LDSGator

Under the influence of the Father he had access to all knowledge, as needed. So I think it would be hard to judge what was him personally and what was external divine influence. 

How intelligent do you think he was?
I’m betting at least 300 IQ.
Likely learned egyptian listening to it as a baby, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic.  But had gift of tongues so fluent in all languages.
At age 12 he astounded the priests at the temple.  Knew that Elohim was his father.  Likely recollection of the pre-existence.
I’m fairly certain he could read minds.

The house totally freaked me out.  10,000 sq ft, dark, cluttered, empty rooms, safe room.
Gave me a H. H. Holmes vibe.
Good thing I wasn’t the police officer that showed up on her porch with her claiming her attorney is on the phone.
Also, not an influencer fan.

The Washington County Attorney’s Office released a lot of its evidence in the case last week, and gave interviews to 20/20, which did an episode on it.  First ten minutes are on YouTube:
Incidentally, Ruby’s “torture journal” mentions that Hildebrandt had met with Brad Wilcox (counselor in YM General Presidency) and Elder Jaggi (of the 70).  Which has the Reddit and exmo crowd gleefully offering all kinds of speculation and conspiracy theories.  
Glad I’m not doing PR for the Church this month.  

WIlly Wonka and the Meth lab

Free to Choose should be read by everyone. 

The fam went and saw One Life last night.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Life_(2023_film)
I can highly, highly recommend it.  Everyone should know the story.  Inspiring and important reminder of how average folks can rise to the occasion.  Anthony Hopkins and all the other actors did an amazing job.  Easier to watch and less traumatizing/extreme/violent/shocking than Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan.   Excellent movie for older teens on up. 
In my life, as the son of a WWII vet, I've felt the pressing need to preserve and pass along the lessons my dad's generation learned.  This movie really really helped me forward that goal with my older daughter.

Heh - two choices:   1-The government will take care of you and make all the decisions.   2-People take charge of their own futures and some of 'em will screw up and ruin their futures.
401ks have been providing tax-advantaged reliable 4-8% returns since they were invented.  If you started investing at age 20, and then there's a massive crash when you reach age 65 and your account suddenly dropped 40% in value, you'd still have more money to pull out of it than you'll see back from social security taxes of the same amount over the same timeframe.
Investing in the stock market is no more a gambling scheme, than sticking cash in a coffee can, or buying gold, or investing in real estate.  Gambling is gambling.  There is no risk until you decide to gamble, then the odds favor the house.  Having money and doing something with it is not gambling.  The risk exists no matter what you do, you have say in increasing or decreasing your risk, but you can't eliminate the risk.

Greetings @JohnsonJones:
Back in the 80’s an international acclaimed economists (Milton Friedman) did an audit of the Social Security for then President Ragan.  His audit was somewhat unpopular – especially for the Democrats but it did upset Republicans as well.  Two of the biggest problems with the Social Security Department was the expanded use of the funds (for example the funding of Black Military Ops) and the exorbitant overhead costs (10 time the allowable overhead costs – by law – for privately funded retirement funds).
According to Friedman, there has never been a shortage of funds, rather poor management (including unfunded changes).  As near as I can tell - none of Milton's recomendations have been adopted.
 
The Traveler

Would you be open to privatizing SS for young people? 

Would you be open to privatizing SS for young people? 

My family is the holder of the best known copy of the Rules of the United Order.  For your fun and enjoyment I have printed out a copy (on my compurter not a photo copy) of the rules of the United Order.
 
The Traveler

Yup. It’s guaranteed to fail, just a matter of when. 

I already hear this has been a good career boost for her, and I'm happy for her.

Dude, I hope things work out for you. You are absolutely in my prayers.  

Yup. It’s guaranteed to fail, just a matter of when. 

Apparently, she's a character actor (i.e. starving theater kid hungry for gigs), and seems to be having a wonderful time riding the publicity.  I just saw her starring in an ad on tiktok.   That picture and all the news might be the best thing that ever happened to her career.  If she's got a bit of talent, she could ride the wave into greater and greater things.  

I suspect the latter. He's a bit of a fantasist. He's self-published about a dozen novels, which are largely believed to be AI-generated. If he was a cynical swindler he'd have run off with the money instead of stopping around to take the abuse, and giving refunds. I wonder how much out of pocket he is. Quite a lot I'm betting!
P.S. I read somewhere the girl who played "The Unknown" has now been hired by London Dungeon to do a regular performance there!

I think she's not as shook up about it as one might think.  She's been quite vocal about the experience, giving lots of interviews.

I love karate. I just wish I was better at it. (Balance was always my biggest problem.)

As someone involved in education, I'm really disappointed at the number at the number of students who take a literal interpretation to the first line of this quote.  

It's a rare comic shop these days that can sustain itself solely on new comics; nowadays, most rely on some mix of card games, back issues, tabletop games, graphic novels, manga, and merchandise to pay the bills. 
As much as the mainstream publishers don't want to admit it, they're putting out more misses than hits. Even 6 - 7 years ago people were noticing inches-thick stacks of unsold individual issues of "modern" mainstream comics, made worse by Marvel not always accepting returns. There's 15 of the green comics and 14 of the blue & yellow ones, and the fact that they're to the rear means they aren't even the current issue. 

Just for fun – a long time ago, when the wife and I were still raising our children, I kept a notebook of stupid things I said.  All with the idea of perhaps someday publishing a book of humor.   Some examples: 
“Your mother is coming over today?  Does she need to borrow your broom?”
“Your sister is on another diet?  Did she break her Richter scale?”
The husband comes home from work and the wife is in the kitchen fixing hamburgers for dinner.  
    Husband: “Why are the hamburgers so big?”
    Wife: “Because I got big buns.”
     Warning!!!! Whatever cute and fun thing you are thinking of saying could be damaging to your health.
 
The Traveler

Right now, the US comic book industry is in extreme turmoil. The major publishers keep falling down on the job because they've lost sight of the art and the audience, but the indie houses and would-be crowd-funders aren't a large enough presence yet to buoy the industry back up on its own. As a result, people are turning to Japanese, Korean, and non-traditional titles in large numbers to fill the void.