mordorbund

LeSellers, what is your purpose in using so many archaic variants of the word "Muslim"? Because it looks to me like your purpose is to mock and denigrate those who follow Islam. If you have another purpose, one that actually makes the usage of a dozen different spellings and pronunciations of "Muslim" look reasonable, please fill us in.

Carb...you point out the problem splendidly.  In past elections people that were ideologically driven in a certain direction abstained from supporting those who were more moderate, though still of the same persuasion.  Vort's logic fits those folks.  They allowed their absolute ideological opponents the win, in order to spite the one who was too moderate--even if moving in the right direction.
 
This year, however,ideology is not the difficulty.  There are some character and leadership traits that are so hard to stomach, that  even a candidate scoring 100 on my policy checklist may fail to get my vote. 

I just said no. I already have a Triple.  :-)

Relax...You're from Texas...so, it actually is all about you. 

We hesitated with our oldest.  They recommend it at 11 now.  We finally realized that giving them the vaccine could only protect them from disease--whether by rape, or should they make bad choices in the young adult lives.  At 11-15 they do not perceive it as any kind of permission or protection--just as another shot--another protection against possible diseases.  Ultimately we chose to vaccinate all three of our daughters with it.  Earlier is better, because it's just a discussion about how the shot hurts, not why she's getting it--what she's being protected from.  On the other hand, my oldest did frame it as dad protecting her from aggressive boys.  Win! Win!

With all due respect Lilyflowers, this is a made up problem (you're parent's unwillingness to help) until you talk to them. When and if you do and they won't help, then you have a real problem. Until then you're making things up. Even if you have honest and legitimate reason to suspect they won't help, you don't know until you know.
 
Honestly, unless there's some literal danger potential (like they might beat you up over it or something...which would be an entirely different issue obviously), then there is no reason on earth to not talk to them. How is they're telling you it's just sadness and to get over it any worse off than them not knowing at all?
 
Talk to them.

I really don't understand people who get upset at other people's choices for a wedding reception. If you aren't paying for it, then your choice is either to go or not.  
 
BTW, I had both. My husband lived in Utah and his family was in Utah. We had an open house type of reception in Utah. He planned it (ok, let's be honest, his mom planned it). I was not about to plan a wedding and 2 receptions by myself. So, I gave him a budget and said, "have at it." The only thing I requested was that we have some type of food--sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres, cheese on crackers, something.
 
I'm from Indiana and my whole family live in Indiana. We had a reception here and I originally wasn't going to do more than an open house. But, my dad wanted a catered meal and he was paying for it. So, we had a ring ceremony (again, for my non-member dad) and then a catered meal.  
 
At both things, I did NOT want to stand for 2 hours in a line. So, instead we mingled and greeted our guests personally. I enjoyed that so much more than standing in a line. And I'm pretty sure we actually greeted everyone who came and while we may not have spent a lot of time with each guest, we did spend a few minutes with everyone. Perhaps the guests didn't like it, but since they didn't have a Benjamin or even a Washington invested, I didn't care.
 
And for the record, I honestly and truly didn't care if we got a gift or not. I just wanted to share this time with my friends and family. We didn't open our gifts at either reception but waited until later in the week when we were alone.

Then you misunderstand its purpose. Answers come from the Holy Ghost. That series of books simply helps give you questions to ask and ponder as you read. It does not pretend to be an authoritative source for those answers -- as no other book should pretend to, either. It is an aid in your seeking, giving you possible areas to search.
  
The Lectures on Faith were written by Sidney Rigdon in a question-and-answer format, which was very common in early 19th-century didactic writing. Not so much used today, since the modern reader does tend to find it annoying, but the doctrine contained therein is pure gold.
 
For beginners, my sincere suggestion would be to read the book through from front to back, then do it again, then again. Just keep on doing so. After three or four or five readings, you will begin to have an understanding of the structure of the narrative and the teachings found therein. Then just keep on reading it, and you will spend the rest of your life harvesting the fruit of that book. Every time you read it, your harvest will be greater. Don't ask me how such a thing is possible. I don't know how, but I know from experience that it's true.

