Saintmichaeldefendthem1

To that I would return with a 3 part reposte: 1. Nobody has to have been there to understand the cultural nuances, special interests, and economical and political factors that come into play. On the other side, having been there makes no one an expert either if they fail to understand what they're seeing. 2. You don't know what will replace the regime. Even if it is temporarily replaced by something worse, as happened in the French Revolution, democracy may still prevail. I would remind you that America also replaced British rule with undemocratic and often ruthless government regimes until our Constitutional form of government took full form. 3. Egyptians are not aliens from another planet that they would "act completely out of control" in situations where other people wouldn't. Americans are not calm, rational, reasoned people by comparison, we simply have better mechanisms vouchsafed by our form of government to resolve grievences. If we were as unequipped as the Egyptians to seek redress from our government, our behavior would be no different. Naive? Not even in the slightest.

1986 was a sad year. Chernobyl happened during that year as well.

Hmm, I would say that God didn't make the "survival of the fittest" law. That was man's doing when he fell into disobedience and brought sin and death into the world. One thing is for certain, there's nothing darwinistic for how we are called of God to treat our fellow man. These birds I pray for were not weak, they simply lack the ability to estimate how fast something is coming at them; an unfortunate drawback of not being able to focus 2 eyes on the same object. Same goes for deer, BTW.

Unless I'm mistaken, nor does the LDS prohibit the petitioning of the saints...who are very much alive by the way.

I would avoid eating the eyes, just in case.

You don't look old, you look fresh out of the oven. And if someone bites your head off, you can't say you didn't tempt them to.

What is this, now we're blaming the Egyptian protesters? They've been oppressed for over 30 years under this regime. Any regime that gets overthrown will have reverberations that negatively effect some markets, etc, that's not an excuse to keep them in place.

That's terrible that this tradition continues. Pray rather that, like me, people come to realize what a terrible thing it is to be cruel to animals and come to love and cherish them as Heavenly Father does. Ask St. Francis to help.

I guess this is a mark of how much I've changed. In my youth, I used to shoot birds remorselessly, now I can't bear the fact that I kill them even by accident. Is this what Rich Mullens meant by his song "Growing Young"?

I was eleven. We had only one TV in our elementary school and so we all packed into the 6th grade room like sardines to watch the news.

And not to be misunderstood, I don't believe the gay rights movement is wittingly aiding NAMBLA and I know that they find the sexual abuse of children abhorant. My point is that depravity, like water, restlessly searches for lower ground. It will not be contained in the neat little picket fences we erect nor the signs saying, "go this far, but no further." Pederast advocacy groups will use the same tactics as the gay rights movement. Chalk this up as unintended consequences.

Yes, that's what I meant. As a Catholic, I believe that God's plan for us has existed before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), but our spirit is created at conception. Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not bashing your belief. As I said, I think it's beautiful.

Since I've become a truck driver I've been killing a lot of birds. These poor creatures lack depth perception and don't know how fast my truck is coming at them. A flock will usually get out of the way in time, but sometimes there is one that just didn't move fast enough and to my horror I hear a thump as it collides with my truck. When this happens, there really is nothing I can do. By the time I realize that a bird is not moving fast enough, it's already too late. This grieves me to no end and I'm not ashamed to admit that it drives me to tears when it happens. I remember Jesus teaching that a sparrow does not fall to the ground unobserved by our heavenly Father. So I began praying for these birds that they would have a place in the Resurrection by God's good pleasure. I've lost count of how many birds have been tragically killed by my truck, but I pray for each one of them. I don't believe that all animals go to heaven, but I do believe that those animals sponsored by people will be with us in eternity. This belief is buttressed by no evidence, but has brought much comfort to many owners of beloved pets. Faith means that sometimes we believe even when we can't prove it. And I can picture Saint Francis of Assissi smiling at the depository of birds that will be waiting for me in heaven. He understood the value of a sparrow too.

BTW, that Mormon belief that spirits are called from heaven whenever a baby is conceived is a beautiful belief. I guess there's a certain continuity to it that just as Jesus was in heaven, came to earth, and returned to heaven, so do Christians. I'm guessing this means that you believe spirits are eternal both in past and future?

my apologies, I didn't see that in your post, Ripplecut. I keep checking for updates or followup articles, but so far nothing. Why am I so alarmed about this? Because I'm a student of history, and throughout history, every society that has failed to maintain its sexual ethic has slipped into spiraling depravity that eventually victimizes children. The gay rights movement balks at the notion that it has anything to do with sexual child abuse, but NAMBLA as well as other pederast advocacy groups that will soon spring up will use the same doors opened by the gay rights movement to gain acceptance in society. Planned Parenthood's recent "Youth Sexuality Institute" event encouraging children to explore their sexuality (and here we thought they just did abortions) International Planned Parenthood Pushes Abortion, Child Sex at African Conference | LifeNews.com including homosexuality, masturbation, various forms of sex, etc is part of a disturbing trend of revisioning children as sexual beings and sends the wrong message that sex is about pleasure rather than to create a family. Why are all these people salavating at children's budding sexuality? What kind of sickness is this? And the public school system will be the primary channel for social experimentations of the sexual nature to be propogated on our children. Who could have known how right those parents were in the 70's who protested sex education in schools?

