Still_Small_Voice

"Last Christmas, I gave you my heart.   You shouted "Kalimaaaaa" and it burst into flames."

Very interesting. I had never heard of that incident in 1969.
I just downloaded this book and look forward to reading it.

Chief Justice Roberts: Affirmative action programs “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”
 
Ketanji Brown Jackson (dissenting): “Given the lengthy history of state-sponsored race-based preferences in America,” Jackson wrote, “to say that anyone is now victimized if a college considered whether that legacy of discrimination has unequally advantaged its applicants fails to acknowledge the well-documented ‘intergenerational transmission of inequality’ that still plagues our citizenry.”
That's Critical Race Theory and Antiracism philosophy, as advanced by folks like Ibrahm Kendi.  You don't look at what's right, you look at what's an equalizing force that corrects centuries of injustice.  That's the time I mention that my ancestors came here from Scotland, where they were fleeing lives of indentured servitude to the British king.  And that I trace my genealogy back to Pocahontas' parents.  And that Gov. Boggs' Mormon Extermination Order was on Missouri books until the 1990's.  And that thousands of freed blacks went on to own slaves themselves.  And that...

NH banned affirmative action in public schools in 2012, so......

And predictably, the SC lefties raise the shriek of despair. Thank heavens for Amy Coney Barrett.

This is true. Lawsuits cannot stop the blessings of God. Rebaptism is possible for you, and your local leaders have the keys to return you to church membership. A previously endowed person who is rebaptized is eligible to receive a full and complete restoration of all previous priesthood and temple blessings (with First Presidency approval) after at least one full year from their readmission/rebaptism. It is often a difficult road, but the end result will be better than what you have now would it not?
The only time our blessings are truly gone is when we choose turn away from them. You can change your life, and you can feel that peace again. Far more who have done far worse than you have returned to the church, and have been blessed greatly afterwards. I would encourage you to seek a meeting with your local Bishop to get the process started. After a 1 on 1 with the Bishop, he and his counselors will need to meet with you, later followed by a meeting with the Stake President and his counselors before baptism can occur. At the very least, having a talk with him will help you feel better about yourself, and the vast potential your life still has.

You are mistaken, my friend. To come back, you only need to be rebaptized -- the same requirement that has always existed. After you have been rebaptized for a year or so, the stake president will interview you and review your time since rebaptism. If you have a testimony of the gospel and a true desire to follow Christ, and if your actions over the previous year confirm this, he will notify the First Presidency, asking that your blessings be restored. Upon approval, he will lay his hands on your head and restore your blessings. Your original baptismal date will still show. Your original line of authority will remain unchanged. Your original covenants, including the date you received them, will be restored. You have lost nothing except the decades that you lived beneath your privileges. Come back and start claiming those blessings.

Whether as a “new member” or a “restored member” . . . come on back.  It’s not easy (as you well know); but it’s even better than you remember it.  🙂

This.  Some of my favorite experiences in the Church is watching people who's journey took them away from God for a bit returning and having their blessings restored.

I think Affirmative Action needs to go away.  This Supreme Court decision is certainly one step in the correct direction for that.

I think Affirmative Action needs to go away.  This Supreme Court decision is certainly one step in the correct direction for that.

It seems to me that this is temple symbolism. In the temple, we use ascension through (not progression between) the kingdoms of glory as an explanatory metaphor for the purpose of our lives here. We go from a lesser glory to a greater glory. Our lives here in mortality are called "telestial", and the earth of our mortality is specifically referred to as a telestial kingdom. But that does not mean that we have been finally judged and assigned to THE telestial kingdom. Our mortal probation is accomplished in this fallen state so that we can experience both the evil and the good, and see if we want to choose the good.
I can certainly understand how such teachings might somehow seem to be talking about post-resurrection progression between kingdoms of glory. But I think that's a misapprehension of the teachings. We have been taught repeatedly, from many sources, that THIS LIFE is the time for us to prepare to meet God, and that after our resurrection, we will be assigned to the eternal glory for which we have fitted ourselves.
I think the "progression between kingdoms" doctrine is a dangerous one, because it openly encourages the attitude of "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, and it shall be well with us...Yea, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God." I strongly believe it to be a false doctrine; but even if it were true, it's still dangerous, because it encourages people to do the wrong thing. Until the prophet comes out openly teaching that doctrine—which he never will—I think it best to declare the doctrine of progression between kingdoms as a false doctrine. (Which it is, and would remain even if it happened to be factually correct, which I reiterate is a thing I strongly disbelieve.)

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf
Summary:  Official Decision (and Opinions) released today in a 6-3 vote at SCOTUS.
Race-based admissions at Universities (Harvard and UNC) violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
Well, duh-uh.

