LDSGator

Is there anywhere we could read your review for the paper?

100% correct.

My music taste is like your skills in Scrabble. Poor.

Oh we agree totally, I’m not arguing with you in the least.

I know the church has spoken out against gambling before, but I wish they did it more often. We are all human, so I don’t want to see people excommunicated for it, but no one in history has had their life improve after they start gambling.

Noooooooooooooooooo! I spent my life savings on that!

@Phoenix_person-given my love of Kiss I’m sure you aren’t terribly surprised that I like other truly awful music. I’m amazed I don’t like Kid Rock. 😉

Ted Nugent is a creepy uncle and I don’t want to hang out with him, but I’d be lying if I said I don’t turn up the radio to Wango Tango and Cat Scratch Fever. Guilty as charged.

Understand

I totally agree that prostitution is slavery. I think gambling is too if taken to the extreme.

My parents are very orthodox, and I went to Catholic elementary schools, high schools, and two years of a catholic college. When you swim in that bubble you tend to grossly overestimate the influence/size of the church. It took me years to realize that the catholic church, even in “Catholic” states, has practically zero influence on society. And it’s influence has shrank even more after the scandals of giving Whitey Bulger a catholic funeral, sex scandals, etc.

Catholics teach that the pope is only infallible when he teaches on matters of faith and morals from the chair of st peter. It rarely happens. I don’t believe in the teaching-but that’s what it is Many Catholics don’t really think about it. It’s not of great concern to them.

Isn’t Maryland nominally Catholic like Massachusetts is? In fact, not even nominally anymore. Both states are very secular.

The “bible belt” doesn’t really exist anymore. People move so much and values have changed so drastically that evangelicals have lost huge numbers. This ain’t 1991 anymore, and thank God for it.

My old account got totally erased after one too many drug references. It was either AI or an incredibly thin skinned “friend”. Doesn’t matter it’s their rules. I’m playing with house money now.

A lot of young people are realizing that if your views align with every single musician, actor and corporation, you can’t call yourself part of counterculture/resistance, etc

You guys own the south.

Same with catholics. I heard “He’s not much of a Catholic but at least he’s Catholic” several times growing up

Son, I’m going to send you “Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics” by Henry Hazlitt. I want a typed, double spaced 10 page essay by December 1st. 😉 I totally agree with you, verbatim.

In fact, the one thing keeping me from swinging left is…you guessed it. Economics.

I do too, but I find that statement odd coming from a liberal. Most economists are (correctly) against drastic increases in the minimum wage, rent control, and high taxes. Things that liberals almost universally are in favor of. What stuns me is when populist conservatives are afraid of/against economics. The republican party pre Trump has always been the party of harsh truths, including economic truths. A conservative being afraid of economics is like a liberal being afraid of social workers.

I feel the same way, even though it’s hard sometimes. In most cases* the athletes on both sides give tremendous effort and bust their bodies trying to prepare and win. *yes, there are times when a guy takes a play off, and even an entire team, but it’s actually very rare. If you start loafing, there are a dozen guys who will give you their arm for five seconds on the field.

You’d be surprised how many high level athletes are insecure and oddly humble. There will always be exceptions-I’ve met one or two highly skilled martial artists that are brilliant and would be the first to tell you-but I’ve met way more who are spectacular and always sell themselves short. The more you know, generally speaking, the more you realize what there is to know.

Same. In TKD I’m a D3 college player at best. I get by on hard work and a refusal to quit.

If I ever told my TKD instructor I’d like to fight a woman in my next tournament, he’d tell me to pack my stuff and get out of the dojang in three seconds.