OmahaLDS

It really depends on what is considered a Jihadist school. If you are referring to a Madrassa, those are educational institutions. If you mean training camps, maybe. If you mean schools that teach prejudice and intolerance, I would not say so, but I do not consider those legitimate forms of knowledge. It depends on how we define education.

Santa delivered the following set to my son, with a note about learning to build his own real light saber... Amazon.com: Snap Circuits SC-300: Toys & Games It is FANTASTIC. It is easy for kids to learn, diagrams that are easy to follow, and not he is using words like voltage, current, parallel, series, and resistance correctly, at the age of 7. It is not just learning, but FUN learning.

Oh, blasphemy!!!!! This has been our first cold Christmas in 6 years. It was wonderful.

Though I never got to see it, the Bavarian regions of Germany supposedly have fantastic Christmas Markets, overflowing with light, warmth, and food. My family and I visited a small one in Chicago set up by someone (I assume a German Community, but does Chicago have a significant German population?), and it was wonderful. I had a German sausage in a curry sauce that was like a fire in the belly, warming me up when it was 7 degrees outside. I would love to travel to Scandinavia (to live or simply visit) for Christmas. There is something about cold and snow that just says Christmas to me. That was why we left Florida, Christmas with air conditioning seemed sinful.

I tend to agree. I think the father and mother would be in the best position to judge a situation like this. Additionally it seems the father was an associate with President Monson, and as such likely sought counsel on the issue. I think it is rather unwise to questions the parent's position in this case. It is easy to criticize from afar, which is why we should not do it.

My wife is an Autism specialist, and I agree it would be extremely traumatic to force an autistic child to be baptized. It is also kind of unnecessary. Do we really think someone who can only reason on a 5 year old level needs to be baptized, regardless of actual age?

If you are really interested in a good book on the subject Dr. Augustus Norton has written a nice, compact history on Hezbollah. Amazon.com: Hezbollah: A Short History (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics) (9780691131245): Augustus Richard Norton: Books They are interesting group, they are very interested in taking care of people while killing others. In many ways they are like a violent version of the Salvation Army. They are bizarre if you do not understand them. If you do understand them, they are very calculating, but still somewhat bizarre.

I see the point, but is teaching something false really education? I could teach my kids that birds are mammals, but would that really be education?

That is in fact true, but it also makes the statement sort of silly. All of the talk of fighting for freedom and democracy in the Middle East is kind of absurd when the US is simultaneously supporting dictators in the Middle East. It is one thing to be hypocritical, it is another to be blatantly hypocritical. Terrorists have not really changed their tactics in hundreds of years. It is a pretty straightforward idea. Diplomacy is actually a very, very good tool against terrorism, as it undercuts the political support the movement requires for existence.

? Who? But we did. Just because it was not called Al-Qaeda does not mean it was not the primordial soup that eventually became Al-Qaeda. Actually it is history, not journalism. I suppose the two issues are mixed, since some of the best histories have been written by journalists. You are aware that if you had knowledge of a secret program to discuss it on any discussion forum would be a violation of your security clearance? As well as illegal? If you have open source information, I would be interested in seeing it. I assume you are referring to "Ghost Wars"? You are misconstruing both conflicts.

I guess I would not consider propaganda or prejudice to be education, or to include false (birds=mammals) ideas. I would limit the definition of education to exclude these sorts of ideas.

Bin Laden got his start in Afghanistan. The shift to his control and a name change does little to change the overall nature of the individuals involved. It was Afghanistan that mobilized and developed the networks that are dangerous today. World War I both provided the impetus for the Soviet and Fascist movements, for example. Germany actually supported the Soviets by sending Lenin into Russia. The Soviet union then attacked Germany in WWII. I do not think the situations are really that dissimilar. Well one problem is that we cannot fight terrorism. Terrorism is a military tactic. It would be like trying to fight air warfare. Incidentally America has its own terrorists who were patriots. The Boston Tea Party could be considered a terrorist act, as could the tactics of Francis Marion. What we can do is try to undermine groups that employ terrorism, but this requires a significant reassessment of how we view the issues involved.

I cannot think of any education that would not be useful in some fashion. I suppose learning how to make vacuum tubes would be kind of pointless, but it would still be good mental discipline. He's probably one of a group, and I do not think his faith is really as important to those around him as you might think. I suspect most of his classes have little to nothing to do or say about the Church. Studying the Greek of NT texts, for example, has no real relationship to LDS theology one way or another. He might be an oddity, but no more than say a Buddhist taking a class on NT Greek manuscripts. I think his article indicates that for some LDS it was a difficult year, because of issues that were forced to the forefront with a predetermined spin.

