Still_Small_Voice

(By the way, as the quote above shows, Shel Silverstein made no attempt to hide what he was doing in the book, which is relentlessly depressing and ends in the destruction of both the tree and the boy. I do not see how such a message could be missed, but it clearly is widely misunderstood, with many people talking about how it's a "parable of Christ-like giving" -- it is nothing of the sort; if anything, it is exactly the opposite -- and others voicing LP's objection, without realizing that that was the whole point. So no criticism to anyone intended, but this is one little book that I would love to see valued and appreciated for what it actually tries to teach.)

Glenn Beck is actually working on a similar initiative.

"ill-prepared" is an unfortunate word choice. People in Syria are fleeing war, leaving everything behind. There is no way to prepare for your children being injured in gunfire and burned by explosions. You just get them out.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that count darkness as light, and light as darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
-- Isaiah 5:20

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that count darkness as light, and light as darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
-- Isaiah 5:20

Gambling is creating risk where none would exist otherwise.
 
If you have money, you must chose what to do with it, and every decision carries risk.  You can't get rid of all of the risk to the value of the money you own.  Investing in the stock market is choosing one form of risk over another. 
 
Consider:
* If you have your money in a bank account insured by the FDIC, you still have inflation risk (because you're earning squat for interest).
 
* If you have your money buried in the back yard, there's the risk of theft, risk of currency devaluation, destruction by elements (if it's in paper money), risk you'll not be able to find it.
 
* IRAs and 401Ks deal with the risk of government taxation changes, not to mention the risk of whatever securities your account invests in.
 
* If you give all your money away just to prove me wrong, you've accepted the risk that you'll not be able to support yourself after you lose the ability to generate an income through the sweat of your brow.

I would submit that some things are so patently evil that they offset any other good they may incidentally do. 
 
Josef Mengele, so I'm told, was a highly competent physician who was remarkably kind to children and whose early work presumably saved many lives.
 

Thus far for the year I have done:
 
2,557 PUSHUPS 
3,225 LEG LIFTS
1,039 CURLS
 
I need to get on my bike and do more cardiovascular.  Air quality is horrible though from all the fires.

I am clarifying my like above on your post.  The like was aimed at the growth of the Gospel in that region and not the terrorist bomb that was set off to murder innocent people.

Blood and horror again.
 
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33963280
 
Elder Holland addressed over 2,000 Thai members in Bangkok just yesterday.  That, coupled with the announcement of a new temple and a creation of another stake a year ago; I am pretty sure the adversary is not happy and he's going to try extra hard to slow the work down.

Church growth has increased tremendously in southeast Asia.  Cambodia has two stakes!
 

I agree with the sentiment, but not the tactics suggested.  Gay rights activists spent forty years carefully developing their case while we on the right spent most of that time saying "This is nonsense, it shouldn't even be on the table, and we're not discussing it."  Then we lost--and we lost fast, and we lost big--because when the crucial moment came, we were largely left sputtering "that's just the way things are!" without being able to articulate why things are the way they are.
 
Nothing is sacred in modern American society.  We need to re-think every single one of our modern values and practices, and get to work making a case for the existence of every element of the status quo that we think is worth preserving.  That includes fundamental and formerly unquestionable "American" notions like life, liberty, property ownership, worship, free assembly and association, meaningful participation in the government process, and--I believe--even, ultimately the right of parents to raise their own biological offspring and perhaps even the right to be sexually autonomous (at least, insofar as one uses one's sexual autonomy to remain chaste). 
 
Because there are, always have been, and always will be highly intelligent forces seeking to undermine all of those foundational values.

I thought Joseph Smith used the Urim and Thummin stones to aid him in the translation of the Book of Mormon?  Did he use this seer stone in connection with the translation of the Book of Mormon?
 
Edit:  I did some research on the subject.  Apparently Joseph Smith would use the Urim and Thummin stones and sometimes the seer stone alone in translation of the Book of Mormon.  Read the article here:
 
https://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng

There are people leaving California, New York and other socialist States for Utah and other States that respect the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
 
I left the socialist northeast United States for Utah.  I did it for liberty, not just for a job.  I am very much for the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Vort hit it right on. It's weird but the older I get the more traditional I get. The older I get the more I realize how life isn't just about me and what I want but it's about ensuring that society has continuity through the ages. It's about the next generation. The older I get the more that I realize that God's plan is the best plan.
 
Men and women are different, and they have different roles to play and that critical to societies continuance is the role of the family. The central part of the family is marriage.  65 years ago you asked a man and a woman what does being a husband mean? what does being a wife mean? And I guarantee that the answers you got would be pretty explicit, detailed and pretty common across age/race/gender. Society as a whole was taught and knew what being a husband and what being a wife meant. The older I get the more that I believe that many marriage problems can be boiled down to one or both spouses simply not being a husband or a wife. If you asked people today what being a husband or being a wife means, you would get answer that are probably as varied as the number of people you interview. Society as a whole has lost the concept and understanding of what it actually means to be a husband and a wife.  
 
Today society is less about fulfilling a role and more about "finding yourself" or whatever other psycobabble is tossed out there. The Church has a sacred obligation to help young men and young women prepare for their fore-ordained roles in life, principally to be a husband and a wife and secondly to be a father and mother (which should never take precedence over husband/wife). And that will require a difference organization for each with drastically different approaches. On the surface it might seem "unequal". But the reality is that it is equal because it is catering to each gender specifically for the values and skillsets that later in life will make them a successful husband and wife. It would be unequal and a disservice to do so otherwise.
 
