Ironhold

I hadn't. It was *not* on my radar until the movie came out. And given how many people I had to explain the plot to, I'd say a lot of other folks were in the dark as well.

Another major strike the film had against it was the advertising. The trailer mentioned Lin-Manuel Miranda, showed us a lot of dance numbers, and had the main character make a vague statement about the neighborhood somehow being in danger of disappearing. Basically, anyone who wasn't already familiar with the musical wouldn't know what the film was about, and I imagine that caused a lot of people to wait until the movie hit on-demand to watch it.

A very big issue across all forms of entertainment media right now is that the current generation of writers wants to be praised for being "brave" and "daring", and so they cram as many characters into their works as possible that are meant to be "progressive" in nature. These characters almost always land with an audible "thud" because they're rarely developed out beyond whatever their point of diversity was supposed to be, and in extreme instances this lack of proper development can result in the characters effectively being walking stereotypes because their net sum purpose for existing is whatever their point of diversity is and so writers will play that up to its hideous conclusion. Making matters worse is that the same vainglorious nature that leads to these writers doing this in the first place also means that they cannot handle any negative responses, and so they automatically attribute everything to "bigots" as a justification to ignore what people are saying... even if what people are saying is "No, your character wasn't the first. Here's a list of other characters that came before yours, characters you may wish to study."

There are a lot of factors that don't always get talked about when it comes to issues like this: 1. American society has, for decades, pushed kids to go to college, even going so far as to stigmatize the protective services and the skilled trades as being "lesser" occupations for people who can't cut it in school. In reality, these careers are not only necessary for society to function, but are in high demand with extensive shortages of workers. Many people who either noped out of college or couldn't pass muster would have gone on to very happy, very healthy lives had they been steered this direction from the get-go, and would have quickly paid back whatever debt they took out for their training programs given how quickly they'd have been able to find work. 2. Many people pick schools based on presumed prestige rather than how good the schools are or what academic and financial assistance they might receive. Because of this, they'll ignore cheaper schools and/or schools more willing to provide scholarships in favor of expensive facilities. 3. A lot of the people who have the greatest amount of debt are people whose degrees are in career fields that are in low demand, meaning that it's difficult to find work in that career field. This is why, for example, you see so many jokes about how you need an MFA (Master's in Fine Arts) just to be a barista at Starbuck's: they've set themselves up for failure by not considering what career prospects they had based on their degrees and planning accordingly. For example, someone who wanted to pursue the study of English literature could have mated their study with a degree in teaching and become a school teacher. Yes, I have an MBA (Master's in Business Administration) unless someone has tried to have it retroactively revoked again.

Premier Radio Networks, which is affiliated with iHeart Media, has acquired the rights to the classic 1970s and 1980s episodes of "American Top 40 With Casey Kasem" (apparently, the episodes that had Shadoe Stevens as host are a separate license they don't have). KBGO-FM, a classic top 40 station out of Waco, airs both back-to-back on Sunday mornings from 7 AM to 2 PM local. Because of a number of stress and anxiety-related issues I have, what I now do is use my smart phone to stream the shows, keeping an ear bud in one ear during church in a fashion that looks like some sort of Bluetooth or other attachment. Not only does it sometimes happen where the songs and long-distance dedications sync up with the lesson of the day or the sacrament talks, the branch president has noticed how even though I'm only "half" listening to everything I'm a lot more on the ball about some things - like taking down sacrament and cleaning the trays - than many of the younger brethren, who either go straight to Sunday school or spend time talking.

From what I'm seeing, if some of the hot political topics going on right now (like Critical Race Theory and elementary school-level sex education) manage to stay hot topics until the midterms, we could indeed see a massive turnout as people who are up in arms over the matters take it out on the other side.

There was a bit a few years ago where they were going to lay hands on someone who had just been baptized the day before, but whoever was supposed to say the actual prayer had forgotten the person's full name and so had to ask it right in the middle of everything.

A big issue with conspiracies is the need to sit down, pull the threads, and see what unravels. For example, consider the whole "Paul is dead!" conspiracy, which claims that Sir Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash at some point in 1966 and replaced with an imposter named William (either William Campbell, Billy Shears, or William Shears Campbell). It further claims that the band members or someone affiliated with the band objected to this trickery and started hiding clues in the band's various materials pointing towards this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_is_dead From what I understand: 1. Paul was in a very unpleasant motorcycle (motor scooter?) accident which left him with head trauma that may have had an effect on his memory and behavior in the years immediately following. 2. One of Paul's friends borrowed Paul's car and then proceeded to wrap it around a light post, leading to the "Death Cab For Cutie" headline as at least one newspaper erroneously reported that he - Paul - was dead. 3. The band themselves were aware of the rumors very early in 1967 and tried to dispel them, only to inadvertently draw more attention to them. It seems that, at least on the surface, the conspiracy was generated by a combination of points 1 and 2, erroneous reports of Paul being killed in a serious car crash and his somewhat different appearance and mannerisms after his motorcycle accident. Under the circumstances, it would seem quite plausible that people would be suspicious, especially given what was going on at that time. It wouldn't surprise me, however, if someone at their record label was behind the conspiracy, or at least worked to fan the flames, as the conspiracy kept the band in the headlines and likely juiced their album and movie sales.