For those who like numbers:
 

Wow LeSellers - do you really worry about your Islamic neighbor or the lady in the hijab getting violent?  Honestly, the method I'd suggest to you, is to grow the heck up.  Here are some ways you can implement this method:
- Get to know some Muslims in your town on a personal level.
- Go find out if any mosques or Islamic centers or whatnot are hosting open houses, and go to them and ask questions and get to know people.  Notice that you stood surrounded by them, and yet somehow escaped with your head still attached to your body.
- Do a little research (Wikipedia would be sufficient) about the numbers of Muslims in the US, and the numbers of Muslim criminals in the US.  Come up with a percentage, then do the same research on Mormons.  Then look in the mirror and ask yourself if you're ready to mature in your beliefs a little.
 
Ok, so I admit I live in military-soaked, gun-permit-friendly, open-carry-popular Colorado Springs, CO.  We may be closer to our means of self defense than you.  But honestly, the first thing that goes through my mind when I see a hijab, is "That's cool material - I wonder if my wife would like some to do something art-n-crafty".  
 
In Colorado Springs, we had the (right-wing gun-nut mentally ill christian white) guy shoot up the Planned Parenthood.  We also had another white guy bomb the local NAACP office.  The last mosque open house I went to, the worst thing that happened to me was they gave me a CD of dudes chanting in a language I don't understand.  
 
No really, LeSellers - what I'm hearing from you, I've heard from anti-mormons for decades.  Ignorance, matched with biased history, a lack of charity, unwarranted suspicion, and an unwillingness to consider that maybe reality is different then they demand it be.  I suggest you look deeply inward. 

I have long thought that the editors of the time, in their eagerness to produce an open-armed article, simply did not do enough background research to vet many of the statements in that article.

Are you willing to ascribe all evils done in the name of Christianity (or Mormonism, or Liberty) as evidence that those institutions are evil trees?
 
Terrorists are terrorists. Religion is their excuse for evil behavior, not their fundamental reason. It is overly simplistic (and untrue) to say that the terrorists are terrorists because they're Muslim. Or does Sinn Fein prove that Catholics are terrorists?
  
In general, I avoid commenting on spelling and such, but I would suggest you choose one way to write "Muslim" and stick with it.

Oh bunkus phooey LeSellers.  I'm not the only one who remembers the Lafferty brothers, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, or Mark Hoffman, right?  I also remember George P. Lee, of the first quorum of the seventy - convicted of molesting a 14 yr old girl.  Or Clayton R. Hildreth, Stake President of Butte, Montana, flying to another state to meet the young girl he had been grooming, only to find out he'd been sending explicit videos of himself to a cybersting unit.  My wife's brother, raised by God-fearing temple-attending disciples of Christ, ended up molesting numerous children and did 5 years.  
 
If you're going to claim those don't count because they're individuals, then let's look at the splinter groups that sprang from the restoration tree.  Warren Jeffs and the FLDS, anyone?
 
The scriptural notion that a good tree can't bring forth evil fruit, obviously does not pertain to people or groups who do evil in the name of religion.  Because if it does, then the restored Gospel is not a good tree.  And if it doesn't, then it's possible Islam is a good tree, in it's way.

3 Random Comments that will Blow Your Mind (number 1 will shock you)

3 Random Comments that will Blow Your Mind (number 1 will shock you)

Read what Lehi and Nephi got out of the vision (in contrast to the vision itself). You'll find that it covers:
Personal salvation Family salvation (immediate and down to the last generation) Individual and familial roles in the Lord's plan (here specifically the scattering and gathering of Israel) The Lord's instrumentality in all this (focused on the Savior) Personal, revelatory knowledge of any and all of these things should be sought. There's nothing forbidden about them.

Read what Lehi and Nephi got out of the vision (in contrast to the vision itself). You'll find that it covers:
Personal salvation Family salvation (immediate and down to the last generation) Individual and familial roles in the Lord's plan (here specifically the scattering and gathering of Israel) The Lord's instrumentality in all this (focused on the Savior) Personal, revelatory knowledge of any and all of these things should be sought. There's nothing forbidden about them.