I've seen so many videos of school boards, legislators (both state and Congressional), individuals on the street that are all for allowing LGBT books be freely available to elementary school children.  But once they actually see what these books contain, they have a hissy fit.
You'd think that such a reaction would make them agree with conservatives.  NOPE. Instead, they censure the conservatives bringing it to light.  How DARE they read such filth in the hallowed halls of government.  (News flash: Public schools are government offices.).  But they still refuse to remove those books from children's libraries.  
Consider:  They deemed it inappropriate to bring up for discussion among polite adults.  But they refuse to remove them from children's libraries.
I even saw one video of a woman who read that stuff and said, "No, that's not the kind of book I'm talking about.  I'm talking about the books that were required reading when I was a child."  When she was informed that these were the books that conservatives want to get rid of, did she have some understanding of what the real problem was?  Some light bulb go off? Did she change sides?  Nope.  She just walked off because she refused to talk to a conservative about the issue.
This is the mechanism that will separate the wheats from the tares.  When they come face-to-face with the real problems, certain people will have to make a decision.  They must either switch or they will have to double-down.  At some point, they will have to be perfectly ok with the fact that they are sexualizing children or they will want to protect them. 
They tell themselves that it isn't all that bad.  As percentage and degree, they are currently correct.  But the real question that will have to be put to every voter in America is "When has it gone too far?"  If someone doesn't have a clear definition of when they've reached that point, they will never be able to answer it.  It will never be too far.
My fear is that for so many who want to straddle the line, or have chosen to step "just a little bit" onto the other side of the line, they won't even know when the line has moved (and they have moved with it).  They'll wake up and embrace what they once thought was completely demonic.  And they will give themselves to the movement completely.
No, it's not a religious movement at all.  Nothing to see here.
On the bright side:  I just read that Seskatchewan has banned Planned Parenthood because a "sexually graphic depiction" from a PP resource which ended up in the hands of a high schooler.  If even Canada is seeing that this is bad to the point that they banned Planned Parenthood, there is hope for us.  But if this is jut a blip and they go right back to it... no hope.

I liked the message of this video.  Those who are Christians should heed the warnings and information Mister Cahn gives.
 
 

I liked the message of this video.  Those who are Christians should heed the warnings and information Mister Cahn gives.
 
 

Yes, it is true.  That is one very common purpose of having pistol braces.  But there is so much history to this that... here is the best video that gives a full account of why this is such a stupid rule.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsE0naVApPU
Amen.
The take away from Kennedy's video was to show the real motivation for why Biden wants to push for criminalizing pistol braces.  And it has nothing to do with obeying any law.  It has nothing to do with safety.  It has everything to do with cancelling the 2nd Amendment.

Before my wife left to visit our granddaughters, she brought home a whole flat of AR-15s that I was supposed to put in the refrigerator, but I forgot. I have thrown out three boxes of AR-15s because they got moldy. You know, when I was twelve, I used to go pick AR-15s in the local AR-15 fields to make money during the summer, at a price of like ten cents per box of AR-15s. I wasn't the fastest picker, and I never made much money.
Anyway, in other news, I'm thinking I'll head to the library and check out a few AR-15s. I just got a new job a few weeks ago working for the Grant County PUD, and my boss invited me to go with him to tour the Wanapum Hydroelectric AR-15 Factory near Vantage. I'm pretty psyched. Impressive facility; it can produce AR-15s at a rate of more than a gigawatt.

What manner of dark sorcery is this?!

I am not following your comment here.  Please expand? (I'm now guessing that you're joking.)
 
But Biden seems to think that a pistol brace does something quite miraculous.  See this video at 17:30. 
He seems to think that a brace will "turn a pistol into a gun" and "makes it ... (jibberish) ... have a higher caliber bullet come out of that gun."
I didn't realize such technology even existed.  Good thing the criminals don't have access to it.
We do not want people with this level of gun illiteracy to draft the gun policies in the country. 

Happy employees generally are more productive then employees who cry every day at their desk. Same with local hobby clubs, churches etc.  I hope it doesn’t end. 
 
This is especially true for volunteer groups and churches the more I think about it. You’ll never please everyone of course. However if you make an environment that’s cold, constantly unpleasant and acrimonious, you have no right to wonder why no one shows up and morale is miserable. 

That isn't what I was talking about.  It is the owner who lets his dog bark outside in the yard endlessly.  

Here are the previous two cats I had - I got them in Moscow in 1991 or 1992, I forget exactly.  This was the day I got them.  Both are long since gone to kitty heaven:

Looks to me like kitty is well-trained for proper prayer behavior: eyes closed, arms folded.   Good kitty!