The protest has gone world wide with Egyptian citizens protesting everywhere, even here in America. Mubarak is called a president, though he's not. Presidents are elected and cannot pass down their office to their son. Despite heavy handed measures such as shutting down the internet, reports are coming out of people shot in the streets with rubber bullets and also live ammunition. The protesters' demands are very reasonable. They want fair elections and a democratic form of government. And just like the democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, China, the government is responding with lethal force. What a dark day it is!

The Egyptian regime might be an ally of the US, but clearly they have been an oppressive government. Any government that feels threatened, when its back is against the wall, will act for its own survival. Ours is no exception as seen during the Vietnam protests in the 60's; we too sent troops into the streets. All that nonsense of being a government of the people, by the people, and for the people flies right out the window when people want to take back their government. And now we have a situation where our friendship to the current Egyptian regime is a liability and fuels the most extreme anti-western elements who are now weighing in. Some say they are even taking over the protest and providing structure and purpose for it.

It would seem that if we are looking for places to cut spending, this is a good start. Wouldn't it be sad if historians in the future said, "America the great had fallen because they never faced the fact that the cold war was over"?

Ripplecut, the third possibility which you didn't list is that the teacher directed and encouraged it. There is an unfortunate trend of those sexually attracted to children seeking jobs that will give them access to children. It wouldn't change anything if he wasn't a registered sex offender. After all, every offender has their first crime that enters them into the system. I'm not saying that this is definitely what happened, but if you're listing possibilities, this is a viable one. Deborah, many kids don't do this act out of curiosity, not at that age. I read some commentary by child development experts who find it highly improbable that these children did these acts spontaneously. 8 year olds express sexual curiosity by viewing each other's bodies and touching. In normal development, this is as far as it gets at that stage. You pointed out that sexual abuse would give them knowledge far beyond their years and you're right, there had to have been abuse. The only question is, when did it happen? When this teacher is arraigned on charges of sexual abuse of minors, I'll try hard not to tell everyone I-told-you-so. My secret is simple. I just rolled the dice on the most likely senario.

Statistics not required. Nothing ever happens in Canada so naturally, they're fascinated with news from everywhere else. It's just a logical deduction. The most shameful aspect of the Obama speech is that is is the most plagiarized speech given by any president in US history. They didn't even try to conceal the fact that they were pasting right from Eisenhower, Wilson, Reagan, JFK, and others who gave memorable speeches. BTW, we're bashing Obama something fierce and he's now an official candidate for re-election. I won't be too surprised when the gingerbread cookie locks down this thread.

Well then. There's the opinion of one parent. I might pull my child out immediately, but I might also relent. If I truly felt this was led by the teacher, then the teacher's removal from that class solves that problem forthright. Either way, my child gets counseling so he knows the behavior he witnessed is entirely inappropriate.

Funkytown, I couldn't agree more. Americans are obsessed about their own problems and we can't blame the media because the media shows us precisely what we ask it to...24 hours of commentary on the Tiger Woods scandal, Michael Jackson's death, and Sarah Palin's wardrobe. I would say that our relationship with France has experienced some healing since the election of President Sarkozy. He reminded the French about the thousands of graves where Americans were buried in French soil, having given their all to free France from the nazi rule. There was one senator or congressman who suggested "freedom fries" in the capitol hill cafeteria and the media ran with it. Americans' anger was expressed more by the boycotts, but that seemed to die down quickly after Sarkosy's overture of peace. I'm guessing that Canadians have always been interested in US politics simply because their future is tied with ours. Even during the cold war, I'm sure they didn't appreciate the fact that our ICBM trajectories, as well as the Soviets' went right over Canadian airspace. What if one of them ran out of gas right over Toronto?

It may be that parents got more truth from a newspaper article than they did from the letter they received from the school district expressing regret but white washing the entire incident of scandel. They chalked it up to inattentativeness and child curiosity. Give me a break!

As I understand it, Orson's mission was to Brazil and he includes Portugese in some of his writings. I'm not a Mormon and so some of the imagery from the BOM and Doctrines and Covenants that he incorporates into his writings, such as the Worthing Saga, go right over my head. It wasn't until I was into the 2nd Homecoming book that I realized the story mirrored the relationship of young Nephi and his family. I suppose I would enjoy his works even more if I had that inside knowledge.

Selek, another question that I've been asking is, if a child of yours was in that classroom, would you wait for confirmation that something is amiss before pulling him out? Nobody seems to want to answer that question because the answer is a sure indicator of the truth. Nobody wants to subject their own children to a pet theory that a foul situation might have an innocent explanation.