NeuroTypical

Odd, none of the millions of privately-owned AR-15's seemed to have created any casualties on that day where they happened to be... How come you assume they'd suddenly go off and hurt people if they had been at the Capitol on J6?

Sorry, can't hear y'all over the sound of Puerto Ricans defending the comedians' comments and wholeheartedly agreeing. Anyone who has been to PR can confirm - the place has serious problems with multigenerational, never-ending, almost inhumane poverty. And it has for a long time. https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/reports/pervasive-poverty-in-puerto-rico/ I mean, trying to pin it on Biden at a Trump rally isn't really the flex the comedian dude thought it was. It's not like this is a new problem. Also not a problem that govt has never tried to fix before. Can't hear you over the Puerto Ricans forming caravans in support of Trump. Can't hear you over the sound of Trump capitalizing on the word "garbage" in his usual way: But yeah, as we all turn into elementary school kids in the days leading up to the election, telling on each other for saying things, it would be nice if we could actually pull up our adult britches for a moment and think about the plight of folks in Puerto Rico and what might be done about it.

The militia is the thing where there’s a need to have a bunch of armed citizens show up all at one place, and get organized, and go deal with what needs to be dealt with. It works best when those citizens already know what the heck they’re doing, have experience, own their own weapons to a certain extent. And nah, the primary purpose is not to have tiny little pockets of weirdos that make good headlines and keep people in a frenzy. The primary purpose is twofold. My wife gets to defend herself with something at least as good as what the cartels are smuggling up from Mexico. And anyone in government or military that gets a wild itch to take over gets to understand they probably won’t make their first drive home. For all the press the Boogaloos and proud boys and Oathkeepers and black nationalist NFAC-ers and black Panthers get, they really don’t do bad things with guns hardly ever. Infinitely more good is done by letting Black people arm themselves in Chicago to defend themselves from their bad neighbors.

The Dwarves have already called the election.

"Just do whatever it takes to keep the peace." Both are sayings that claim a measure of wisdom. Sometimes following the dictates of each saying is warranted, sometimes it isn't. It depends. I think this is a truly wise saying: "Is this the hill you want to fight and die on?" See, it's better, because asking the question forces an examination of the variables.

We went to a lot of dollar movies at the only dollar movie place in town. Our first fancy leather reclining experience was probably 8-9 years ago. Rare experience because Daddy's such a cheapskate. Now the dollar movie joint has them too, and it's ~$6 for a ticket. Been watching the pre-movie show with Maria Menounos forever. I think "mareemuhmuhmoomoo" was one of my kid's first words. They still give me crap when I get there late and we miss her.

I like the chess club analogy. “Black advances his knight to put the queen in check. But what’s this? White is yelling at the judge because that’s not how nights are supposed to move! He’s mad that the rules of the game did not take into account the more historically accurate way Persians used to move their knights! He keeps telling people to read the Chatrang-namak, and is calling everyone to repentance!" [Later, the guy playing white holds a press conference to protest his expulsion. Some of his buddies help him picket tournaments, and hand out flyers. He starts a website detailing the sins of the International Chess Federation.]

Ah yes. The famous "Bill of privileges" that we all learned in school, until they stopped teaching it because of white privilege. 🤪 I'm ok with limits to the rights. I'm ok with the right to control what happens on your private property superseding my right to bear arms. I'm excited to hear how this turns out. It's a good time to have the matter heard with the current makeup of SCOTUS being originalist. It's always fun to tell folks who want a better solution to firearm-related issues, that the constitution was built to be amended. Americans are totally free to modify/change/clarify/delete the 2nd amendment as much as we want. Just gotta follow the process, and convince enough people in enough states to get it done. So if SCOTUS rules in favor of strong individual rights, the answer isn't to pack the courts or disband them or revolt. Just get everyone on board to change the amendment, and SCOTUS' collective hands will be tied. Pretty easy to do, unless your idea is stupid.

@LDSGator bad news, your hat might be delayed.

A few weeks ago the WSJ polled 66 economists from business, academic, and financial sectors: https://www.wsj.com/economy/economists-predictions-survey-charts-68ba82d6?page=1

I thought it was weird that I developed an affinity with punk rockers in 2020. Not especially the music or the always-present desire to actively resist something without needing a reason. But I had definite opinions about censorship, the power of the media to shape opinion and implement agendas, and the government using technology against it's citizens, and it's like I had found a group of people who were similarly worried. This wasn't "hold to the iron rod" me, but it was certainly "jumping facebook after they gave me an account ding for sharing a Washington Post article" me: WALL-EMoPunkDisrespectYourSurroundings.MP4

As far as republican bashing: Yeah, me too. Last year my wife adopted the label "politically homeless", and I think I'm joining her. Especially with Trump's populism and utter lack of anything resembling financial discipline. I've been on record for a decade that the last time I was proud to consider myself a republican was with Bush I, until 2 days after the towers fell and R gave up all talk of deficit reduction and balanced budgets. That said, Democrats are absolutely going through similar growing pains as GenY/Z/Millennials find their voices. The old guard have been lookin' at @Phoenix_person and his progressives since Hillary, and decided to jump into bed with big business. Biden got seated, and this is the thanks we get? Dang whippersnappers - don't they know Dems are the only alternative to Trump? You can't swing a dead cat in ConservaTok without finding a former Democrat who says they're still liberal, talking about watching both parties move so left, that now the Republicans are saying all the things they've been saying since the '80's.