Let me see if I can break it down to simple terms. Your greatest fear in marriage is happening. And it was a fear for a real reason--you are hurting, afraid, angry, betrayed, and even confused. You felt that you took all the precautions you could prior to marriage to prevent this from happening, but despite your efforts and confirmation from the Spirit, it still happened.
 
I noticed that you aren't asking what to do regarding your marriage. You are asking what to do on your end--what to learn? how to cope? what to pray for?
 
I have learned that marriage is more difficult that I ever expected. If my assessment of your situation is correct, then I am living that same thing. My greatest fear in marriage has happened and despite my precautions and spiritual confirmation, it still happened. I can't change my spouse. I can only look to myself. 
 
I prayed for patience. I prayed for increased love. I prayed for charity (which is more than just love). I prayed to know what I could do to influence my spouse. I prayed to know how to live today with faith. I prayed to know how to continue with a marriage that is so far from what I wanted and from what God wants. I prayed to know that by choosing to stay in this marriage that I was doing God's will. 
 
I try to focus on the good of my spouse. I try to praise that good. I discuss issues with him but I pray before and even after sometimes to know what to say and how to say it. I try to remember that he is a son of God and no matter how angry I am, how hurt I am, his choices hurt God more than me and yet He still loves him. I try to suppress the feelings I have when I want my spouse to make choices other than what he is making. 
 
Sometimes, I have to rely on the answer I got when I prayed about my marriage. I received 2 very distinct answers to my prayers about my marriage. There are times when I'm in the midst of my pain and anger that I remember those answers and tell myself to endure. I know that I can't prevent the choices my husband makes and someday those choices may result in the dissolution of our marriage. But, I refuse to focus on those "what ifs." 
 
I'm sorry this is happening to you. I'm sorry that such a great disappoint has happened despite your efforts to prevent it. One thing I can say is do not, DO NOT, let them influence you to choose to leave your faith behind. While you may not be at your spiritual high, abandoning your faith altogether WILL result in more sorrow and misery. Sometimes, we have to wade through the mud and muck before we get to higher ground. And it can get very muddy and mucky before we can even tell that there is higher ground. That is when faith is needed. Keep the faith.

Read what Lehi and Nephi got out of the vision (in contrast to the vision itself). You'll find that it covers:
Personal salvation Family salvation (immediate and down to the last generation) Individual and familial roles in the Lord's plan (here specifically the scattering and gathering of Israel) The Lord's instrumentality in all this (focused on the Savior) Personal, revelatory knowledge of any and all of these things should be sought. There's nothing forbidden about them.

Check your vitality at the door, I say.

True, but that also depends on how the insurance is handled; I was on a separate policy shortly after I turned 18 even though family still paid for it while I was in school. The rule was they paid the base price and any ticket increases would be my problem. Mom and I got speeding tickets within a couple days of each other, and she couldn't figure out how much of the increase should be mine on the shared policy.
 

That depends on how you wash; if you dump it all together and wash every time there's a full load, (and only when there's a full load) sure. If you separate it, and one or more loads have room for more, then two people can more efficiently make use of those loads. It also becomes considerably more practical to look for a used W/D when two people will be sharing it. (And when they don't have the roommate issue of what happens to it when one moves out.) You're sharing sheets, blankets, maybe towels, and things like the fluffy little mat around the toilet, so that part of the laundry is effectively cut in half. (And yes, I had the fluffy toilet mat for a while because I had ceramic tile in the bathroom and that stuff is cold when you're barefoot. I could leap from the carpeted hall to the little mat in my sleep.)
 

  Again, usage of standard sizes is the key; I've never mastered getting a single serving of rice from the cooker, nor do I generally eat an entire can of anything other than soup by myself in one sitting, so things that will spoil soon are often wasted, when they wouldn't be if shared with someone else.
The simple matter of cutting rent in half (or nearly so; my aunt and uncle upgraded to a one-bedroom apartment when they got married in college, because in the efficiencies they'd had, there was no way for one to stay up studying late while the other slept - they went from $450 each to $550 for both of them) will give back a significant chunk of the income of most people poor enough to care. If both are students, then a little care in scheduling may allow them to mothball or even sell a car until graduation.
Too many people seem to think they have to buy and furnish a house as part of getting married, or at least upgrade to renting a house instead of apartments. My ex wife and I spent the first year on a twin bed in the same rented one bedroom house she'd had, then another two years on a full. The only furniture we acquired in the first couple years was a mix of gifts and garage sale finds. Overall expenses went way down compared to our separate living costs.