I am not really insisting on anything. You said you did not realize the author was LDS, when he says in the Title of his article he is LDS. I simply pointed that out. His statement supported his conclusion. You are not required to like his conclusion. You took offense at the fact that the author has a different opinion than you have, but get upset when someone might disagree with your opinion? Why? It's sunny outside right now. Given the snow and the reflective properties of snow, the bright sunlight is being multiplied considerably. It is anything but dreary. How have I been intolerant? If people are wrong, they are wrong. Who is fighting?

That's actually the problem, the policy has never been "fight terrorism any were we find it". Al-Qaeda was sponsored by the US when they were fighting the Soviets. Iraq was supported by the US when they were fighting the Iranians. In both cases the people that were supported were bad people, but at the time, the short term goals were met and long term goals were ignored. This is the problem with all foreign policy. Long term goals have to be considered. Most of US policy in the Middle East has been so short term that it is really kind of absurd. While it is nice to think that we fight terrorism wherever we see it, the reality is very different.

Exactly.

It depends on how you define threat. The IRA has the capability to operate in the US, but will not do so because it would be contrary to their objectives. Hezbollah has the same situation, they probably could do something, but any action on their part would be irrational considering their objectives and stated goals. In fact the source you provided says... "I believe Hezbollah's intentions to conduct a terror attack against the U.S. under the present circumstances to be low" Threat is based on ability to do something, and the desire to do it. China could attack the US, but it is not going to. Not at all. Their location is irrelevant to their inaction. Acting against the US would be counterproductive. You assume that Hezbollah is a proxy for Iran, this is incorrect. Do you have a source for this? Given their objective to attack Israel I am not surprised. They have no goal of attacking the US. So? There are also members of Al-Qaeda in the US. The difference is that Al-Qaeda has a stated goal of attacking the US, Hezbollah does not. That's odd. I thought I was paid to do just that?

I think that is a very dangerous statement to make. If we are to assume that it will never get better we have no responsibility to make things better. I would say the opposite, things can get better, though they are not. The problem is one of understanding, not really action. I think everyone wants to do well, and actions being taken that some think will do well, but the action being taken is really absent any real understanding. In general people, and governments, are terribly myopic, and actions taken today have little long term consideration.

Why would you make a snide comment about attending HDS? It is a good school, and all education is positive. The author's comments are also a little more complex than "Pres. Hinckley died, and we caught flack for our Prop 8 efforts". Edit: I would add that one of the reasons LDS apologetics has become so good, is that LDS members sought higher education from schools like Harvard.

There are several things to consider... 1. Prejudice is the refuge of the ignorant. Most of the time ignorance is the preferred position to knowledge. There is no point arguing with someone who has no interest in education, and likely has the intellectual capacity of a cabbage anyway. 2. It has already been done. LDS Apologetics is actually a very developed field. People who are actually interested in learning would be open to reading many of these books and articles. I would recommend familiarizing yourself with LDS apologetics, and simply referring someone to one of those books or articles if they have a question.

I am sorry, that is not what you said. You said "Wouldn't have even guessed the author was LDS until the last paragraph." Based on that I assumed that you did not know the author was LDS until you had read the entire article, including the Title, until you read the last paragraph. No. You took umbrage with the author's comment, "This is not to say that there is no such thing as good and evil, only that the boundaries are not as clearly marked as we sometimes like to think." You specifically bolded the quote, then commented, "I sense an apologetic tone for the fact that the church (on occasion) stands up and calls a spade a spade when it comes to this world's ever-devolving moral behavior." Many Church members would disagree. I personally agree with the statement, that there is rarely a case where things are straight black and white and navigating the gray areas, with the Gospel as a guide, leads me to many different conclusions that you might have for example. It is the judgmental attitude of many Saints, as exemplified in your Revelations scripture, that causes significant problem in many cases.

Now I know you are drawing conclusions from the wrong sources. I would avoid anything Daniel Pipes/Robert Spencer related.

Hezbollah has never shown any desire or inkling to operate in the US. It would not serve their purposes, nor would it be in keeping with their political objectives. I think you are drawing conclusions from the wrong sources.

Hourly?

The Empire did not really exist at the time.