Fiannan

You know, a member of Sweden's Christian party's leadership (I think on the local or regional level) thought one solution to Sweden's low birthrate was to require the state channels to run porn all day long on Saturdays to get Swedes thinking about sex and (hopefully) taking up more maternity beds when the inevitable occured. She caused some controversy with this but maybe she had a point since Swedes are hardly known for their passion and as for sensuality that is a Hollywood media-created myth. Maybe a few people need a jump start -- not that I am saying anything positive (in the moral sense) about porn. Just something I thought was interesting.

Socialism is collectivism imposed by the state to force conformity -- sounds like Marx and Saddam's boyfriend from the Southpark movie had the same idea.

I believe it is satire. The point is that the Indians could not resist the immigrations from Europe and look what happened to them.

Didn't notice that -- was sick that morning. Glad you liked the cartoon.

It\s in #5 Dr.T

One should consider the principles contained in this quote. Often members set such high standards for themselves that it is impossible to maintain them (much like the Hebrews of old). These folk are often quick to judge others harshly for not maintaining as good of appearances as they do -- or at least try to do. However, perhaps these good rule keepers are under much harsher judgement than people who at least admit their weaknesses, strive to improve them, and at the same time (while not condoning sin) are caring and open to people despite what behaviors they may be engaging in.

Perhaps, but wouldn't you say that the cartoon is basically attacking immigration using irony? The Indians could not keep foreigners out of their territories and look what happened to them! Of course the Book of Mormon makes it clear that as long as those peoples remained rightious they could have this new world but once they depart from God's ways the remanents of Jacob would take it back. Ever notice that the purveyers of evil (i.e. the media, the supreme court, etc) in our society pushed for loosening up morals and attacking our basic heritage in the late 1960s and early 1970s by attacking prayer in schools, creating an assult on anything positive about our heritage, making abortion a sacrament and trying to make having children seem as a sin against nature? The birthrate fizzled and now we have to maintain a parasitic relationship towards nations where family morality is still strong so we won't have labor shortages. You know, one of the 10 Commandments says that if you honor your father and mother your days will be long in the land. Pride in our culture is fought against by many in our state-run schools, media, etc. and one can see that as quickly as we buy into an ethic such as this we will be replaced.

Serg, good information. Thanks.

http://www.current.tv/pods/supernews/PD03437 After viewing this pro-immigration video one is left with the positive aspects of immigration. The native people featured seem concerned over the foreign influx, but hey...what about all the possible benefits? http://www.current.tv/pods/supernews/PD03437

The polls I have seen show that McCain would kick Hillary's glutteus maximus with little trouble while Gulliani would beat her by a smaller margin. Personally, I'd like to see a McCain/Romney ticket. Of course it would be interesting to see Reid try to run for the Democratic nomination (there's no literacy test after all) but then again he is too conservative to even dream of getting the Democratic nomination. Ironic isn't it?

Wow, nobody finds this article dealing with how cannibalism was used by the Aztec and the descriptions of what the Nephites and Lamanites were doing with each other quite fascinating? The type of cannibalism the preists were using and the revenge the Aztec army was using on their victims may be subtle support for the events as described by Mormon to his son Moroni in chapter 9 of Moroni.

Maybe he'll be an Amish werewolf!

Strawberry Fields, Bat666 claims to be a vampire. So the mosquitoes had better watch out -- he might bite THEM! So Bat, what's your favorite vampire movie? Mine are Bram Stoker's Dracula, the first Blade, the Russian movie Nightwatch, and John Carpenter's Vampires. When I was a kid I really enjoyed Dark Shadows. Then there is the all-time classic, the movie that should have won an oscar in all categories... Blackula. Oh, and Bat, if you were a real vampire wouldn't that rib have healed up pretty quickly?

sgallen, I'll bet if an LDS person posted something about home schooling and admitted that they were reading from certain texts in hopes that their kids would be faithful LDS people you would call it indoctrination. Am I right?

Agreed! I don't know how much theater relaease it had in the US but I would hope it would be available in any DVD rental or sales shop. Not sure wehn #2 will come out but I'll certainly watch it when it does.

I think all rays have poison stingers. When I was fishing for parahna in Venezuela I hooked one and one of the locals was very carefull to extract the hook and throw it back in the river.

Just saw the Russian vampire movie "Nightwatch" the other evening. Wow, a movie with great special effects (even though done on a limited budget) and a plot that is highly complex. I especially liked the idea of forces of good and evil keeping a sort of check on each other -- not allowing one to overpower the other and the idea of freedom of choice being central to the plot (both the good and the bad agents are vampires or any other assortment of supernatural beings). It does leave one wondering about the influence of spirits (good and bad) on people's lives (remember Job) and just how far God allows (and how) influence to be extended into this world. This film is a trilogy and this is only the first part. It is in Russian (anyone who has any interest in Russia will note the realistic background in the filming) but the subtitles are not hard to keep up with. It is one of those films you may want to watch twice to get a firm grip on whe plot.