Interesting take on the issue.  
 
These folks have a slightly different take, lumping them into Jihadist and nonJihadist categories, which I think may be a bit more accurate.  Surely jihadists like Major Hassan, Abdulhakim Muhammad, Naveed Haq, Ali Brown, and others were born in the US - hardly immigrants.  Grassroots self-radicalized terrorists are a big problem.  Not really seeking glory, but change.  There's a reason why Anonymous's efforts of waging war focused on killing off ISIS social media accounts.
 
Again, I think we do ourselves a disservice when we just assume people who commit deadly acts of terrorism are idiots, because of course only idiots would want to do such things.  I don't find that helpful.  Nidal Hassan, for example, earned a medical degree, completed a residency in psychiatry, completed his Masters in Public Health degree, and got himself promoted up to Major in the Army, before going on his killing spree that claimed 13 lives and injured 32.  
 
There do seem to be recurring themes of mental illness with a lot of these folks.

Having stepped away from this discussion, let me poke my head in and make an observation.
 
All this talk about "the repentance cycle" and such is misplaced. This is because Star Wars is not merely fiction, but a special type of fiction that we might call "Special Human Fiction", or SHF. Practically all fiction involes human beings, but SHF posits human beings that lack commonality with some or many of the essential elements of humanity. In other words, SHF describes humans that are not really human. For example, a human character who is incapable of communication but who can fly is an SHF character. Comic books are typical sources of SHF, though it can be found in almost every genre. (Note that this is the opposite of what much science fiction offers us -- non-human beings who, we discover, actually are human in many important respects, sometimes in stark contrast to the actual human characters.)
 
In Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, we have a putative human who brutally murders countless millions because he's sad and conflicted. This is not unheard of in human history, but what makes this SHF is that Anakin can do this without losing his essential humanity. He really is just a poor, lost orphan, a misunderstood lad with a bad temper who makes some rash decisions. In the end, you see, his murders of countless millions has not really had an effect on who or what he is. All he needs is some special element (like, maybe, a son threatened with death) to bring out his underlying goodness and help him on the path to emotional wholeness. In this, he is not at all unlike the stereotypical "bad boy" protagonist of female-oriented fantasy, who just needs that One Special Woman to understand and embrace him, correct his misguided ways, and tame him into the great and powerful person that only she could tell he really was.
 
Such "people" cannot adequately be described using language or concepts intended for actual human beings (AHBs). Religious concepts apply to AHBs, and only to them. SHFs have their own rules that they play by, rules created by their authors. Until you are given the rules that control SHFs, you really cannot understand how they work. They lack a human soul, so you have to wait to be told how their SHF soul works before you can draw any conclusions. Star Wars is populated with SHF characters. Applying the mercilessly AHB ideals of religion to SHF characters is as pointless as trying to judge the actions of whales or grasshoppers based on the law of Moses.
 
(By the way, another term for "SHF" is "bad fiction".)

I just thought that even a partially trained sith that could stop a laser beam mid shot and one that could basically suck your thoughts/memory out of your head would be stronger in battle. Perhaps these manifest what his strengths are only, but not even Vader used the force to get the information he wanted, didn't he use torture? 
 
One question I want to pose to this group, since I have only been a huge fan of the movies and have not read any of the books regarding the Star Wars Universe; If you have the force, why don't they use it more often? For example, you can run fast, jump high, stop lasers, force push.... but they do not use it, it's more sparingly. Does it drain their energy? Perhaps it is more prevalent in the books? 

Indeed, this is one part I felt was a little off base, especially after their first meeting (she was put fast asleep, and all he had to do was the same force move).