cathyyg

Jew-dar, like gay-dar, is a real thing. And it is rarely wrong. Jewish souls recognize other Jewish souls. There is a belief in Judaism that all Jewish souls, including the souls of future people, were present at Sinai and accepted the Torah. Unfortunately, some of those souls are born into non-Jewish families. Those people have the difficult task of figuring out that they are Jewish, have always been Jewish, and they convert to get their Jewish status recognized by other Jews. Other Jewish souls are born into families of those who were forcibly converted or those who lost their tradition due to the need to keep it secret - crypto-Jews. They too must usually convert to be recognized by the Jewish community. But the majority of lucky souls are born into Jewish families. You say you have done your genealogy. Does it go back to Eastern Europe between WW1 and WW2? A lot of “Christian” immigrants to the US then left their Jewishness behind in the old country. Does it go further back, to Amsterdam, France, Turkey or the New World after 1497 and the expulsions from Spain and Portugal? Is your surname a typically Jewish one?

Ah, but the thread is not without any lurking Jews. Seriously, genuine Jew here, ask away.

My husband saw some economic expert on TV a few months ago talking about buying gold. He said that you'd be better off storing food against a time of economic or social collapse than gold. It made my husband a lot less resistant to the concept of long-term food storage! And thanks to a broken water main, he now gets the idea of storing water, too.

There is a large Muslim population where I live - about 20 miles from Dearborn, MI. The vast majority of these people do not want Sharia law. They are proud and patriotic Americans. They only wish to practice their religion within the confines of US law. The people who want Sharia law want to propagate the cultural norms from their old country, and that country is typically Pakistan (but not always). This is also true of the wearing of the burqa, or niqab, both of which veil the face. The Quran is quite specific; Mohammed said the face and hands may be exposed. To cover less is immoral and may cause men to sin by feeling lust; to cover more is unnecessary in Islam but is the cultural norm in some places.

Well, IQ is related to higher education, and that's genetic. More significantly, higher education is related to socioeconomic status, and that tends to be hereditary, although not genetic. How else did George W. Bush get a degree from Yale?

53 views but no replies. Must not be many Mac users here.

This is sick. I do hope they catch who is doing it!

I rather liked the episode of "Sister Wives" I watched. I really think this issue is going to be addressed at the Federal level in the US soon. You see, it's a issue for Muslims in the US as well as fundamentalist Mormons. Muslims are allowed up to 4 wives. I don't know how this would go if addressed as a religious-rights issue in front of the US Supreme Court. But now bigamy laws are affecting the practice of more than one religion.

That's "Zoomies," not "Zoobies." New Orleans may be the Saints, but I'm sorry to inform you that they are Catholic Saints. Dude, Louisiana is the only state in the country with parishes instead of counties.

One Christmas both my grown children visited. My son lives not too far away, and he brought his computer. My daughter always has her laptop, as she uses it for business. We let our son-in-law borrow one of our laptops. We had a 5-player LAN game of Civ 2, me, my husband, son, daughter, and son-in-law. It really was a lot of fun!

Happiness is a decision. Happy people have bad days, and bad years, and sometimes even bad lives (think Job). It doesn't make them unhappy. The decision to be happy is not based on life circumstances. It is based on inner character. You are a child of God. You are loved. You deserve to be happy. Look for things that make you happy. Maybe it is the first snowflakes of winter. Maybe it's the sound of the neighborhood children playing. Maybe it's a half hour spent in quiet prayer - praying for other people's needs, not your own. Do not obsess about your situation. You can accept it, or you can do something to change it. You can be happy in either circumstance.

Clutter is the pits. I live in an 800 square foot condo with my husband, and it is blessed with numerous closets and cubbies. I still find there is barely room for just the two of us and our Stuff. You might be helped by looking into Flylady. She is a wonderful person and has helped thousands. When my kids were small and had to play in the living room (so I could keep an eye on them), I put a small bookcase in there and used the shelves for toy storage. Kids resist it less than a toybox because they can still see their toys.

I live not too far from this modern sculpture, and just love it: UM AEC Public Art - The Cube "Endover"

It is, in general, more difficult to *prove* something is false than true. Evidence not supporting the idea may simply be the wrong evidence, not proof of falsehood. I think Dravin is right in thinking that you need to refine your thesis.

Yeah, I meant the local Bishopric's advisors.

That's why there are so many popular authors writing such vastly different books. Not everybody likes the same thing, not everybody interprets an author the same way. And a sad place the world would be if we did!

This subject has always intrigued me. I have been told "no cola" by a member of the local First Presidency way back when. That's not a hot drink, but contains caffeine. I have been told herbal teas are okay by the same. That is a hot drink, but lacks caffeine. Almost everybody seems to agree hot cocoa/hot chocolate is fine, and that is both a hot drink and caffeine-laden. There seems to be a geographic factor to it; the closer to Salt Lake the more likely it is to think cola and caffeine are okay. Further east, they look askance more at the caffeine content than the temperature.

