CaptainTux

I love EJO, but it is hard for me to warm up to the new BSG. I think it is well written, I think I am hung up on the name. Not a good reason...maybe I will give it a chance.

Again, I grant you TOS. After Gene died, it all became formula and new ground became trite...in my opinion. My wife can testify that my opinion is often wrong. The sci fi on TV that I have enjoyed have been ST:TOS BSG (TOS) Farscape Firefly V: the miniseries The Twilight Zone That is about it. I am in great fear over Lucas' upcoming SW tv series.

At the end of the day all forums have rules and community standards. Modding and admining forums is tough. You know you have the right balance when everyone is a little unhappy. Your thread has not been deleted, it has been moved to what the mods feel is a more appropriate place. I fail to see any reason to be upset about it.

I will give you TOS. Gene's creation was new and innovative and challenged our social folkways and mores and the influence it had on you and many other children was valuable. I even liked the Next Gen until Roddenberry died. After that, it went downhill fast. Gene's vision was key to the quality of the show. At times I lump the rest of trek in with the original...myopic of me. I apologize. TOS was meant and potatoes...the rest was twinkies and ho ho's. ;-)

AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO STAR TREK REFERENCES!!!!!!! I am a geek. I take pride in my geekdom, but ST is not my cup of tea. It was the death of modern sci fi that is slowly being brought back to real stories. The cancellation of Enterprise and the incarnation of shows like Farscape and Firefly have given me hope for a proper sci fi future where stories are innovative and imaginative and the human experience is not the superior one and God is not pushed into a happy little agnostic world. ST is a great show....to poop on! (Tux runs and ducks knowing that toy communicators are about to be flung at him)

The switchover was tough. I would break the ice and get a rare young man that did not sound like an automaton and would take me to task with bold and respectful debates on my view of scripture verses the lds. Then he would be elsewhere and I would have to start over with someone new. Why the frequent moving? If one is assigned to mission in St Louis...why not stay in St Louis for the duration? It just seems to me to make sense to build rapport, forge relationships and trust, and build the mission. I think the beginning section was 12 lessons. I ended with 2 different people than I started with. This is not meant to be a complaint or slam...perhaps there is an angle I am missing that makes this make sense.

When was the last time you called to have the missionaries come to your door? Within a day of my joining the forums here. Back then I was in a state and was likely ready to dunk right there. Now, not so much, but I really like it here on the forums. Should I get visitors in white shirts, they are welcome in, and I will ask my questions, be introduced to bishops and see where it goes. I have actually found many of you here on the forums to be much more helpful. I hope I am not being offensive, I just found the missionaries to be interesting. Well, young. I never had consistency. One would be moved and I would have to build rapport with someone else. Also, sometimes, I think they would get lost in Thieu youth, bring in a bishop from the local church who would be so busy putting on a good impression that I never got reality. Here, y'all are real. I think your leaders could learn a thing or two hanging out here.

I have not seen a missionary at my door in about 3 years. I have asked for a new copy of the Book of Mormon and 2 videos about the time I joined the forums. Is this just a fallout in my area, shortage of missionaries in my area, or should I check my doormat for dust?

Actually, I am quite the reprobate, I merely have good moments .Anyway, the news is an industry now and you want to get ratings and you want sponsors. This is really nothing new. For decades, this paper has been a democrat paper and that one a republican paper. Editors not only did not hide the fact, but advertised and announced it to attract subscribers who wanted the news presented a certain way and advertisers who wanted to meet a certain demographic. Today it is more prevalent in tv journalism. If you are a republican, you watch Fox. If you are a Democrat, CNN. If you are tuning in your radio and you are a conservative, you put on Hannity, if a Liberal, Frankin. So now you have a place to get your news the way you like it, but both groups have to compete for different slants on the same story. The stories have to be attention getting, sensational, shocking, and has to be more twisted than last weeks kidnapping or mysterious spousal death. I have found a great way to beat the news blues. I subscribe to all three of my local papers. It is awesome to read page one is about a local job fair or community picnic. The sports section will show you that 17 year old Tonya has made it to state in track and the Football team won the homecoming game-GO RAIDERS! I keep up with current events, but I can tell you far more about the local events in my town than I can tell you about the nation and world. Do you know how good it makes a local to feel when I am buying coffee at the local diner and look at someone and say "Hey, congrats on your engagement. I saw your picture in the paper. I hope you and your wife to be are very happy." You not only get to read the news, but you get to be a part of it. Even the bad news. When I read about someone who had a fire, I hit the garage sales with some friends and ask them to donate to Bill Smith and his family on 124 Anystreet who just lost their house to a fire.

