Prodigal_Son

I repeat: Congress has already written into the bill private insurance's death certificate. Please, please, please tell me you're kidding!! ICELAND? So we should be like a nation that economically IMPLODED AND IS ONLY KEPT AFLOAT BY MONEY FROM OTHER NATIONS - ALL SO WE CAN HAVE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE? Lay off the crack pipe, my friend. If the Savior came and asked me for my money, my home, my land, my vehicles, my astounding 27" TV, I'd give it to HIM in a heartbeat. Please STOP comparing a gluttonous, wasteful, broken system to Christ. Charley, I don't mean to be a jerk. You're a sister in the gospel and I love you for that. But I can't help but point out that THIS IS EXACTLY WHY WE'RE NOT BRITISH!!! We wanted a government that didn't walk all over us, didn't do what IT thought was right (which really came down to and comes-down-to politicians securing and protecting their seats of power). Christ (since you like to bring Him into this debate) inspired good men to do great things, to draft the Declaration of End-Dependence, to draft the Constitution that has become the template for some 200+ constitutions around the world. I am exercising my RIGHTS as a U.S. citizen. I am utilizing the rights and privileges secured by my Founding Fathers (through the inspiration of a loving Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ). I am crying "foul" against the way this current "regime" is ignoring the principles on which this country is based!! I suspect you'll laugh at how wrong you think I am when I say this, but I am trying my best to fulfill prophecy! I am trying, as an Elder of this Church, to rescue our Constitution as it hangs by a thread.

Our public already receives health care. This is about insurance. This is about providing insurance to illegals! About providing non-US citizens with health insurance paid for by Americans!! This is about destroying a functional system to meet the needs of about 16 million people. This is about throwing away a system that handles 95% of us (with an 80% approval rating by us, I might add) - in order to cater to 5%. That's bull crap. And comparing ourselves to the rest of the world is a move in the wrong direction. We don't WANT to be like Europe. We don't WANT to be like Australia. If you like THEIR system, then PLEASE catch the first boat out of the harbor. Sorry, but this is an absolutely pathetic argument. Using a spiritual perspective to support a plan JUST LIKE SATAN'S is hardly a sales pitch. We aren't being given the option. We aren't able to exercise our compassion and charity. When the biggest, most ungainly, most inefficient system in the world is eagerly trying to confiscate MY MONEY - when I work so $#%^ hard to put food on my table and raise my kids and provide them with a decent life, don't even THINK that you're taking the higher road by greenlighting governmental theft of what I bleed, sweat, and kill myself to acquire. THEY have no right, and neither do YOU. Go read the idiotic 1,000+ page bill. All you have to do is get to page 15 of the bill where you learn that OBAMA LIED YET AGAIN. He won't take our private insurance? Yeah. Not right up front. He'll just forbid adding anyone new to existing policy. He'll just have Congress concoct another loophole that forbids any changes, additions, shifts in your private policies. If anything changes (even your yearly premiums and copays), you're automatically disallowed to continue and must hop on the government welfare-health-program. And if you DON'T sign up and start paying, guess what happens come tax time?!?! They're gonna take that $$$ from you by force. The IRS will freeze your bank accounts and confiscate any and all your money until they bleed you dry. If you REALLY want to be your brother's keeper, then I would admonish you to kill this bill and focus on contributing more to Fast Offerings. Shackling us all to each other doesn't actually fix the problems. Telling old people to take pain killers instead of getting that pacemaker they need (Obama suggested this) is NOT contributing to a better society.

One of the best series ever written. One of the greatest escapes of all time. ... I want to go to Hogwarts...

I don't want to write a novel in response to some of the preposterous things I've read in this thread, but here are a few thoughts: #1 Nothing is FREE. Not even for poor people who don't carry their weight and pay taxes? How is that possible? Because the middle and upper brackets get soaked, absorbing those costs. This means they can't bring on those new employees, or expand their markets - because Uncle Sam is taking so much of their income that it's not desirable or not an option. And this is not some parroting of a right wing crazy. These are MY words - the words of a small business owner who is unable to expand properly because he's too busy being forced into giving charitable contributions to the myriad causes of our insane Congress. We are already being taxed to death! Did you know that, based on heavy research, that the average amount of taxes ALREADY wrapped into the purchase price of the products you buy is 21%? And THEN when you check out with your purchases, you get taxed AGAIN!! And you pay for that with what's left of your paycheck AFTER Uncle Sam has taken his cut! Even BEFORE Obama, most of us were already at 50% taxation. It's simply hidden from the clueless populace via taxing-evil-corporations, via garnishing-your-wages. #2 Competition is vital. My children attend one of UT's Charter Schools. Charter Schools are still federally funded, but so long as they fulfill certain specific requirements, are allowed to run their own programs. And though there's no bus system, no dirt-cheap-but-nutritionally-devoid lunch program (there is, in fact, a lunch system - but it's healthy food that costs more), my children are receiving an education FAR SUPERIOR to their peers in the overcrowded public system where (I kid you not) around here, children sit on the floors of overcrowded classrooms. My children are being taught with a completely different system that caters to the FASTEST kid in the class, not the SLOWEST. Test scores are through the roof. Parental involvement is not only encouraged (you can join your children's class any day, any time) - it's actually MANDATORY. My 1st child, the prodigy, is having his needs met so he's not bored and listless. My 2nd child's learning disabilities are personally addressed by his teachers and aids, and in-school programs are in place to 'coach' him through his challenges. I could go on and on. But THE MORAL OF THE STORY is this: when you are able to engage the federal government in competition, wonderful things happen and you're better able to recognize how stale and feeble the bureaucratic methods really are. #3 Health insurance is not a RIGHT. Sorry, people. It never has been and never should be. So long as we live in a culture where people are free to clog their arteries, turn into blimps on their couches, smoke their cigarettes, shrivel up their livers with the plethora of booze options, make a living on the food-eating-contest circuit, etc, etc, etc, --- YOU DON'T HAVE A RIGHT TO HAVE SOMEONE ELSE PAY FOR YOUR WAY OF LIFE!!!!!!!!!! I could go on and on and on with this one, but I'd best not. #4 Wake up, America! You're turning into mindless drones! Quit electing freak shows who go to Washington and forget who sent them there! Quit voting down party lines just because your parents did! Cease your covetous desires to gain personal increase from the wealth of those who have worked harder, smarter, and longer than you! Know that every single penny the government spends comes out of YOUR wallet. Even if you're part of the 50% of the population that only accounts for 1% of the tax revenues. How? Through every system that is illegally regulated, through every purchase you make, through the lower-pay of your jobs that result from Congress playing Robin Hood by STEALING from the rich to give to the supposedly poor.

