NeuroTypical

There would have to be significant delegating of the planning/groundbreaking/negotiating/dedicating required by building a temple. Maybe another quorum of seventy peopled by folks with the single duty of handling temple building? I mean, logarithmic growth is a wonderful thing: But at some point that exponential growth has to level off. If it didn't we would eventually have a fully staffed and funded operating temple for every single human on earth.

I get the sense that everyone on earth with a finger in the war technology pie, is using Ukraine/Russia as a proving ground for their cool modern advancements like drones and electronics and whatnot. So if you consider that sort of thing to be corrupt, I would say that there are no noncorrupt players on the field, and all of the umpires and coaches, and most of the fans are corrupt too.

My old stompin' grounds from 30 years ago. Feels odd to think about it. Dunno. One of the things I do is look up the GDP of each country that gets a temple. It's so humbling to see how many resources the church pours into destitute poverty stricken nations who wouldn't hope to afford the millions necessary to build and operate a temple. I also get energized thinking about how since October '21, every time we get new temples announced, there are more announced outside the US than inside. I note that out of our 367 temples announced/being built/operating, less than half of them are in the US. An awful lot of Saints have come before us to predict/prophecy about such things. How many of these people are still alive?

Excellent poem. I remember trying to impart its wisdom to my 18 month old who was throwing a traumatized fit at having to put on her socks, but she wasn't having it. It took years, but I think she's finally coming around.

Probably the worst natural disaster this year. Wiki is reporting ~3000 dead. People are posting videos they took from inside buildings on social media - terrifying stuff. I know very little about Myanmar, just that it had a military coup a few years back that was captured on some TikTok lady's morning yoga routine.

LDSBOT.com says: I found a General Conference talk by Jeffrey R. Holland titled "Broken Things to Mend" from April 2006, where he touches on themes that sound similar to what you're describing. While it doesn't have the exact wording you mentioned, it discusses how to "come unto Christ" and how important it is to align our lives with His teachings for healing and salvation. If you want to check it out for yourself, here is the link to the talk: Broken Things to Mend. 😊

I don't recognize it, and I rarely paid attention to Salon, so don't know. Semafor's leadership team has some decent credentials I guess. I also see my old friends at Worldview.stratfor.com are still up and going. I found them 15 years ago and appreciated their approach to news. Not sure what they do now, but back then they advised businesses on global political and economic trends, so they got paid for making accurate predictions. That was a pretty good way of getting rid of spin and bias, IMO. (Or more to the point, a legitimate way of taking 'accuracy and relevance' and making it your spin and bias.)

Last week's Pearl of Wisdom from Social Media told me that you end up being an amalgamation of the 5 most important people in your life. The eternal debate between nature vs. nurture enters the chat. I'm not hopeful the argument will ever be resolved. I personally figure that agency is part of the story, but not the entire story. Meaning, most folks have a certain amount of influence in who they are, their moods, their outlook on life. It's possible, to a certain extent, to chose to be happy or miserable. But that's hardly the full story. Run the book of Job experiment on 1000 different people, and you'll end up with a few like Job, and everyone else who gives up at some point in the story. Biochemical impacts on mental state, significant childhood or adult trauma, an upbringing filled with caring and love and access to things of the spirit - all can have an impact on our ability to chose our mindset. I'm pretty sure there are also folks just born certain ways, who remain that certain way as they grow and mature and get old. And it's impossible to dent the mindset of such folks, no matter how much you want, or they want. It's fun stuff to think about. So for General Conference, I expect to hear talks targeted to the entire human race and everyone in it, trying to reach folks from all the different mindsets.

Mission accomplished.

Over the decades, GC has gone from something I never paid attention to, to something I watched because I was supposed to, to something I enjoyed and was filled by. Last few years, GC has become something I need and yearn for. I expect that general trend to continue for me. I'd love to hear more about our new hymns, and what the folks who picked them are thinking.

Little passing mentions in shows that have nothing to do with us are fun.

6 years? You've earned a victory lap.