lafandjan, Take what I am about to say with a grain of salt. I was 18 when I married a pretty girl with wide blue eyes. We had just graduated HS and our families thought we were nuts. I was working at a cheese factory and she was working at a kfc. We never had money, we never were going to go to college on what we had, we had basically shot ourselves in the foot. It was hard to do, but I had to call my grandparents and she her parents after about 9 months. They helped us finance the annulment and closing the lease on the apartment early. We are still friends who speak a few times a year. She has been married for almost 15 years now and has 2 daughters and a son and a great marriage to a good man. I have 11 years and a 5 year old daughter. At the rate we were going, we were going to be uneducated buffoons living off the government and hoping to get trailer. I know what I am saying is not the right answer and I am not telling you this is tha path you should choose. I do not know how young you are or your finances. I am merely telling you this.....if you get divorced, you are not a failure and you should not feel that coming home is to be equal to being branded with a scarlet letter. Got a secret about parents...even when we do not agree with a choice, we still love you and want to help.

There has gotta be a loophole allowing that. Temporary insanity due to creamy deliciousness?Seriously, thanks for a wonderful response. So, lying at work, working on Sundays...how far away is that from lap dances? If we are willing to sin for a paycheck...how much more pure are we? If we are willing to lie to close a sale or willing to work as opposed to going to church and being with the family and work at casinos...are we really that superior?

You are not over reacting. It is a good call on a bad name.

Amusing side note. I am a believer that if you look at a woman with lust, you may have as well committed the deed. I have a firm ground rule. When I look at one with naughty thoughts, I leave. So far my shortest visit was about 2 minutes and the longest one was 2 and a quarter hours. That long stretch was my last visit. Some of them have gotten to know about the rule. While we talk there are always 3 girls on the stage. I have been warned when one or two dancers are doing something dangerous by the ones that know about my rule. They just look at me and say..."please keep your eyes on mine or at the bar until this song is over." I have found eye contact and the exit light to be good places to look, but I am amused that people who get paid to be ogled are trying to keep me from ogling. I dunno, I think it is funny.

You are a most fascinating individual MrsS. The piece of meat and being treated low bugs me. BTW, in my state, topless is allowed, but g string is on....unless you decide to drop your liquor license. The place that allows me to come in and be nosy is actually good to the girls. They take security and privacy of the dancers seriously. The owner even has dormotory housing for those that have nowhere to live. They have strict rules while living there..no drugs, no men, etc. I am sure that is as much for liability as it is for nobility, but I found it to be the exception to the rule. We live in a broken world. It is hard for me to be high and mighty. I will be honest...I do wanna tell the naive ones..."Get out. Go to college. Get married, get fat, have kids." The older ones...I want to understand. I also am humbled for I see myself as only a few degrees off. We are all broken and at times...Machiavellian.

Great reply MrsS. Your answers show me that there is no other way to get what I need without going into the truth of the matter. Though it is not my main vocation, I am an actor. I have, for the last 21 years of my life acted, produced, directed, stage manages, etc many plays. I have been in a few films and tv as well in bit roles. It is a passion. I am working with some people on a serious endeavor of an indie film. I am not comfortable revealing too much about the plot, but one of the principle characters is a stripper. To get a better understanding of the character and aspects of the project, I have been doing field research-with my significant others permission and full disclosure. I am not getting lapdances. What I do is I go into the clubs, offer the ones that come to my table a drink of their choosing and tell them my motives and let them know I will understand if they have to leave the table to work the stage or meet a client. During this time, I have been asked to leave clubs, told off, accused of violating privacy etc. I have found one place that has been welcoming to my quest and when I go, I can have two or three girls at my table at a time telling me aspects of thier life stories. This has been a rude awakening for me and has been fascinating. There is no typical dancer. You have some that enjoy it, others that loathe it, some seem to be strung out or hoping for fame. There are many single moms that live in duplicity all the time. They cannot tell the clients about who they are...they are meat. They cannot tell their neighbors or the other parents in their kid's soccer team what they do. They cannot tell their own kids and families what they do. There seems to be a lot of theft of tips. So you cannot even have deep relationships with the co-workers. I have found a few that are believers and have a hard time reconciling this. I even met a girl who goes to my church who works there. I am the only one that knows. It is far enough away that the odds are remote of someone from our church going there. She is in some fear about my knowing. Our kids are in Sunday school together, she gets along with my wife. She likes it at our church. She is afriad this discovery will lead to her having to leave. I have assured her that I will tell no one and I do not intend to. I even feel nervous about it here, but I feel this is remote enough and my details vague enough to pull it off. Where I live, welfare and quality medical care when poor is not as good as it is in other states and being a single mom is tough...especially with no college degree. I am not justifying. But I am finding it really hard to judge especially since I used to work in a casino. I am not saying this is a healthy profession. But doggone it, some of these women were not what I expected...I am not sure what I expected. I will tell you it is not a 3k a week gig in most of these places. They pay to dance and have to meet at least that per day. Some days and some weeks they may operate in the hole. As we get further into this project, I want less of the movie we are doing and I want to tell thier story. Their story I think is a story of a broken world with people doing things they may not like, but feel they need to do. I do not know if this makes any sense. Some of these girls have broken my heart and have broken Jen's as well. I am not sure I see them as the problem. I feel as if I am getting a new grasp of the woman brought before Jesus. Some say he may have written the man's name in the sand with the stick. No proof, but it is an interesting thought. I don't know. I am not sure what I am asking here. I am not sure what I am saying. I guess it is hard to look down on someone when you know a little about them and I wonder if the rest of us are mere degrees away from them as opposed to the other side of the thermometer as we would like to believe we are.

