Ironhold

Spain - Original European power to colonize the region France - A French colony ship headed for Louisiana got lost in a storm and landed in the area now known as Matagorda Bay. Even though they knew they were in the wrong place they decided to set up a colony anyway and were eventually evicted. Mexico - The nation that came after the local settlers threw off Spain. Republic of Texas - The nation that came after the local settlers threw off Mexico. United States - The Republic of Texas was unable to survive due to debts incurred and joined up. Confederacy - Texas sided with the Confederacy

There's a push to replace the federal income tax with a federal sales tax, in the logic that it's much simpler and also harder to dodge. The problem is that this would mean the bottom half of Americans, who pay little to no income tax, would find themselves being taxed, sometimes heavily.

Last night at the office, one of the editors was noting how cold it was getting. I reminded her that come summer, we'll be *missing* this weather. She agreed.

If you'll recall, a year or so back people *on this forum* dogged me because as an entertainment writer I occasionally watched R-rated movies for review.

Simply put, they're against the stereotypical idea of what a "proper" member of the church should be doing. A lot of members have a very rigid, almost fundamentalist idea of how we as members should be living our lives, and there's no room for even the slightest degree of variance. And if you'll recall, rock & roll has been regarded as "devil music" practically since it first became popular in the 1950s.

Pocatello is a growing city, and as cities grow that means people from wider backgrounds come to live in those cities. In the case of cities where the church has historically had a strong membership, this means secularization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPKY For example, one of the media outlets in Pocatello is KPKY-FM, currently owned by Rich Broadcasting and Townsquare media. KPKY airs a "classic rock" format, focusing on rock and metal from the 1960s to the early 1990s. This means they have Townsquare's "Ultimate Classic Rock with Uncle Joe Benson" on Monday - Friday from 7 PM to Midnight local time, with Saturdays being a double feature of "Sammy Hagar's Top Rock Countdown" and "The House of Hair with Dee Snider" during the same time slot and Sundays being a rebroadcast of the latter two shows. These shows are, generally speaking, only interrupted for Utah Jazz games and the like. In fact, this is *how* I know of Pocatello, as I listen to all three of the aforementioned radio shows and found KPKY's live stream when they initially ceased being available in my area (KLFX-FM dropped HoH in favor of Monsters of Rock Radio, while Townsquare flipped KLTD-FM from classic rock to Spanish hits. KIXT-FM has the HoH again, but they're infamous for their technical issues). There are those in the church who would freak if they found out I listened to shows like this.

"Hard times bring hard men. Hard men bring soft times. Soft times bring soft men. Soft men bring hard times." - old adage It's the natural impulse of the previous generation to ensure that the subsequent generation has more than they had, and an overall easier time of it. The problem is that past a certain point a society can create a situation where the subsequent generation has known so little in the way of hardship, stress, conflict, or difficulty that they have no real frame of reference by which to actually judge difficulty. It can also occur when a person has been inside a little "bubble" of some sort for so long that they've had little to no contact with the world outside. This is why, for example, these individuals treat any and all criticism as "hateful". They've been led to believe that they're perfect little darlings and that everything they do is by extension perfect, and so can't fathom why anyone would say anything that they've done is wrong. Therefore, it must mean that they're dealing with angry people who are just jealous or mean-spirited. In contrast, they also see themselves as all-knowing because they don't understand their own *lack* of knowledge, and so presume to have the answers for everything. Thus, it's a big insult to them if they feel people aren't taking them seriously, as it means that people aren't bowing down to their omniscience. The whole "kids these days are just too soft!" bit has now reached a point that it's being used as an argument for reinstating military conscription in the United States, both because people want these individuals to understand true hardship and because they fell the military will build the character that is seen as sorely lacking.

Personal politics + propaganda The Canadian government, through its propaganda arm the CBC, suppressed photo and video evidence showing that the truckers were peaceful and that the government response to them was anything but. The recent "investigation" into the government response was essentially a kangaroo court, and so the Trudeau regime won't be held accountable unless the larger world community forces accountability somehow. Yes, I know people who live in Canada, and a number of them are desperately trying to figure out how they can flee to America despite Canada's requirement that people receive the death jab Covid vaccine before leaving the country.

That's why you network.

A couple of years ago it was discovered that the people doing drag queen story hour in Houston hadn't done proper background checks and so a registered offender was able to work with children for six months.

Simply explaining the situation. Basically, IRL I operate on the fringes. Helps me find people who are often overlooked and protect those who aren't able to protect themselves, but I have no illusions about how it's going to turn out.