For those who aren't familiar with Spanish as a language - The -o and -a you see at the end of many Spanish words is a result of Spanish being an inherently gendered language. The prefixes "la" and "las", and the suffixes "-a" and "as", indicate an item or group that is feminine or female. The prefixes "el" and "los", and the suffixes "-o and -os", indicate an item or group that is either masculine, male, or mixed-gender. This even goes for inanimate objects. los pantalones = a pair of pants = masculine la pluma = ink pen = feminine Gender is so inherent to Spanish, as a language, that it would be impossible to remove gender without utterly destroying the language and having to start from scratch. The problem is that many people who self-identify as politically progressive are against gendered language in the belief that it's inherently sexist, to the point that a moderator over at controversial video gaming website Reset Era banned someone for repeated use of the word "German" in the belief that it was somehow gendered. As a result, whenever anything dealing with Spanish as a language comes up, they insist on using "-x" as a gender-neutral suffix even though it has no place in Spanish as a language. Instead, it's nothing more than pure cultural imperialism. Things like this are why an increasing number of Hispanic voters are shying away from progressive-leaning causes and politicians.

The biggest demographic growth in Republican supporters has been among Hispanic voters. One contributing factor is the fact that "progressive" pundits and talking heads insist on using "Latinx" to refer to those of Latin-American ancestry, which represents them attempting to force their political and social sensibilities on the Spanish language. I myself have literally seen social media exchanges consisting of someone who is on the more "progressive" side using the term, people who are Hispanic asking them not to and explaining why they regard it as offensive, and the someone trying to defend their continued use of the term.

Military circles, and those who have been following US politics, have been pretty critical of certain higher-ups in the US military, as they seem more interested in their own careers and their ability to use their positions to ram-rod through certain social programs than in the military's actual ability to win wars. This alone has likely cost Biden the military vote, and has all but ensured we're not really in any position to be fighting a war. And as far as the sanctions go, Russia has such a stranglehold over domestic media outlets that the average Russian citizen doesn't even know what's going on, let alone why so many foreign companies are suddenly pulling out.

Conspiracy: The shiny, multi-colored dots on a person's mailbox are markers placed by the government to signal what the status of the residents will be in the event of some nefarious turn of events. Reality: Those shiny, multi-colored dots are available over-the-counter from office supply companies like Uline (or at least they were when I last ran a residential delivery route), and are typically put in place by service workers - such as newspaper delivery drivers and utility workers - to help them quickly determine who is or isn't a customer and what level of service they require.

I have an MBA, meaning that I could hypothetically teach 101-level business classes here in Texas. I would never tolerate such behavior from a student, regardless of the reason why they're having such an outburst. There are far better ways, far more mature ways in fact, to register discontent with the subject matter and the approach being taken. And if they feel a protest is needed, then there are more effective ways to do so than by making oneself look disturbed.

While I was running deliveries last night I realized that I could maybe print out the official press releases and bring them into my editors since we'll have a temple in Austin. Can't guarantee anything, but I can still try.

I live three hours north of San Antonio, Texas. Due to the various spinal injuries (et al) I'm dealing with, just getting to the temple is literally painful as it requires sitting for that long at a time. My endowment session was a nightmare, as I had to do even *more* sitting, followed by my family making a spectacle of the event and having to eat out at a nearby restaurant and then the three hour trip back. The pain was so bad I was freaking out by the time the endowment ceremony was over, and I was pretty much in a haze by the time I made it home. The whole thing was so bad that I haven't been back to the temple since. Austin is closer, and so hopefully attempting to visit won't be as much of a disaster.

I always found their products over-priced, and generally go with "discount" footwear. In particular, I usually purchase the Wal-Mart brand of athletic shoes, as they have Velcro instead of shoe laces. I work in part as a delivery driver, and so Velcro is one less thing I have to worry about as I'm schlepping bundles.

Bob Iger, the current CEO, is trying to reign back in the excesses that came in under former executives. In particular, Bob Chapek, his predecessor, allowed the studio heads to become feudal lords, giving them ultimate power over their little domains. Iger, however, is requiring the studio heads to be subordinate to the head of marketing and the head of distribution, the two people in the company who are supposed to be on the front lines of what people do and don't want. The idea is that these two will gate-keep ideas that won't be financially profitable at the market. The studio heads are revolting against this loss in power, particularly heads like Kathleen Kennedy who used their position to force their social and political views into place. Hence why anything and everything they can do to undermine Iger is fair game. This is why the business magazines are singing his praises but the entertainment trades are dog-piling on top of him. Iger donating to *both* political parties in order to curry favor no matter who is in power? That means he is, by definition, donating to the "wrong" causes and politicians, and so he is being targeted. It's the same thing that happened to indie video game developer Scott Cawthorn, the guy who created the "Five Nights at Freddy's" franchise of horror games. He was donating to politicians on both sides of the aisle, and the "progressive' crowd didn't like that.

