogether (this baffles me to no end - that's how clear it is in the text of II Esdras 11 & 12).

Not in the manger, but they may have stayed in Bethlehem. Nope. Not even the two hours to Jerusalem. That's why I figured they likely found somewhere in Bethlehem. Once the census was over, it shouldn't have been that hard...

You meant federal government, right @Emmanuel Goldstein? Because otherwise...

I have an alternate take. Probably highly controversial. Stuffing cooked inside the turkey is gross. Stovetop is the best! I'm not saying that just to be contrary. I legitimately prefer Stovetop. Every time I go to a family gettogether where they've done some fancy schmancy stuffing I don't like it as well. Stovetop is, however, good, and every time we do our cheap out-of-the-box approach to stuffing/dressing, I enjoy it and crave more. It's one of my favorite parts of turkey dinners. Either way, what comes out of a turkey is slimey, disgusting slop.

Paris temple.