Fred Rogers was born this day in 1928. I only allow myself one earthly hero, and he's it. Dude seems to be the real deal. I hold him in a similar regard to President Kimball at his kindest and most loving. https://www.facebook.com/iowapbs/videos/226910288168729

Nice. We did a fish tank once when the kids were younger. You've not done a tank until you've got one of these: If you're like me, you'll have to endure your wife reminiscing about when we were dating.

I learned about AOC and Tom Homan both in the same 2019 video. Everything I have learned about them since has pretty much aligned with their performance on this video.

It's kind and generous of you to help extended family as you're able. Good luck to the lot of you as y'all try to make the right decisions about such things.

I admit that I had to look up interspecies protextation before I caught on.

Am I the only one confused by the last 4 posts in this thread?

Because they believe drumming up fears will win votes for them, and lose votes for the other guy. It's politics 101. I mean, it's possible that discovery of how things work in Medicare might make them look bad, but occam's razor would seem to indicate plain old fear-drumming is the most likely reason. The last time I heard this level of disaster and doom pedaling was during the welfare reform parts of Gingrich's Contract with America. I remember Maxine Waters standing up and screaming, genuinely shrieking, about how the R's welfare reform would result in "bodies stacked like cordwood" as the poor people began dying off as the checks were stopping. In reality, what happened was the FedGov got out of the welfare business and just did block grants to the states so they could handle welfare themselves. It worked so well that within a decade the Dems were claiming the welfare reform was their idea.

Over the years, I've absolutely noticed a big uptick in homeless, tent cities, trash, and vandalism on the main street running through Aurora. Aurora consistently makes national news for having the most progressive town leadership this side of Seattle and Portland. It remains a proud sanctuary city when even our gay governor has distanced his state from the notion. I forget if they've legalized injection sites or not, but they're always talking about it. Aurora made international news and helped get Trump elected after exposing it's Tren de Aragua problem, with door cams showing gang members with rifles prowling around apartment buildings. The problem was absolutely blown out of proportion by the right wing press, but yeah, Aurora is no stranger to gangs and immigrant issues. All that said, off the main drag, the surrounding neighborhoods might be just fine. Grandma/pa's experience in Aurora is the determining factor. I only drive through it from time to time - we go to the hospital up there occasionally. One hospital visit we noticed an unfinished apartment complex across the road was on fire, and it made the news as started by homeless. I'm posting scary things, so absolutely check with grandparents first to see what their day to day life in Aurora looks like. It's entirely possible they're in a safe neighborhood miles and miles away from all the madness.

Colorado has all but fallen to the Cali inmigrants. This original bill would just outright ban semiautomatic firearms. We've forced amendments so now it adds hoops you must jump through (training and whatnot) before you buy one. It'll possibly pass. https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/semiautomatic-gun-bill-set-for-first-committee-vote-in-the-house Time for another Morse/Girion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Colorado_recall_election

Legalese is hard to follow. (b) Homicide is not justifiable when committed by a person in all of the following cases: (3) When the person was the assailant, engaged in mutual combat, or knowingly engaged in conduct reasonably likely to provoke a person to commit a felony or do some great bodily injury, except if either of the following circumstances apply: (B) In good faith, the person withdrew from the encounter with the other assailant or assailants and indicated clearly to the other assailant or assailants that the person desired to withdraw and terminated the use of any force, but the other assailant or assailants continued or resumed the use of force. AI Plain English summary: So, Carb gets into a road rage incident and both cars pull over and both of you get out. Both of you approach each other, both of you with bats, both of you claiming you're gonna bash in the other guy's head. After a few swings and some damage, dude drops the bat and raises his hands defensively and backs off, saying 'ok bro you win I don't wanna fight any more'. If you proceed to end him at that point, your homicide might be considered justifiable. You might claim he was still a threat, and you feared he was going to pull a gun on you next. That's what b3B says.

@mirkwood What's your take on transnational criminal orgs like Tren de Aragua, or the various cartels that moved their MJ operations into the US to take advantage of legalized MJ?

It's easier for the gadiantons to get stuff done if folks don't understand them or underestimate them.

As someone who used to have this antique inherited Masonic plate hanging on his kitchen wall, I agree. It ain't idolatry if the only reason it's there is to test the courage of your LDS guests.