I will preface this by saying there is a purpose to my question, but I do not want to reveal it for it may taint your answers. No one here will be put on the spot. This is not a trap on the answers, but I fear if I do not hold my cards close, your answers may be tainted. We are all sinners. We sin every day. My question is this..how far are you willing to go to provide for yourself or your family? If you are a salesperson, will you lie a little to close a sale? Will you take five bucks out of your pocket if your cash register is short as opposed to facing up to an error? If you are a waiter or waitress, will you lie and say the clam chowder is good even though you have never had it? Will you be pleasant to a customer who you would rather tell them how rude they are? Will you laugh politely at a client's inappropriate joke or not stand for a conviction? If you work in customer service for an insurance company, will you tell a woman on the phone her HMO's procedure for an abortion and what doctors are in her network? Leave the vocation for a moment...would you steal food to feed your child? Would you kill someone for thier provisions if there was no other way to feed your family? I guess my question is this...how far will you go to make a dollar to provide for your family. Please give the honest answer as opposed to the right one. If you believe firmly that you would never sin vocationally or provisionally, I will take you at your word. I will admit, I would lie to earn a living, but I would not willfully harm another person for my own needs. For my daughter's...I would like to think my answer is no...but I may harm to provide for her and worry about the guilt and penance later. How far am I willing to go for a paycheck? I am not sure.

Took a good 12 step program and some individual therapy in my case. Recreational Pharmaceuticals made for some good pain avoidance. Look, I am not giving soldiers who do bad things a pass. But I will say that trauma can cause people to do things completely outside their character. The difference between "us" and "them" is that when our government or our soldiers commit an injustice, we get to demand justice and we do have investigations and we do have senate hearings and, though not perfect, we try to be better. We have the freedom to vote new people into offices if we feel the current ones are not representing the values we hold dear and what we feel America should be. We have the freedom to do so. American's exercised that freedom in the 60's by tossing human feces at my father and calling him a baby killer when he got home. The danger is that when we politicize and polarize the whole look at what our soldiers do-get em and let's ignore it...we create a civil war and innocent soldiers get caught in the mix. We are seeing protesters standing outside cemeteries where soldiers are being buried by their families holding disgusting signs saying God wants our soldiers dead and this is what we get for being a permissive society. This atrocity is defended by the ACLU. This atrocity is also defended by the brave men and women who sacrifice their freedoms and personal liberties in defense of those who burn flags and say God hates them. As far as me, what I experiences is nothing to my father and my grandfathers so I complain not. I went through a phase where I lamented the fact that a hard drive I held was more important than the lives of two men. They willingly gave their lives. That is not something we civilians can do readily...for our kids or spouse maybe. But Firefighters, cops, soldiers...they do it every day. There are soldiers with no honor, there are cops with no scrupels, there are racist firefighters, there are bad priests, but that is a vast minority...but let us be honest....the following do not make good headlines.... Cop does job and hands out a citation and gives directions to a lost tourist. Soldier goes on patrol, finds and disarms three IED's. Priest delivers communion and nice Sunday service, helps teen who has crush on girl. Firefighter goes to a call where a woman thought she smelled gas. Goes out of way to make her not feel embarrassed when there is no gas leak. These daily events are not newsworthy or sexy, but they are done by many soldiers, cops, priests, and firefighters...many more than the bad deeds.

