Vort

The sword is attempting modesty by covering his blood channels.

LDS values are the values of the Latter-day Saints. I think the usage is perfectly acceptable.

My children (all adults now) like Brandon Sanderson's books. I have never read his work, but I know he is on record as rejecting prophetic counsel on homosexuality and appears to be embarrassed by the Church's distinctively non-progressive attitude on such topics. That alone is sufficient to make me profoundly uninterested in what Brother Sanderson has to say on pretty much any topic.

Ah, the beauty and the treachery of words, which after all exist only in the mind. Even the sonic patterns we create with our vocal cords and mouths, the ink arrangements on pages, and the pixel patterns you are currently reading are simply metasymbols, representations of the thought patterns we call words. And words, of course, are merely representations of the external ideas we discuss, our meager attempts to model an external, independently existing reality that we can never actually touch, but only dance around using our wordy thoughts in a struggle to understand and contemplate what's really out there in existence. We are a part of that existence, yet we can access it only t hrough our imperfect senses, and we can understand it only using the biochemical signals within and between our neurons. It's amazing, frightening, and confounding, yet we struggle through. Because what else are we do to? As Magritte says, | <- ceci n'est pas une pipe. (It's only a pixel pattern representing a pipe.)

LOL. What a great term.

The trial and conviction were classic kangaroo courts. Both were a joke, an embarrassing stain on American jurisprudence. The whole thing is political kabuki theater. If Republicans were to have pulled this kind of shameless crap, the media would have been hounding them nonstop for the brazen hypocrisy and absurdity of it all, but because it's Orange Man, they're all in bed with the state of New York.

A .44 is probably 0.44 inch (0.44"). A .22 is probably 0.22". Just looked it up. A .22 is indeed 0.223" (or 0.224"). A .44 is actually about 0.429"; the designation ".44" is based on the original brass case diameter.

That's funny. Although I have consciously adopted the American spelling, I have always thought that grey looks somehow grayer than gray.

Brit wannabe. Remember, kids: Gray is a color. Grey is a colour.

I don't buy it. God does not give temporal commandments. All of his commandments are spiritual.

SMH

Maybe JAG can weigh in. I understood that Supreme Court cases often hinged on standing and other procedural questions.

Lawyers always file motions to dismiss on procedural grounds before attacking the meat of the case.

Yeah. Revenge is a dish best served cold, buddy.

I am not particularly sensitive to perfumes and like scents. But back 20 or so years ago, when we lived near Seattle and would go to the opera, my wife and I were seated a few rows from an older lady who seemed to have bathed in lavendar perfume. It was so strong that it gave me a headache, first time ever getting a headache from a scent. We asked to be reseated in another section, and we weren't the only ones. I have never been so incensed. But seriously, I look back on that event and wonder at my own reaction. I was literally angry—angry with an old woman (in retrospect, not all that old, perhaps about the age I am today) who had done me no harm or insult, and whose only crime was to go into public wearing too much lavendar perfume. I also wonder how God maintains perfect charity toward someone like me. I'm sure she was a lovely lady, yet my gut reaction was to be angry and take offense. At her perfume. If it happens, the greatest miracle I will ever see will probably be Christ saving me despite myself. ...aaaaaand, I just rescanned the thread and found that I already mentioned this event. I'm almost 62, so cut me a break. I'm going to go put on some lavendar cologne.

The joy is not in the answer. The joy is in the discussion. Relish the journey.

Yes, and we see how effectively those arguments ended.

FTFY.

I quickly lose patience with such individuals, though my own impatience is itself a type of pettiness. God suffers (allows, tolerates) such individuals and their twisted and self-serving views, so why should I bristle at such? Just teaching my own children and those I love not to fall victim to such silly and trivially false teachings should suffice. No teeth-gritting needed.

That Shakespeare and his ribald humor. He did enjoy spicing up his plays in ways that we modern English speakers don't get.

I was introduced to this idea of Nephi's "colophon" two or three decades ago. Made sense to me then, and makes sense to me now.

You sure it wasn't the second or third chapters of 4 Nephi?

Then look for it yourself. Seriously. [...] That's about the extent to which I'm willing to go to help you find the pond scum in the GOP pool. If you really want to find it, happy hunting. The days of me digging through the trash for you are done, respectfully. 2025 debate technique: Make any assertion you want—literally anything, the more far-fetched or absurd, the better. Then, when someone asks you for evidence of your ridiculous assertion, simply tell them that they need to get off their fat butt and go find out for themselves, because you sure as heck aren't going to do their work for them. This technique is really brilliant. Not only do you get to make your unsupported point without having to defend it (a huge win when your point is indefensible), but you also get to preach most righteously that you "are done" finding the information for them that they should rightfully have already found for themselves, the lazy bums.

Interestingly, the scriptures seem to have no compunction about speaking evil of the dead. "Do not speak evil of the dead" may possibly be a wise course of action in general (and small-scale) society, but as a rule I think it fails. Unless it's talking about the creeping, idiotic presentism that infests modern historical discourse, in which cas I wholeheartedly agree.

I can't really argue against this viewpoint. But in my view, Jimmy Carter showed a sort of personal integrity that many other US presidents of my lifetime, especially other Democrats, seem to have lacked. Despite his apologetics for abortion and his ever-present naivete (or foolishness) regarding foreign policy and the treatment of hostile foreign powers, Carter demonstrated a working moral compass in his personal life. His restraint in the face of constant embarrassment at the hands of his family, especially his brother but including his mother and even his wife, made him a laughingstock in the short term but earned my adult respect. His post-presidential activities seemed largely consonant with the Christian ideals he espoused.