Vort

It has been at least a full generation, probably more like two, since the WSJ took over the place of "newspaper of record" from the loathsome NYT. I don't really read the WSJ any more, so I don't have a feel for its current journalistic practices. But I'll take it all day, every day, and twice on Sunday in preference to that NY rag.

My first thought was the pangram "Quartz glyph job vex'd cwm finks."

Don't pay me any mind. I'm just being cynical for the unsullied joy of rotting in my own private hell. In the end, Holmes will receive a small fraction of what should be legally due her. Those with political motivations will happily overlook her pure criminality so that they can tout their bottom line. Such is life in this fallen sphere. And I fear we are all guilty to some extent, though I believe honest people (present company included) try mightily to avoid doing such. It's been a bad few weeks, and I'm kind of grouchy. As I said, pay me no mind.

She's a victim, don'tcha know. A victim of oppression and prejudice against ambitious young women. Anyway, it wasn't her fault. It was the guy's fault, her loverboytoy. He got a stiffer sentence than her, so that pretty much proves it. Poor, poor Elizabeth, dragged against her will into shady dealings. She is not to blame. She's the victim, just as much as all those people who lost all their investments.

Very interesting, but this is certainly not proof or even strong evidence. Looks like someone's PhD dissertation idea. The land bridge idea is very compelling, but I'm certainly willing to entertain deep-sea routes. I agree with you that we severely underestimate the maritime skills of the ancients. It's like we assume that the Middle Egyptian model of sailing was the state of the art in the ancient world. Even at the time, that was not the case.

Really? I had not heard that. AFAIK, that's still our very best model, not only for human evolutionary origins but for the populating of the Americas.

I don't think either method will deliver the desired result. But given the choice, it seems to me that finding a geography that fits the descriptions well as given in the Book of Mormon would be a better guide to finding the authentic areas than trying to divine which blessings are being best fulfilled as per prophecy by which people in which area.

Oh, don't apologize. It was a joke. You were right to call me on my misattribution. I'm just slightly embarrassed that I typed that off without, you know, thinking about it.

Not to get out in the weeds, because I've always been happy to allow the couplet to stand alone and let the Spirit dictate meaning as needed, but the model of either-wicked-man-or-perfect-God is a false dichotomy. Christ was like us, yet still and always the Eternal God and Father of heaven and earth.

Oh, yeah, shame me for my misattribution. Very nice. As Joseph Smith said in General Conference, "Stop it."

What would God possibly need to be saved from? He is a perfect, all-powerful being with no sin or stain, the true Master and Creator of the entire universe. To borrow Emma Smith's phrase, the thought makes reason stare.

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And now President Nelson is all in on Think Celestial. D'oh!

Infant boys were circumcised on the eight day—that is, at seven days old, one week from their birth. Such one-based counting appears to be the standard in all or at least most ancient societies.

No. Laws are according to kingdoms. The celestial law exists only in the celestial kingdom, among those who inherit that kingdom. There is, for example, no eternal marriage outside the law of the celestial kingdom. It does not exist among the non-exalted, for that is the meaning of exaltation. We think of "sin" as something written on a list of do-nots, or perhaps something lacking from our personal list of should-dos. We are wrong. Sin is not the mere transgression of something someone said (even God). Sin means doing something false, something that transgresses the basic, fundamental moral physics of the universe itself. By "transgresses", I don't mean doing something impossible, because that is (by definition) impossible. Rather, to commit Moral Action A and then expect that the result will be Consequence B is sin. The consequence of Moral Action A is always Consequence A, never Consequence B. Choosing to commit Moral Action A, knowing full well that the consequence will be Consequence A (assumed to be something negative or destructive), is also sin, sin of a greater magnitude, the sinning of the damned. Those who live in terrestrial glory do so exactly because they abide a terrestrial law. Those who dwell in telestial conditions are allowed to do so because they obey telestial law. Those who will not conform to law are left to abide in a kingdom of no glory whatsoever, because being utterly lawless, they are incapable of receiving any glory to any degree. And the celestial will abide a celestial law, with the exalted receiving God's own fulness.

"Pleasant palaces" refers to various public buildings used by privileged government functionaries and the higher classes of people in Babylon (as well as other ancient empires). Those outward signs of opulence (and therefore decadence) will be left prey to savage beasts and monsters. I believe that's the general gist of things at this point of Isaiah.

Been a while since I saw that.

By the way, all or most of Nibley's lectures are available in print. Most of his best lectures were eventually incorporated into his books, anyway. But I would still advise you to listen to the man speak. He was a gifted speaker, just fascinating to listen to, and his delivery added significantly to the information he conveyed.

A great place to start is a 30-part lecture series Nibley gave over KSL radio in 1954, called "Time Vindicates the Prophets". Each bite-sized lecture is only ten to fifteen minutes long, and just fascinating. Here is the intro: Then there are thirty lectures after that. The final one is certainly the best, but you should listen to them all in order. After whetting your appetite with "Time Vindicates the Prophets", go to Nibley's speeches site on byu.edu (https://speeches.byu.edu/speakers/hugh-nibley/) and start listening. The featured talk there is his classic "Leaders and Managers", which is most certainly worth hearing, one of the really great commencement speeches you will ever hear (at least I assume it was a commencement speech), but every talk is a gem. Every one, literally. Even the not-so-good talks are good, and most are excellent. (The BYU site "Leaders and Managers" video also features a young BYU president Jeff Holland offering an introduction, which is kind of fun.)

Hugh Nibley, a late and eminent LDS scholar that many on this forum are familiar with, used to talk about how the ancient Christians in the early post-apostolic period would say that the devil likes to work with bottles only half-full of food or drink. A full bottle doesn't have any room for bugs or mold, and an empty bottle doesn't have anything to spoil. So the devil likes half-full bottles. Maybe the danger we as Christians experience is when we get half-full. Just enough understanding and even inspiration to be dangerous, but not enough to stay out of trouble.

I agree. That said, I am not utilizing the extra Sunday hour at home as I should be. So I admit that up front. I still miss the extra time in Church, now taken away from the precious few hours I used to have every week to fraternize with the best people outside of my own family that I know, the people I admire most and seek most to emulate.

What a kind gesture.

What exactly do you think Putin can do to materially help Trump in the election? And what exactly (or even approximately) do you think Trump would be willing to do to help Putin win a wildly unpopular war?

Man. Some people's children.

You got it.