You can also purchase so-called "parallel Bibles" that have 2+ translations positioned next to each other for study and comparison purposes. I have one somewhere that has four different translations.

Chapek is a business man, and so while the entertainment trades are tearing into him the business trades are standing by him. The issue with Disney is that Iger was so blinded by money he took his eyes off the day-to-day. This allowed corruption and incompetence to flourish, and by the time Chapek was put in charge it had taken firm root. Chapek's decision to have all studio heads report to the head of merchandising and the head of distribution was a key part in bringing people to heel and enforcing order by actually making people listen to folks who ostensibly monitor what is and isn't selling. But the prospect of actually having to be accountable is enough that the corrupt and incompetent within the company are freaking out. They know that if Chapek was any more hardball, let alone "one-time Marvel Comics editor Jim Shooter" levels of disciplinarian, they'd all be in deep, deep trouble. This latest round of things has turned over another rock, and the cockroaches that were living under it are therefore in a frenzy.

To expand on this point as it's something that comes up quite frequently in a lot of various discussions: In the United States, the term "creative work" is a deliberately broad legal term that encompasses a wide variety of produced materials, including religious texts. The way US copyright law works, copyrights are there to ensure that whoever creates a work will have a designated period of time to enjoy the fruits of their labors. That is, to say, they'll have time in order to monetize their work to make their money back on creating it, plus whatever profit they may gain. Because of this, US copyright law has considerations under which a work cannot receive a copyright under its own merit. When this situation is met, the work is said to be in the "public domain". The most common method by which a work passes into the public domain is, to put it simply, the passage of time. As noted above, copyrights were never intended to be permanent. If a work goes beyond a certain date, then the copyright expires and anyone can use it. Once a work goes into the public domain, anyone who wishes to seek a new copyright on it must do so by means of an "innovation" they create. For example, if you were to go to the Middle East, take some photos of various sites, and insert the photos into the text of the KJV, you could seek a new copyright on the basis of those photos. Things like this are why the KJV is in the public domain, but newer translations of the Bible and various other works are under copyright.

So far they've managed to destroy more museums (like a modern art museum and a museum of classic computer technology) than strategic targets.

As I've noted before, I had a severe reaction to the Moderna vaccine when I had it. In particular, the combination of the second shot and the heavy manual labor I had to do that same day because of my dad's poor planning spiked my blood pressure to the point that in hindsight I should have gone to the hospital because of how poorly I was feeling. It wasn't until a few months after I got the second shot that the Associated Press published a report stating that Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden were all restricting the use of the Moderna due to reports of heart inflammation in minors. As I have a pre-existing heart condition, had I known about this I would have requested a different vaccine. I now feel that I was lied to and that my life was needlessly endangered. I *refuse* to get any more boosters, and my mom, who was on my back about my getting vaccinated, has been apologizing profusely because of the consequences I faced. But my health hasn't fully recovered from what happened, and in fact this past winter I started having unusually bad nose bleeds above and beyond what I normally suffer during winter months due to how brittle my sinuses are from years of injury and illness. It's to the point now that I'll just start bleeding and not even realize I'm bleeding until I feel the blood in my facial hair or see it spill onto something below me.

There have been a number of instances in which Biden and Harris have either given non-answers to questions, fumbled over their own words, or outright refused to answer questions for one reason or another. No one quite knows what's going on, whether it's the result of the pair not being good in front of the microphone, the pair having mental issues, or the pair being under orders from handlers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War When Germany signed the treaty with Russia at the start of WWII, Russia decided this meant that they were free to invade Finland. While Finland wasn't able to hold out without foreign aid and was forced to surrender territory to Russia, the Finns did manage to inflict shocking casualties on the Russian military, the result of Russia going to war in winter with brightly-colored uniforms and using human wave tactics to overwhelm Finnish emplacements. When the war was over, Finland, like any civilized nation, returned all Russian soldiers taken prisoner during the conflict. Those soldiers that the Russian authorities didn't execute on the spot were shuffled off to the gulags. Russian military doctrine, you see, is "death or glory". You either win, or you go home in a bag. Surrender is seen as nothing less than desertion, if not treason. So by surrendering instead of dying in battle, they were seen as criminals and traitors. Between the casualties from the war and the returned soldiers who were killed by their own country, Russia lost so much in the way of military manpower that Germany tore up the treaty and ordered the invasion. Finland responded to the news by... becoming an Axis power, with many Finnish soldiers, such as Lauri Torni (the famous "Soldier of Three Armies") literally signing up for the German military in order to get revenge. Your average high school history textbook whistles past many graveyards, and this is one of them.

I'm trained in psychological warfare. A few other people here have likewise had training or other experience in fields that touch on mental illness and mental health. Quite a few posters have also had their own personal struggles with mental illness, either themselves or caring for someone else. This isn't a judgment rendered out of the blue.