And yet the topic is timeless.

I'm with you here - I am amazed at how so many actors cannot replicate a southern drawl. They're either Rhett Butler or trailer trash...

It sure seems that the majority of the nation votes without doing any sort of REAL research on candidates. And unless that changes, there's ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE a dreaded "Mormon" would ascend to the throne... er, presidency.

I'm a husband... I suppose I ought to be trying a little harder.

Gerald Lund published "Hearing The Voice of the Lord" a couple years ago. It's all about how to recognize the voice of the Spirit. Good book. Should be mandatory reading. Here's a link to the reviews of it on Amazon.com. I recommend it to everyone.

Hey again! You knew you'd hit this wall - you told me so. So hang in there. My screen name aptly applies to me. I suspect it applies to us all more than we probably recognize... I want to share with you what I consider to be one of the most powerful talks I've ever heard in my life. No matter how many times I read it or listen to Elder Holland speak it (I review it on my Ipod a few times a year), I'm brought to tears. I hope you will take the time to listen to it or read it (I just did [again] as I formed this post). I will include a link to the free and legal MP3 of the talk - and I'll include the text version, as well. Personally, I find the audio to be preferable to the text, but that might just be me. The audio is the original talk, given at BYU to a BYU audience. The text cleans it up and makes it a bit more universal. I hope this helps you as much as it still continues to help me. * * * Here is the MP3. Elder Holland's wife, Pat, speaks first on the track, but if you skip to 10:25 on the track, it'll be right where Elder Holland begins his talk. * * * Here is the text of the talk. * * * And here's a song along the same lines, sang by my favorite LDS artist: Greg Simpson.

Then maybe we should see if they got hitched.

Just don't be a distraction while he's trying to serve. That's the LAST thing he needs - even if he, himself, doesn't realize it.

Simple fix, man: use a separate browser for your site that no one else in the family uses: IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera... Plenty to choose from. And if you're using IE, that's your first mistake.

Ah yes, like the Reverends Sharp and Jackson?? When was the last time those two preached a REAL sermon?

But if it worked out that way, we bread-winners would only have to pull like a 15 hour work week!

The Essenes were a bit kooky. They also bathed 4 bajillion times a day in a big line. And if you touched someone on your way out of the mikveh, you had to get back in line... Not exactly balanced...

"The Bush administration may have broken the law, Sen Feinstein said..." :lol::lol: Ya think?

Yeah, but he could also request a meeting with the First Presidency to clear the matter up.

Welcome! Great to hear from you. The Catholic faith and LDS faith have many similarities and (as you likely are already aware) have many values in common. The LDS church (Mormons) can be a complicated issue when you look at all the venues of study, but it's also as simple as exercising faith and praying for truth. I hope you find the answers you're looking for. And I hope you'll come around and ask any questions you might have.

I would like to say I could trust his morals just b/c he's LDS, but seeing what Harry Reid does, I recognize that such a baseless hope would be extremely naive. I was a Chuck Baldwin vote.

While I'm not expressing my opinion of his plan (because I don't know much about it), it's only fair to point out that the Dem's took his plan and skewered it 80 times over before passing it. What went into effect in MA was not Romney's brain child... Well I'm guessing that as POTUS, the answer to "are you honest in your dealings with your fellow men" would be a resounding "NO!!!!! Haha, are you serious?"

This is exactly what my mind conjured up as I reviewed the story. Thus, the OT vs. NT question. But, again, I'll ask (though there may be no answer): why them? why death? How many failed Temple Marriages have been punished by death? How many apostates-gone-public have dropped on the spot at their first book signing? That sounds like a good argument, but you take God's Hand out of the equation with that one. ============================== I have no issues with the severity of the punishment. I have no issues with them being punished. I have no problem accepting this story at face value. I'll repeat (yet again) that I'm merely curious, because it doesn't fit the mold. And I'm okay with that. I was just hoping that maybe somebody out there knew more about the issue - had a good G.A. quote about it or something. But, alas, we're all in the dark. DON'T BREAK YOUR COVENANTS, PEOPLE!! DON'T LIE TO A PROPHET OF GOD!! Lesson learned.

Say what you will about El Rushbo, but he's probably paying for several hundred people's mortgages via taxation. He might even be a major shareholder of GM!

My mother keeps admonishing me to read it.

I think the outrage is justified. If these troops SURRENDERED, there was no way mass executions could be condoned. That's not how things work, not even war.