LittleWyvern

I'd rather not have a copy/paste war with you. Can we just agree to disagree here?

Sorry, the subject aimed at me has been a common topic in this thread.

Well... the New Deal boosted GDP, massively reduced unemployment, leveled off the national debt (well, it was level until WWII hit)... can you argue this, or is this something from WND too? Maybe this would go better in its own thread. Again, just because I don't agree with everything the Republican party says, doesn't mean I'm anti-religion, or that I have an "uber" love of higer taxes... or, in general, that I'm a Democrat. I personally cannot relate to either party.

Bwuah? When have I ever said (or when, rather, have I ever acted like) that I'm far left (I personally identify my self as a slightly right-leaning centrist if you care)? Just because I don't march rank in file with what WND says doesn't mean I'm far left. There are far more shades of purple than you realize. Certainly. There's Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism (although one could argue that Maoism is just Marxism with a Chinese name because Mao wanted to feel special)... but even with these, the US is far from realizing the core initial goals of socialism, one being a violent overthrow of the existing government. That's the same no matter who's philosopies you follow. Nor can you assume it's true just because it hasn't happened yet. I r so dumb.

Whoa, since when did "some people" turn into "everyone?" I have yet to see anything near what Marx would want at all (the workers haven't revolted yet, for starters), and I really think you're embellishing this consent by popularity to push your point. States haven't declared sovereignty, they've simply asserted their 10th Amendment powers (I've seen the house bills). One piece of commentary from a far-right source is hardly definite in my view. I really should have expected WND though. EDIT: one more point. True Marxist socialism can only come from a revolt of the workers and a total overthrow of the current government system. It cannot come from a singular source of power in that government that according to Marx must be overthrown. The only countries that have truly done this are Laos, Cuba, Vietnam, and The People's Republic of China (although China has shied away from it's socialist practices for the past few years). North Korea doesn't count: it's a dictatorship and Marx would not approve.

Using your analogy, logging every email, website, and instant message is like not only checking on your children, but following them everywhere you go, standing right next to them at all times no matter what they do or how trustworthy they've proved themselves to be, and watching to see if they do anything wrong. I think a better solution for unixknight's program would be to only log instant messages, emails, and websites that match filters for questionable content. This would make your job easier, regardless (a lot less fluff to go through unless you're really good at regexes).

It tells me some people think Obama is Marxist, nothing more. I personally don't have that opinion (Obama would have to go a looooong way to please Marx). In other words, it doesn't sway me one way or the other at all, this whole "but everybody else is doing it!" argument doesn't work for me. Could you source this please? I've never heard of this.

Obama a socialist? Not even close. Go take a trip to Europe, they're way more socialist than Obama is. And... Europe isn't even very socialist anyway, they're more social democratic (or "socialism lite," you could call it). See, I think our disagreement is that we both look at the same events and derive different conclusions from those events. You see Obama and see the devil's government, I see Obama and see a gamble for the sucesses of the New Deal. I'm afraid we're just going to have to agree to disagree unless one of us can change how we fundamentally view the world.

What I don't understand then is how the NWO conspiracy in any way relates to any gospel concepts. From my understanding, the issue cannot be anything else other than political. The whole conspiracy has both feet firmly in political grounds, and anything that it talks about is purely political.

There are a few things where I don't politically agree with Benson, the NWO conspiracy being one of them. This does not mean that I don't believe Benson was a prophet, nor to I mean to discredit everything doctrinally that Benson has ever said (which your Noah example seems to be trying to infer). There are just a few strictly political areas where I disagree with Benson, nothing more. Meaning when I disagree with a political view that Benson has held, I do not mean to disagree with everything Benson says, nor is it meant to be a personal attack on Benson or a reflection of any kind of the kind of person or prophet Benson is. It especially should not be taken that I disagree with anything doctrinally Benson says. In essence, unless I'm mistaken, as a member of the LDS Church I'm allowed to form my own political views and opinions. If those views are different than a prophet's political views, I'm certainly not be assumed to be a heretic.

I agree with you partly here... past prophets were wrong sometimes, but that doesn't mean they aren't prophets. One needs to consider the environment, culture, and influences of the prophets when they made decisions that may seem foolish by today's standards. The wonderful thing about this church is that we are still actively learning. Generally, I take comfort in the fact that it is up to the current prophet to expound, explain, and even sometimes correct statements made by past prophets. If you have any questions about a certain commandment, statement, or anything else by the prophet, you could try what I do and pray specifically for a testimony of that commandment or statement. Just ask if it's true or not, the same way you'd ask if a certain scripture is true. :) Just consider the source and the goal of each site before considering the things being sold as facts there. If you have a question about a certain thing, FAIRwiki is a good fact-checking source.

That is bizzare. I guess after the infraction, one of the admins wanted her gone for good. Weird...

I think if Russia ever follows through with the democratic reforms Medvedev wants to do, there will be some ethnic group who feels left behind by the post-Soviet independence rush that will gather the courage to ask Russia for independence. Whether or not Russia allows this will mostly depend, I think, if it's in Russia's best economic interests.

I suppose I should explain myself better. Do I think that Benson is a bad prophet? No. Do I think he is a bigot or fanatic as far as his capacity as a prophet is concerned? No. I just simply do not agree with some of Benson's political views, which some could call bigoted or fanatic (the views, not the person). I mean no disrespect to Benson, and I apologize if my comments have offended anyone.

There's a difference between calling a prophet a bigot and a fanatic and calling a person a bigot and a fanatic. I thought Elphaba made it very clear that she was referring to Benson's political, personal views, not Benson in the capacity of a prophet. Anyway, the thanks I gave for that post was because Elphaba articulated my reluctance to accept the NWO conspiracy as gospel truth at trulykiwi's urgings better than I could (you can see my failed attempts on the last page, hehe).

Blogregate at Mormon Blogs is a great aggregator of many different Mormon blogs. It organizes posts by subject and links to them. I usually wander around there and see if there's anything interesting. :) I think my favorite blog listed there is Mormon Matters. They always have something interesting to say.

Yes, it needs to be very carefully considered how much money to print and how much money to simply redirect. I believe, with enough care, that it can be done, but explaining how to do this (or, how to find the right balance) goes beyond my knowledge of economics.

When I said the consequences of sin, I was referring to many different things, one of which being, as you have stated, God's wrath (or as I see it, God's justice). In essence, yes, I believe we are saved from God's wrath, as that is one of the consequences of sin.

In this case, the process doesn't matter nearly as much as the product.

I'll pm you for the pdf. :)

I've heard that really dark chocolate has a similar taste to coffee. The good thing about dark chocolate is that you don't need a lot to feel chocolate-satisfied, and a good thing for you is that it still has a natural amount of caffeine. I'd recommend getting a Lindt 70% bar and nibbling on that. If you need an actual drink, just make a really strong hot chocolate or something.

Yeah, I'll try finding it somewhere else. I'm sure it's archived somewhere. I generally disagree with this whole "New World Order" conspiracy but I think this video would give me an interesting counterview. :)

Sorry, can't go on youtube (BYU blocks all video sharing sites), but a transcript would be appreciated (or maybe somebody could download the video and email it to me?).

I hope this isn't like the kind of padding my cat does to my face.

Yeah, I'd rather not. Can we just agree to disagree?