I understand what you are getting at Almom. And I also hate Warren Jeffs being associated with Mormons in general. I think the thing that makes me maddest about his sect is that since Mr. Jeffs took over it's as if his church makes the quantity of wives all important in one's salvation. Most polygamists seem to be satisfied with two or three wives (or even just one -- many Mormon polygamist sects don't actually require polygamy but allow it). Mr Jeffs has been reported to have 60 wives (now while many of these wives are his late father's wives and may be a tad bit older than him, if we assume even half are young then that's 30!). For the guys at the top to have so many wives they have to find a way to get rid of the competition (teenage males). So they have become so strict that even wearing a short sleave shirt is enough to get banished. So from what I understand, a woman might have 5 girls and 4 boys but may see two or three boys kicked out -- and banashment means being thown out of town literally. That's just not right and for that alone Mr. Jeffs deserves eternal marriage with Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, Madeline Allbright and 68 other "hotties".

I am not so sure about this. You cannot honestly say that every polygamist is out to get a herd of women to control any more than you can say every Muslim would delight in slitting hte throat of every infidel (non-Muslim). Yes, there are your hyper-controlling Warren Jeffs in the world of polygamy but I can assure you there are many millions more monogamist males (and females for that matter) that also have the authoritarian mindset. I never got the idea that Tom Green was some sort of control freak (I saw him featured in several documentaries before some fascists in Utah decided to show the world, prior to the Olympics, that polygamy was a thing of the past and should not be associated with Utah -- which totally blew up in their faces -- and Green did seem a devout and caring husband and father). It's tempting to say that in the next life things will be easier and problems with complex family situations won't exist. Yeah, so why not avoid marriage in this life and let God be the great cosmic matchmaker in the next life? Why do missionary work here when maybe there will be an easier time in Heaven? That's just not what we should be doing. In this life we are not perfect -- we make mistakes all the time -- but God expects us to use this life as a teaching and leearning experience. THe fundamentalists believe that the time to enter into family relationships is in this life and so I won't fault them for that. So yes, we can be prejudice towards polygamists and believe they are all mind controlling cultists but that is no more fair than when Swedes believe ALL believers in God are just ignorant victims of mind control.

No I did not say that. However, just because society puts no NC-17 on soap operas that does not mean they are not as bad. Come to think of it wasn't it Spencer W. Kimball who warned against watching these programs? In a typical porn flick you have people having sex in the most absurd plots. You also have equally absurd stage names for the atresses and actors (remember Long Dong Silver from the Clarance Thomas confirmation hearings? That name is forever immortalized the The Congressional Record of the United States.). For the most part ADULT viewers know these programs are pure fantasy. However, when one is exposed to a lot of daytime and prime time programs where there is no nudity (and only virtual sex) many of these people think they are unaffected. Yet there are ideologies contained in the soaps that are more dangerous in the sense that viewers may not filter the hyper-immorality out and they start accepting thelifestyles presented as okay and "what everyone is doing". Just as an example of the power of these mediums, a few years back the Mexican government decided that the birtrhrate was too high. Some foundations stepped in and got together with writers and producers of soap operas. They intentionally created storylines that made small families seem attractive and larger ones not. The use of these soaps is credited with the drastic decline in births in the late 70s and the 1980s. Not that I would want my kids viewing porn rather than prime time TV but let's get real -- prime time and daytime TV is (overall) more destructive to American cultural character than porn is.

The general premise of a soap opera (Anglo ones, not Hispanic ones) is a bunch of hedonists with emotional problems trying to sort out who is the father of the illegitimate baby -- who grows to adulthood in less than seven years. At least with porn you know you are walking through the swamp -- with soaps you have a blindfold on. The message behind the soaps is probably more dangerous than those of porn since many are teaching values that run totally contrary to God's laws, but are mixed in with nice looking people and messages that are designed to go under the radar of the filtering section of the mind.

Seems like the site is still in its infancy stage. Also, is there a site devoted to women who are addicted to soap operas and those romance novels that are basically only a tad bit less explicite than a Penthouse reader's forum? And don't read into that a thing...I have not seen one of those magazines opened since I was in high school.

Hey thanks Jason. I also like your post -- good logic and history. A collegue brought up the story today and she asked me if I'd heard about the Mormon guy arrested yesterday. I took the opportunity to explain the difference between the Mormon stand and the fundamentalist Mormon stand on polygamy as well as government organization. Finally I just said that it was like looking at Lutherans and Catholics. The Lutherans split from the Catholics. Both still call themselves Christian however, although up until Vatican 2 many Catholics considered Protestants somewhat like apostates and maybe a little less than Christian. Kinda like the way many Mormons look upon the fundamentalists. I would urge people to consider the fundamentalists are who they are because they refused to obey a church directive. They still revere modern prophets until President Woodruf came along and they use the same standard Mormon scriptures the general Mormon Church uses. And judging from some of the documentaries I have seen it looks like they buy many of their goods at LDS stores because their homes have the same general pictures of Christ, Mormon-culture statues people display in their homes, etc. I'll bet many even pick up educational materials from church distribution centers.

Hey, I have a really funny Brigham Young joke -- but it's a bit PG 13ish. Is it okay to post it?

That might be true. Perhaps a relationship where if the husband or wife find something interesting on the net they admit it and share it with each other is a way to make sure an addiction doesn't take place. Think that might work? I am not a fan of porn but perhaps a relationship where the couple is honest with each other might be healthier than one where one spouce is judgemental and would go all ballistic if they found out their husband or wife was checking out sites on the net. Opinions?