There are some that "get off" on battle. They enjoy it. They are a minority. My father was in 'Nam and both my grandfather's were in WWII and one was in Korea. Conflict of the magnitude that my father saw and my mother's father saw will change a man. I am not excusing atrocities. Thankfully, the military has improved in helping soldiers adjust to life at home better than they used to, but there is still room for improvement. War is an ugly business. Innocent lives have been taken in Iraq for a long time and it is heart wrenching. First, they died at the hands of their own leader, then came the Bush assault which led to civilian loss, then the leader killed more of his own, then the sustained bombing campaign during the Clinton era has led to more civilian casualties in Iraq, and now we have the current Bush led military skirmish. 3 administrations of us in military conflict with Iraq and the whole time some level of genocide going on. I suspect the next president will have this conflict at least one term. The people of Iraq have suffered longer than any of us and I will be the first to acknowledge that fact. I doubt anyone can ignore over half a million dead children. We live in a broken world. Children die every day from starvation, poverty, war, abuse, sick freaks, etc every day. I would honestly love to know the weekly death count in Iraq vs the weekly death count in Africa

The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. - Douglas MacArthur I have worn a uniform to secure my country. I had one unspeakable night that will haunt me the rest of my days. I think it is myopic to assume that someone is not upset about soldiers not adhering to the Geneva Convention. Not only is that a violation of a contract we signed for the humane treatment of prisoners of war, it is a soldier's duty to adhere to the honor code and the oath he has made. I saw no one here advocating and giving personal blessing to the human rights violations committed by American Soldiers. Today, we have dead sons of our nation, let the people mourn that loss in peace. I have never met them, but as a former soldier, my brothers are dead. Wanna talk about the injustices we have committed, fine. We are not perfect, please start a new thread. For now, as a Christian and an American, there is a time to mourn the loss of young people who swore an oath and died in the line of duty in an unspeakable manner. I am angry to and, to be frank, I wanna lash out at anyone after reading the news on how they died. On that horrid night I spoke of, I will say that two brothers gave their lives so I could live. If you have never served, you will never ever comprehend the loss of one in your unit. For what it is worth, I oppose the death penalty, euthanasia, and am a strong advocate of adoption reform and incentives to adopt. I am pro life to the bone. Let me ask you...ever hear on the radio about someone dead in a car accident? Ever have a relative buy it in a car wreck? Which one has a larger impact? Your mom or the stranger? The American is part of your family and of closer relation than the other. Right or wrong, it is what it is and we are human. To the person who never met your mom...it is another footnote in the day on the radio. To you, it is of great import.

Forgive my ignorance, but where does Russia stand with us on this conflict?

And when the trumpet blows I will be glad to be a part of that battle. Until then, the Kingdom is not now. The most violent thing Jesus did the last round was turn over some tables.

In my Evangelical ethics class I got into a debate with my teacher because I wrote my paper on war. I went with the less popular pacifist notion as opposed to the just war theory. I have no problem with war. I back what we did in WWII and I back what we are doing now. I back these as a man and do not use the Bible to back em up. Jesus was a pacifist. I am not. I am also not sinless.

Well said PC. I hate to hear that our soldiers died so horribly. I hated watching the footage of 9/11. No matter what the other side does, we have a duty to take the high ground, abide by the Geneva Convention and press on. On the heels of events like this, it is hard because you want those who made our children, brothers, fathers, and friends suffer to suffer an even worse fate. It is natural to feel that way. We have Jesus who placed an ear back on a centurion that was taking Him to His torture and death. What happened to Jesus and early Christians was horrible and monstrous, but they had to press on and be who they were. I hate that our soldiers suffered and I want them all home soon.

Really? I spend most of my time in the general section and advice section. Has there been some lds assaults?

Monica, as I said, I will not argue the matter anymore for it is turning others off and further alienating a community rather than helping and unifying. Iron is to sharpen iron, not chip it in battle But please, should we ever enter a discussion again read what I saw. I clearly gave a disclaimer that I did not say Jesus was breaking the sabbath by healing on the seventh day, but was perceived as breaking the sabbath by accusers. I will gladly be respectful to you in future threads and move past this one for I have read threads in which you have been very helpful to others. I ask you to give me the same courtesy. I'll let you have the last word on this thread and say no more and I earnestly hope that you take the olive branch extended.