a-train

I would not doubt for a second that foreign intervention is at work in Iran. I'll bet the President was really reelected by the people. Reuters is reporting that today's rally is cancelled. This does not mean that we could not see a serious exhibition today. The start time was almost an hour ago as I write this. I don't see any news of anything happening. I'm glad our President is staying out of it. -a-train

If a one million dollar car is an asset, meaning the owner's wealth actually increases by virtue of ownership, then it is worth having and could easily be owned by one with a testimony of the LORD. However, if it is a mere liability, meaning the owner's wealth decreases by virtue of ownership, then it is vanity. Which of the LORD's servants, having talents, was greedy? It was the one that did not allocate his resources toward growth, but sought to bury those resources. A vehicle like the one you've noted would be a great thing to rent for the weekend so you can have a hot date with the love of your life. No matter my wealth, I don't intend to ever own a vehicle like that, not even one half as expensive. I would only rent one. -a-train

OK, Berlin. -a-train

Yeah but Belize is nice.

Belize -a-train OK, so I cheated. I just like Belize.

Zoom -a-train

Flying V!! -a-train

Telecaster -a-train

Rickenbacher -a-train

Yeah, they tried to get me to sign their petition to pass a federal law mandating that chickens be killed in gas chambers (rather than the various methods now employed). Talk about the nanny state! Uncle Sam will tell us how to kill a chicken!?!?!?What is funny is I asked the volunteer: "So you want to tell all the farmers how to kill their chickens and force them to use some machine made by some corporate beneficiary of this law?" His response was: "Well, the farmers don't kill the chickens." -a-train

I think I knew that same person. She has since had some therapy.-a-train

The "What If"s are neither here nor there. Focus on the marriage that not only may have been but is, not the one that only may have been and isn't. For men, this comes easy. Women for some reason tend to obsess and stress over decades gone issues or those unseen in some distant future. Remember, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. -a-train

Then there are those girls down at NOW who want parents to kill their children. Sheesh... -a-train

PETA has cried against the use of gas chambers in the killing of dogs and cats. At the same time, I was asked by a PETA volunteer to sign a petition for a federal law mandating that chickens be killed only in gas chambers. I guess the guys who make those chambers and the gas made a hefty donation. -a-train

I sold cars last summer. I tried to be the nice car salesman. No pressure. Super at ease. People don't buy from those. I was continually shocked to find that they bought from another salesman at a different dealership who was super pushy. They even regretted it and apologized to me. The reality is that most people buy from the pushy jerks, and therefore they are the main guys who stay in the business. -a-train

He should be tried, and if convicted, sentenced according to the law.-a-train

Is this not true for all memory? Are we to believe that someone who has smoked cigarettes or looked at pornography has endured a permanent brain change different from any normal brain activity? Doesn't our brain store memory by making changes in its structure? As I practice the guitar, my body and brain are altered in a way wherein it remembers doing so and I therefore do so with greater ease. In fact, many guitarists literally feel in there hands and arms a wanting to hold and play a guitar when they go without doing so for some time.Thus, addiction itself is not evil. It all depends on what we are addicted to. We want to be addicted to doing good, to obtaining better education, and so forth. Perhaps an addiction to home teaching would be a good thing. Addiction to cigarettes is bad because tobacco causes health problems. Addiction to pornography is bad because it causes one to engage in immorality. Addiction to television is bad because one neglects more important things while watching bad acting and not-so-creative story lines. An addiction to daily scripture study is a good thing. If you feel withdrawal when circumstances cause you to miss your scripture study, this is good. We "know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." -a-train

There are members of every stripe in this Church. Some take things dogmatically like those in other Christian circles. The scriptures and the prophets teach otherwise. We are to receive personal revelation. Joseph Smith taught that salvation without it is impossible. Let me ask you this: If an elder in the Church, serving in a position of authority did something not in harmony with the will of the LORD and/or counseled others to do so, would we sustain him by supporting his bafoonery? We are to sustain him in his calling, not bafoonery. -a-train -a-train

Sustaining an elder's calling to the highest authority in the priesthood order is not the same as promising to believe and to follow his every word from thenceforth. Is it not possible that he could be misled or wrong? Certainly it is possible. We are each individually responsible for consulting the LORD in all things and acting accordingly.-a-train

Anyone saying that revelation through someone else is "personal" is simply wrong.Let me be as clear as I can. NO. President Monson's word is NOT good enough. I need a personal revelation directly from God to believe that anything President Monson says was revealed to him by God really was. The missionaries teach personal revelation on the very first discussion. Why? Because one cannot know if the Book of Mormon is true, if the Church really was restored by God, if Joseph Smith really was a prophet, or anything for that matter without personal revelation. I don't believe ANYONE who claims to have revelation for and in behalf of me without a direct revelation from God affirming so. -a-train

I would not expect one having no brain to have reactions within one for any reason.-a-train

I'd do whatever the LORD commands. Does that mean I would do one of the above on simply the word of a General Authority or even President Monson? Of course not. I would require the LORD to reveal directly to me that the commandment was His will. This is true however, not only for the activities above, but for the very basis of the authority of the President of the Church in the first place as well as all things commanded through Him and all Church leaders. I would say the same about home teaching. Do not do your home teaching strictly because your EQ President says so, get a revelation. -a-train

An addiction is one of those activities one only wants to do in a short spurt of temptation after which they feel guilt and remorse only to repeat the process. What the addict wants is the short-term pleasure effects of the activity without the long-term negative ramifications. I personally don't buy the "Embraced by the Light" notion that spirits in the spirit world are addicted to cocaine and in a state of torture because they cannot get high without a body. The crack addict is freed from his addiction as soon as he dies just as is the cancer patient from his cancer. What is lost by the addict is time and resources which could have been better spent on long-term constructive activity. I give no credit to the superstitious which claim the spirit continues to feel the effects of physical addiction beyond death. Drugs are not spiritual, or magic. They are physical substances which only cause physical effects in the body. -a-train

Isn't just about anything possible in 3.5 billion years? -a-train

Do you mean besides the biggest forced liquidation in our lifetime? Bureaucrats will never do this, it is the work of the people. Green jobs are fine, as long as they are produced by the free market. The whole lot of Americans on all sides of politics are growing more and more tired of cronyism. Additionally, Keynesian expansionism is more and more under scrutiny. The only thing government can do to promote American employment is get out of the way.-a-train