Captain_Curmudgeon

Please don't. I often use that as a guide to whether I want to read a thread or not. (Snobbish, I know.)

What's funny is that it's usually spelling grammar as grammer. I've seen that on the Net at least a hundred times.What's not so funny is that it usually extends the thread, which probably should not have been started in the first place. (And it's not Muphry's Law; it's Murphy's. And we see it in action, there, don't we?)

Two Christmas traditions collide -- violently.

Being born LDS, I never took much stock in mass or Christmass. Not only that, but it was drilled in very early that Christ was born in April, NOT December, and the whole Christmas deal was a Catholic Plot. That's on my Dad's side. My Mom's side was just off the boat from England and it *was* a big deal. Christmas pudding (with a sauce that included liquor as an ingredient). Big meeting at the Grandparents. Gifts. Stockings. It was the stockings that got me out of the believing game and into the skeptic game. The Chirstmas Eve when I was five, I counted the number of oranges in the fridge. Next morning, I counted them again AND the number of oranges in Chirstmas Stocking toes -- a family tradition. I could add. And was starting to be able to think.

Russian expert on the future? That's about as believable as CIA expert on the current situation. Does the phrase "shoals of apple pie" ring a bell?

Exactly! Couldn't agree more other than to say that you shouldn't be trying to justify anything. You must feel satisfied that you've paid a full tithing.

So, p'lad, were you born in South Carolina? Some of my ancestors arrived there in the 1600s and sort of spread throughout the South (you can read about some of them in William Faulkner).

Two or three quick thoughts. You alone are required to be satisfied with your tithing. The only question your Bishop will ask or should ask is: "Did you pay a full tithing." Details of how to calculate it are up to you.One of my Bishops, who was both a knowledgeable businessman and a scholar of the scriptures, once said that you were required to pay tithing only on the increase of your fortune (IIRC). I take this to mean the increase of your net worth. How you pay on a decrease of your net worth, I don't know.I do know that some LDS businessmen use pretty sophisticated accounting methods to determine their tithing. Which is their right if they're satisfied that it's a full tithing.I think that the only real tithing settlement is in the future. And it will be very simple: Did you pay a full tithing?

When I was a kid (era of Stirling McMurrin, Henry Eyring, Harvey Fletcher), it was believed that God worked through natural law. Mainstreaming of the church wants us to believe the same thing that other conservatives (southern?) believe, just because we're hooked up politically. So, God (which is a job title in Mormonism) become an entity that supersedes natural law. I'm not going to quote that letter that went out saying that you don't have to be against evolution to be a Mormon. My grandfather told me that.

Did you know that we're (SLC) second in nation for skin cancer? Why? Well, it's a couple of things. First, we're up above some of the air (UT, SLC, altitude, like 4500 feet). Second, we tend to fair skin and blue eyes (guilty). So, depression. I think some of it is genetic (like skin and eyes). I look back at my parent's autobiographies and even before and I can see it back many generations. Wasn't diagnosed, because recognition of depression and bi-polar syndrome (my case) wasn't even recognized until just lately (relatively). I'm bi-polar but it couldn't be diagnosed because it wasn't a diagnosis until I was in my 20s or 30s. And, in my experience at least, the church didn't have a proper handle on it. My parents thought that my condition was "lack or loss of testimony." Had some strange effects once I was on effective medication. But what saddens me to this day is that my father refused to recognize or admit his condition because he thought it would lead to his being considered inferior in the church. Had to live his whole life without even considering effective treatment.

Think I understand that. But it seems to me that BECOMING soldiers is just part of doing what most cannot or will not. That's what gets me going, having been a soldier.

Don't tempt me. I believe in action, not bluster.

Think I know what thread you're talking about, DS, and I'm not sure I can be that rational.Patriotic means loving your country and wishing for its good. Yeah, I'm patriotic. See other thread. I think if it's grounded in sober thought and real love it is. See so much bs about it, though. Criticize? Of course. When people don't criticize you, it's often that they've given up hope.

Mostly a lot of fun. Welcome to the site.

Hang in. I would really miss you if you went away.

Think you've had plenty of fun the very first day. Welcome to the site.

I'd say it's serious, but stay away from weird sites. I run Firefox 3 with NoScript and McAfee SiteAdvisor and am, as I have said abundantly elsewhere, a skeptic. Don't let anything run that you don't tell to run and be very suspicious about sites that are not McAfee green. (For what it's worth, I'm the retired Chief Scientist of ShopSite, so I know a little about the Web. Retired, though.)

It was done on purpose. It's pretty clear (or you could wade through the HTML) that if you've voted, your choice is italicized. I'm an Other (please post) and I posted to explain why I think Skeptic is different from the other choices, notably atheist and agnostic.

John is pretty insistent that it was he, John, who first knew. From his account, it's a little hard to not wonder if it wasn't Mary Magdalene.

Well, that's what the devil wants you to think, since he can't have a body. That's one of the things that Mormon nudists like to think about: we get sent here to get a body and it goes with us in the afterlife. It's not something to be ashamed of.

Can you take the kids? Do so. It's one of the things I have trouble with with other nudists. I don't really enjoy kids (today's kids, anyway) but I don't like to be in places / situations where they wouldn't fit in.

If you want to see BYU getting anywhere, you have to root for ALL of the MWC teams. The MWC has definitely given the PAC-?? a drubbing this year and that's good. But when you're losing in the polls even when you're winning conference games, that's bad. And the only fix is to have the conference as a whole prove itself. Yay TCU!

On the other hand, I like to read the Gospels in the NT as history, so to speak. Jesus was just such an iconoclast: hanging with publicans (NOT republicans), turning water to wine, throwing down on His mom, hanging around with women, never giving straight answers. I think I may be one of those few people who believe in Jesus without believing in Christ. So, is that what the song is about: "Jesus Is Just All Right With Me"?

Welcome to the site. Me, too, although that "few years" is now something like 62 or 63. I'm too much of a skeptic to be an atheist. I have enjoyed discussions here but I read somewhere between 1 and 5 percent of the postings.