Vort

Anyone like memorizing stuff? Things like states and state capitals, presidents, prophets/apostles, the periodic table of elements, or whatever. If so, what kinds of things do you enjoy memorizing? Have you realized any benefits beyond self-satisfaction?

I bet a prophet's prayer generally sounds a lot like our prayers.

I have made the same argument vis-à-vis the kerfuffle in years past about vicarious baptism for Holocaust victims. The action is either meaningful or it is not. If it's meaningful, then it should be done, and there can be no rational argument that it ought not be done. If it's not meaningful, then why raise a cry of persecution about something that literally affects no one? Sadly, only a minority see the obviousness of the argument. Most of the rest stare in appalled astonishment that anyone would actually utter such words.

Carthago delenda est!

I agree with all of your response except for the above. I realize you're probably engaging in self-deprecating humor, but to be serious for a moment, in my lifetime and experiences I have not often observed a woman I thought to be much above her husband's spiritual station. Not that I have any special gift of discerning people's spiritual abilities, but couples seem to me most often pretty well-matched for each other in ability or level. The old, humorously intended saw about "my better half" seem increasingly inapplicable in today's society, where 70+% of divorces are initiated by the wife (mostly not due to adultery or abuse) and young women openly and quite proudly refer to themselves as "whores". We should teach our sons to be worthy of their future wives, and then we should teach them to expect virtue from those they date and to reject as unfit those women who do not meet basic standards of decency and morality.

I'm glad my culture isn't stupid like that.

I watched a documentary where earthlings who interface with the interstellar community gather their intel from the tabloids.

I'm sure you're mistaken. Godless has assured us that almost no one is transgender. Just an insignificant, tiny little percentage. It's all just conservative panic. Conservatives just need to respond to actual facts like the leftists do, and not invent false things out of whole cloth and observation of what's going on around them.

Your attempt at showing the two as "exactly the same" fails because it actually points up the fundamental difference between the delusional Left and the far less delusional Right. The "Left" summary is word-for-word what they say, and is patently false. The "Right" summary, though a ridiculous overstatement, is a fundamentally true description of the Left's efforts. That's the difference: The Right, which according to Godless operates purely on emotion, is correctly identifying the Left's modus operandi, including especially their attempts to normalize their perversion by literally teaching it to the children. The Left, which according to Godless operates on pure, unsullied Reason, overly lies about both the motives and the actions of the Right.

Right, because gender dynamics are scientific, and when campus kids argue about the virtue of pretending a man is really a woman and that parading transvestites in front of our kindergarteners is a good thing, that's fact-based.

Which is why I could never faithfully practice the piano. Musicians are insane.

I don't see how this is enforceable in any real sense. If you can't prosecute someone for perjury when he brazenly lies in open court and you have the video to back it up, how could anyone ever be convicted of non-reporting?

If people compare their situations under Trump vs. Biden, Trump will win. I don't know why lefties think Biden is somehow attractive. He is not. He is nearing Hillary-level repulsiveness. If it's a matter of which guy we hate less, well, a lot of people (minority, but a lot) love Trump and see him as some sort of savior. And many others who haven't been brainwashed by the overwhelmingly leftist media view Trump, as I do, as a difficult and often unpleasant character who nevertheless was an effective head of state. If Trump does get nominated, I hope the Dems and other lefties keep up their smug attitude of "Trump can't win". It'll be 2016 all over again.

🤣 What gender are you today?

It's purely an indictment of the deeply corrupt media. When they actually do their job, it's remarkable. And it's also for a reason they want, not because they want to spread the truth. Biden won't be reelected. The man is clearly senile. The media finally understands this, that even after all their help, the candidate is helpless. So they want another candidate.

Let me add one more thought. I think the word "destroyed" is giving you problems. Consider 1 Nephi 17:29-31. Yea, and ye also know that Moses, by his word according to the power of God which was in him, smote the rock, and there came forth water, that the children of Israel might quench their thirst. And notwithstanding they being led, the Lord their God, their Redeemer, going before them, leading them by day and giving light unto them by night, and doing all things for them which were expedient for man to receive, they hardened their hearts and blinded their minds, and reviled against Moses and against the true and living God. And it came to pass that according to his word he did destroy them; and according to his word he did lead them; and according to his word he did do all things for them; and there was not any thing done save it were by his word. Please note that the destruction of the children of Israel did not (in this case) mean their utter extermination. Destruction here means being undone as a people, uprooted and chased away, something like that. Also, please note that this prophecy was fulfilled to the letter, not at the destruction of the Nephite nation a thousand or so years after Lehi's journey, but much earlier. As you pointed out, Jarom reports that the people were threatened with destruction, and in verse 12 reports that they were kept from destruction by the diligent labors of the prophets, priests, and teachers. But only two generations later (Omni 5), "the more wicked part of the Nephites were destroyed." This destruction took place probably 150 years or so after Lehi left Jerusalem. This would have been something around 50 years after Jarom's time. So the prophecy was fulfilled, not immediately, but within a few generations.