Remember how I said I was essentially trained in psychological warfare? And how I talked about having mental health issues? And having to "get by" during a long period where I was functionally on my own as people wouldn't listen to me? Precious few people understand "I'm still working to improve myself and make amends as needed, probably shouldn't have obtained one in the first place, and only sought one because it was clear to not just myself but a few others that it was the only way for mom to stop harassing me about not having my endowments yet despite being in my 30s". edit - I straight up told my bishop at the time that because of the verbal and emotional trauma I went through, especially in regards to my not having ever served a mission, I had no clear benchmark of whether I was "worthy" or not and that I was mainly doing it because I was being badgered into it and I just wanted peace. He still signed off anyway. Most people understand "it's too difficult for me to travel because injuries".

Joke's on the teacher then. When asked about scheduling an interview to get my recommend reviewed, I explained that I wouldn't be using it anyway because the deformity in my skeletal structure combined with my busted vertebrae (plural) mean it's too difficult for me to make the three hours each way to the nearest temple. It's functionally moot at this point. So I guess by their standard I can say and do whatever I please.

Every so often I'll pull up some random "Reddit Stories" type YouTube video and have it going in the background to see if it stirs up some ideas. This video here is the channel owner reading bits from an "ask me anything" someone who claims to be a former CIA operative did. Note that it's mildly NSFW due to some of the specific questions being asked. At the 7 minute mark we get to question #10, where someone asks "Are there secret societies or powerful people that have huge influence on the intelligence community?". The ostensible former operative's response? "Texas A&M and the Mormon Church". Now, the Texas A&M system of colleges is synonymous with the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) program, a means by which college students can receive military leadership training and potentially receive a commission as an officer upon graduation. In fact, the main Texas A&M campus at College Station pretty much *is* a massive ROTC program with well north of a thousand students who are essentially cadets and live as such. Given that many people who are military go into the CIA, I can see how this would be a big thing. With the church? I'd heard the occasional whisper that some US government agencies quietly place a premium on hiring members of the church, especially returned missionaries. This is because members of the church are more likely to be bilingual, more likely to have "clean" lifestyles that don't cause problems for others, and tend to be better able to work in groups. If this person actually *is* a former operative and what they're saying is true, then that would seem to indicate that yeah, there *is* a silent preference for hiring members of the church for at least certain positions.

Don't forget that when gas prices spiked last year the general response from the administration was to mock people for having cars with gasoline-driven engines. Several officials kept talking about how they were able to just keep driving on past gas stations thanks to their electric vehicles, not realizing that: 1. The people most affected by the rise in gas prices were the least able to afford an electric vehicle even if they traded their current ride in 2. There was no guarantee that anyone could acquire an electric vehicle anyway due to manufacturing shortages caused by disruptions to the supply chain 3. Even if a person had an electric vehicle, there was no guarantee that they'd be able to find any sort of publicly accessible charging station and so would have a very limited range that would largely confine them to the area around their homes (homes, as in free-standing residences, not apartments) 4. Even if a person lived in a home, there is no guarantee that their local power grid would be able to handle large numbers of electric vehicles all trying to charge at once. It was a very big "let them eat cake" moment.

The FAA, FCC, and other groups should be monitoring these. They shouldn't be unknown.

happy birthday

Although it's common to claim that this story is simply about Jesus respecting his mother, a key issue a number of scholars have raised is that given the traditions of the time, Mary shouldn't have had any part in the planning, let alone functioning, of the wedding and resulting ceremony unless one of the people being married was a very close blood relative. This has led to speculation about just whose wedding this was that Jesus felt compelled to make this happen, with a few scholars using it as an argument in favor of Jesus being married saying that it was probably *his* wedding.

Also, late last year Ollie's got a very large quantity of material from at least two companies that were making uniforms and other on-the-job clothing. While much of it is of a questionable nature (such as several trousers and suit jackets that were never hemmed and garments that already have corporate logos on them), my store also got bright yellow high-visibility safety vests that they've been selling for $1 apiece.

If you have an Ollie's discount retailer in your area, check them out. Right now (15 February 2023) some Ollie's stores have received a supply of Ball - brand canning jars and are selling them at markdown. As Ollie's is a discount retailer who receives a somewhat randomized mix of product, what they have in stock constantly changes and so they may have more preparedness items later.

The whole thing was basically "Trump is bad, so anything he does is bad". Thus the hypocrisy. It's alarmingly common when people fall into an extreme "us vs. them" mindset.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_(franchise) Sounds like the Wing Commander franchise, as the main enemies were a race of feline humanoids known as the Kilrathi. I say "main enemies" as in the last official installment, "Wing Commander: Prophecy", involved humans and Kilrathi joining forces against a third race, aquatic humanoids known as "Nephilim".

Turns out that I did, indeed, come up with a different password for Tools after a previous "you failed to update so we're just going to glitch up on you" situation. I finally found the notebook I used for my passwords.

I still need to find where I wrote my most recent password; I think I might have already had to change it once. That could be the other issue.

Ask Chat GPT about "Dan". From what I'm hearing, someone got ChatGPT to break its pre-programmed limits by roleplaying a different AI named Dan, and that once "Dan" was in the picture it got much looser with its responses.