You might do better to be riding those horses. I think everybody ought to watch the History channel docudrama "After Armageddon." It puts a lot of things into perspective. Remember that a lot of people's food storage plan is a collection of rifles and a lot of ammo.

Romance novels - female porn? I hate them. If I read one I skip the sex; it never adds to the plot. I have chosen to read "christian" romances these days, where the sex doesn't usually happen until marriage and is assumed to have happened, not described. Much nicer! I'm currently reading Karen Kingsbury books. I also like the Amish romances, like Beverly Lewis and a few others write. When you've been a sci-fi and fantasy fan as long as I have you start running out of things to read. I finished Heinlein decades ago, but only a few of his books are worth re-reading to me. I love the whole Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley and reread all 30 or so of those books every few years. I really like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and I may have to start reading that series again, to remind myself of all the ongoing plotlines as Brandon Sanderson wraps that series up. Overpowered armor, yes, but not like tanks, on each individual soldier. Shades of John Scalzi in the "Old Man's War" series.

No, it's not the same concept. Catholics pray to Mary and other saints, to ask for their intercession. To put it crudely, they are saying "Mom, could you ask Dad if <insert reason for prayer>. They aren't asking in Mary's name, they are asking Mary to ask God. The Catholic belief is that Mary and the saints are already in heaven. The proof of them being already in heaven is the miracles that must be performed by them before their canonization, i.e. elevation to saint status. Being in heaven, they have better/more immediate access to God than we on earth do. The saints are able to hear our prayers, unlike ordinary dead people who are merely dead, not in heaven. This is what is meant by "the Communion of Saints" line in the Apostle's Creed. Latin Catholics have a very strong devotion to the Virgin, particularly Our Lady of Guadalupe. This devotion is nothing sacrilegious or idolatrous; as one Catholic once said, "how could we ever honor Mary more than God himself did already?" After all, Jesus performed his first miracle at her request, turning the water to wine at the wedding in Cana. Praying to Mary is also an act of humility; you aren't wanting to bother God directly with your petty issues. You are right that this is a very hard issue to deal with. Mary is a big deal in the Bible, but Mormons tend to depend more on the Book of Mormon than the Bible. If you don't believe me, compare how many people have read the entire Book of Mormon with how many have read the entire Bible, even though the LDS Church says it is scripture, too, albeit sometimes badly translated. Having the investigator read the Book of Mormon is about the only thing I can think of that might be helpful. Make sure they know what the book is about, the pre-history of the Americas. One reason Our Lady of Guadalupe is so popular is because she appeared to a peasant of aboriginal descent, not a higher class person of Spanish descent.

Oh, that's funny! I guess I have lucked out that my French connection really was French. I haven't verified the Native American claims on my paternal side yet, but they look likely to be so. The surnames and locale of that particular branch are Acadian, prior to the move to New Orleans, so being Metis is quite likely. The Native American claims on my maternal side are looking less likely. I haven't gone too far on her side yet, but what data I have is suggesting a Sephardic crypto-Jew heritage, covered up with a story of Native American heritage to account for the physical appearance of my GGGrandmother.

I'm another fan of the surname forums. I was badly stuck on my paternal GGrandfather, unable to find his parents, for over 5 years. I got the break I needed on a surname forum. Somebody else was researching his brother's line, and gave me the name and locale of their parents. I was able to verify that info once I had it. I have learned that there is very little genealogy as easy as Catholic French-Canadian genealogy. All the parish marriage registers list the parents of the couple. The women retain their maiden name after marriage, too. I went from a brick wall to 1633 in almost no time.

I have a simply amazing genealogy program I just love. It has the best views of the family tree I have ever seen. It's called iFamily, and it cost about $29. I couldn't be happier with it. Unfortunately, the sole developer of it passed away. While it is certainly not an emergency, I am in the market for a good Mac genealogy app. Reunion is the 800 pound gorilla in this room. Has anybody used it? Is it worth the $100 it costs? Can anybody recommend a different Mac genealogy app? Free trials are good. I can export in standard GEDCOM format, of course, to migrate my data, and would prefer to be able to do so in the free trial to see how badly it mangles any custom fields on import.

I'm not concerned about the drive by wire, or the explosiveness of hydrogen. I'm concerned about the use of hydrogen as the energy source. It takes more energy to produce hydrogen than it releases. From where is this energy going to come? Why not simply use that energy (typically electricity) to run the car in the first place?

I am intrigued by some of Heinlein's concepts in Starship Troopers, particularly the one where you acquire citizenship and the right to vote via military service. I've tried to contemplate how our nation would be differently run if we had that rule. I suspect we'd go to war less often, but more forcefully. No half-assed "limited war" that drives up the casualty count and wastes billions of dollars in equipment. The old "accomplish the mission" mentality, you know. I suspect we'd have a balanced budget, too. Soldiers don't get paid very much, and have to learn to make wise spending decisions. And I'm a screaming liberal IRL, but a veteran screaming liberal.