So what are those roles. Well I'll give you the father/mother role as spelled out in the proclamation on the family:
" By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."
 
If the Church as an organization does not have separate organizations for YM and YW to properly prepare each for the above then by it's own standard it is failing. 

Because boys aren't girls. They are different kinds of beings.
 
One thing I learned being a custodian at BYU was that the women's restrooms are **far** more posh than the men's. (Also, that women's restrooms are more disgusting, even despite the men's urinals. But that's another matter.) Why should the women have restrooms that in some cases are twice the size of the men's, complete with upholstered seating and magazines for leisure reading?
 
Answer: Because the women need that, and the men don't.
 
Throughout the year, the Relief Society stages events for the women, sometimes cool (crafts and such), sometimes educational (e.g. economics), sometimes purely social. The men's priesthood quorums and groups might possibly have one get-together per year -- and in the case of the high priests, that's likely to be the annual quorum meeting, to which the wives are invited, as well. Why the very obvious disparity?
 
Answer: Because the women need it, and the men don't (at least not to the same extent).
 
We are trying to raise good, decent, strong men, AND THAT IS TO EVERYONE'S ADVANTAGE, MALE AND FEMALE. If our young men need monthly camping trips and a budget of $4000 per year to help them become who and what they should become -- well, in that case, every last member of the Church should be rushing to make sure they get that money. The young women should be first in line to raise those funds; after all, these are their future husbands.
 
Jealousy and competition have no part whatsoever in the Church, and most especially when we (foolishly) compare the resources taken by the young men vs. the young women. If the situation were reversed, and it were determined that the needs of the young women were such that the young women's budget were twice the young men's (as it is for the adult women, for the rest of their lives), we wouldn't hear a peep -- and rightly so. We love and value our daughters, and no price is too great to pay for their well-being. I would hope that no Latter-day Saint would ever consider our sons to be of less value than our daughters.

This new policy allows openly active gays (e.g. same-sex marriage) to participate not only as local leaders, BUT ALSO AS LEADERS ON THE DISTRICT AND NATIONAL LEVEL.  It is just a matter of time that policies will be crafted and approved by these new leaders which are contrary to the teachings and interests of the church.
 
Regarding litigation, this is another reason to leave.  The BSA is a non-profit, subject to litigation, but when the church creates an internal organization, it will be covered by the same religious exemptions as the church.
 
BSA, it was nice knowing you but it's time to go.  Surely you knew when you adopted this policy that the LDS church would leave -- "you can choose your own local leaders" is simply a fig leaf for the radical change that is overtaking your organization.

I can see the church having its own program and severing ties with BSA because its on now, an across the board agenda push with "civil rights" to back it - regardless of our religious and moral beliefs.

The LDS Church has released a statement basically saying their main concern is preserving autonomy of local units to choose their own leaders.
 
That may buy us breathing room in the short term; but over the long haul--we've seen this story before.  In spite of a national policy giving autonomy to local units, BSA was sued in 1974 because one of its troops (a Mormon troop, in point of fact) refused to allow black kids to serve as senior patrol leaders (LDS policy at that time said the SPL should be the deacon's quorum president, which excluded blacks because of the priesthood ban).  BSA was able to settle the case because the LDS Church changed its policy, and there were no other units left that used any sort of race-based discrimination.

Today I heard a program in which Michael Medved said that 70% of all FIRST TIME marriages stay intact until the death of one of the couple. We've been told for at least 30 years that the figure was only 50%...a lie that conflates 2nd+ marriages with first ones, to create the false illusion that divorce is uber-normal, and probably inevitable. As we see marriage redefined, family increasingly treated as an unimportant, if not oppressive social construct, perhaps the best we can do is continue to enjoy our children, our spouses, and the special fulfillment we share as we grow together, bound by the love of our God.
 
There is no arrogance here. Every day I am humbled by my wife and children. Their love and acceptance of me is amazing. Their reaction to my feeble efforts at husbanding and fathering are gracious (and merciful). I love them, and thank God for the honor He's given me to play my role. May the deposits we make, as an intact family, into our areas of influence lead many to look to and glorify God.
 

Pluto is about 4,000,000,000 miles away from Earth.  At it's closest approach to Earth Pluto is 2,660,000,000 miles away.  A probe is getting very close and taking pictures of the dwarf planet and it's moon, Charon.  Take a look at the latest picture:
 
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pluto_charon_color_final.png

Pluto is about 4,000,000,000 miles away from Earth.  At it's closest approach to Earth Pluto is 2,660,000,000 miles away.  A probe is getting very close and taking pictures of the dwarf planet and it's moon, Charon.  Take a look at the latest picture:
 
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pluto_charon_color_final.png

Wow ... That's awesome

I like the below information:

I heard President Marion G. Romney once counsel mission presidents and their wives. “I do not tell all I know; I have never told my wife all I know, for I found out that if I talked too lightly of sacred things, thereafter the Lord would not trust me.”

We are, I believe, to keep these things and ponder them in our hearts, as Luke said Mary did of the divine events that surrounded the birth of Jesus.  (The Candle of the Lord, Elder Boyd K. Packer)

I like the below information:

I heard President Marion G. Romney once counsel mission presidents and their wives. “I do not tell all I know; I have never told my wife all I know, for I found out that if I talked too lightly of sacred things, thereafter the Lord would not trust me.”

We are, I believe, to keep these things and ponder them in our hearts, as Luke said Mary did of the divine events that surrounded the birth of Jesus.  (The Candle of the Lord, Elder Boyd K. Packer)