I think of Abinadi, threatening the Nephite people with a curse if they don't repent. I think of Abinadi returning a few years later, informing the Nephites that they were now under the curse, and if they didn't repent they would be wiped out. I think of Moses' admonitions to the wicked children of Israel, and of the destructions that visited them in their wickedness. I think of Jeremiah raising a voice of warning; surely Jeremiah's proclamations could not be distinguished from threats. I think of the Lord in his mortal sojourn, telling/warning/threatening the people that they would flee before their pursuers, and wo be in that day unto those who give suck. I think of the risen Lord chastising Joseph for his foolish obstinacy in the Martin Harris affair with pages from his precious translation, which sounds to me like a threat. When I look up the Oxford definition of "threat", it sounds exactly like what the Lord has done through the ages. He warns of calamities that will visit the wicked. How is that not a threat? I believe I understand the nuance you're getting at, but in the end I don't think it's much of an argument. God warns the wicked and calls them to repentance. Is that a threat? Well, yes, it is, if you don't repent. I think that's the point.

What would a prophetic warning of divine destruction sound like? What would a prophetic threat of divine destruction sound like? I think the two are synonymous.

https://babylonbee.com/news/awkward-supreme-court-rules-against-affirmative-action-with-affirmative-action-hire-standing-right-there https://babylonbee.com/news/democrats-devastated-as-supreme-court-bans-racism

For the record—and I know I'm in the distinct minority—I greatly enjoy a good lecture. A gospel doctrine class structured as a (good) lecture is, to me, much more useful than the usual mishmash of people reading verses in isolation and then sporadically offering personal glosses, off-the-cuff insights, and semirelevant anecdotes. I'm unhappy to see "lecture" included as the far-left-hand (bad) opposite to "inspired discussion". I don't think that's fair or accurate. That said, I think I understand what the chart is trying to convey. I still maintain that lecturing, per se, is not the problem, and that teaching through lecture has resulted in some of the very best classroom experiences I have ever had. But the Church is trying to push something on a more fundamental level, something that transcends what we normally do. So I'll get behind that effort.

100% accurate. By the way, does anyone else insist on saying/writing "Jarom 10" instead of "Jarom 1:10"?

I am neither politically astute nor a lawyer, but to me the meaning seems evident enough. It has been widely recognized for over a century that conscription in the US armed services provides a pathway to social and educational advancement for many, including especially for the socioeconomically disadvantaged. Since the socioeconomically disadvantaged are disproportionately black, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force provide an attractive possibility to the black community as a whole (if such a beast exists, which I doubt). "Community" or not, black people have profited from service to their country, and as a result, the country as a whole has benefited. It is arguable at best that higher rates of conscription of black people benefits the purely military activities of the armed services, but I think the total societal benefit is obvious. Roberts appears to be making the (rather obvious, IMO) observation that the military plays by different rules from everyone else, and therefore if the military decides that a racially biased admissions policy is on the whole beneficial, this present ruling will not necessarily apply in that situation. He's not saying it's okay for the military to be racist, only that if the military is racist, this particular ruling will not necessarily hold for that case.

Rarefied reports.

You are mistaken, my friend. To come back, you only need to be rebaptized -- the same requirement that has always existed. After you have been rebaptized for a year or so, the stake president will interview you and review your time since rebaptism. If you have a testimony of the gospel and a true desire to follow Christ, and if your actions over the previous year confirm this, he will notify the First Presidency, asking that your blessings be restored. Upon approval, he will lay his hands on your head and restore your blessings. Your original baptismal date will still show. Your original line of authority will remain unchanged. Your original covenants, including the date you received them, will be restored. You have lost nothing except the decades that you lived beneath your privileges. Come back and start claiming those blessings.

Eventful day today. Master carried the metal plates across the state. I cleared his path of squirrels, doing my part to carry the work forward. It is hard but rewarding; Master pets me several times per day, for which he is gratefully thanked with my slobber. Mutually rewarding doggy symbiosis. It's been pretty cool these last fifteen hundred or so years--no fleas! Not once! That's not the whole story, though. It must be said that every night for the last 600 years, Master feeds me a bowl of dog food. Nothing but dog food for the last six centuries! Can you believe it? He sure loves me! Now someone write the cat version.