Anyone disagree?

Priesthood blessings, father's blessings, all the ordinances - they unfailingly are all about using the power of the Lord to bless others. Missionary work! Jesus did it and so do we.

Well, perspective is important. I notice you can still find Britain and British people, even if the British empire isn't what it used to be. Same for Turkey, Spain, Portugal, etc. As for the South American empires - if they didn't disappear into history on their own, after the Spanish and Portuguese were done conquering you, you stayed conquered. In every way that matters, including culturally and genetically.

Republicans, talking about Nixon, used to say "He may be a [beep], but he's our [beep]." Trump is a bombastic narcissist, but he's also a deal making strongman who knows how to make things happen. In his first 4 years, he made more things happen that I liked, than I'd seen in the last 20 years. I am not at all happy that every analyst and economist you can find, even the conservative ones, think Trump's economic plan will be more spendy and have a worse impact on prices and inflation than Harris' plan. That said, I also believe he'll end the Russia/Ukraine war in like the first 10 minutes of his term (not counting the months of screaming and 'nuh-uh'-ing we'll see from everyone who hates him more than they like the killing to stop). He'll stop the flow of illegal immigration. He'll raise America's position across the world in numerous ways. He might even be able to deal with Iran. He'll make the budget deficit worse, which will keep me gnashing my teeth forever. I'm worried the great American experiment will end sooner if that problem doesn't get fixed. But voting Kamala is hardly an alternative.

Bishops usually don't take action until they have to. If dude starts talking crap at church and disrupting priesthood or some such, that might prompt some action. But talking smack, even publicly, well, that'll keep you out of some callings, but it probably won't prompt any action unless the Bishop figures souls are being led away. I mean, we had the records of a lady on our rolls, who had left the church and was actually a paid pastor in another church. The Bishop kept in friendly contact with her, and offered a name removal, but nobody really acted on it for quite some time. Keeping names on the rolls of the church can be a matter of hope, until it becomes a matter of protecting the saints.

She absolutely had Gina's body type. And I suspect she came to the beginners class with some background in Jiu Jitsu. And I also had zero interest in wrestling a woman who was not my wife, was surprised that I got paired with her, and basically just froze up and got stood on my head. If it came down to a situation where I was like actually fighting for my life against her, she still might have won if I couldn't escape, but it's at least possible both of us would have ended up in ambulances.

Or they try to get an account here, but Thirdhour processes and the mod staff make sure they never see the light of day. Maybe a handful of times a year I still see this happening. @pam probably sees more of it.

Pretty much nobody does, especially in adult sports. And pretty much there are near zero biological women even trying to compete with males in sports. Maybe in some of the track and field things, where there is little to no difference in men v. women. Sometimes you'll hear a story about an adult female trying to access the boys locker room, but you could probably count on both hands how often that has made the news in the last 5 years. Yeah, by far the biggest issue when thinking about predators seeking prey or mediocre males seeking sports medals, are men taking advantage of rules and policy changes to gain access to women's spaces and sports. (Full disclosure - when it comes to sports, I'm the dictionary definition of a 'mediocre male'. I once got stood on my head and soundly defeated by a lady in a beginners class MMA. But I have no desire to compete against any females.)

Yes, I'll take "stuff I had to mostly give up after getting dragged kicking and screaming into a more healthy diet" for 1000 please.

You can find predators in every segment of society. From churches to political parties to neighborhoods to bitcoin miners to sports enthusiasts. Various rainbow communities are certainly not immune. That said, anything new is an immediate target for nefarious people willing to hurt or kill someone for what they have. And the "trans community" (to the extent that there is such a thing) has more than it's share of bad actors. Too many Americans trying to claw over their own grandmothers to adopt the new way to be inclusive and loving. Dude wants in to girls' and women's sports spaces? But it's ok because trans? Ok then. A little nervous laughter, a little fear of signaling the wrong virtue, and suddenly you end up on the wrong side of history. Even the United Nations gets it to a certain extent [bolding mine]:

3 family members sat there and went through the ballot, including the dozen or so ballot measures and colorado constitution amendments and whatnot. We did not vote the same on everything. I notice the signature gatherers who were trying to ban biological males from girl's sports did not gather enough signatures to get onto the ballot. I saw those guys at the grocery store just like I saw all the other signature gatherers, but this particular measure was riling up people and generating complaints to the store manager. Accusations of hate speech and trying to cause a trans genocide and whatnot.

This is fantastic advice. I’m going to steal this for teaching TKD There's a bit of scriptural justification for this.