NeuroTypical

I'm grateful that the 8 yr old victimized girl in my circle of concern, is able to be growing up without having her name plastered across the media. I hope the world can now stop talking about this young woman. Such folks usually want very much to put the past behind them - not always possible while being talked about by the world.

As previously mentioned, 'letting it sit in the bank' is also a way of growing the economy. How else you going to skew it? Who gave you the authority? If you're going to do it differently, that basically means taking from people via the threat of force, and giving it to someone who didn't do anything to earn it, right?Discussion point: since the dawn of time, there has been unequal distribution of wealth. There have been, and always will be, haves and have-nots (city of Enoch as an exeption, and all this ends with the millenium.) Given that fact, does it not make more sense to have a structure where you can choose to move up or down the wealth curve according to your own efforts and desires? To do what you want with the fruits of your labors, as opposed to having some sort of nebulous "them" out there who know better what to do with your riches than you do? LM

oh dang that's funny.

You mean business vs. personal tax, or rich vs poor? Are you talking mechanics of taking taxes, or are you talking what's fair? There are plenty of ways for a government to extract money from the economy. And really, whether it takes it in the form of income tax, property tax, consumption tax, or tax on business, it all ends up coming out of the economy one way or the other. We also use tax as a way to engineer social change. Like a mortgage tax credit is engineered to aid and support private home ownership. Or a 'marriage benefit' where couples pay less overall tax than they would if they were single. If you're talking what's fair, well, yeah, that's very subjective. I personally think representation without taxation is as horrible an idea as taxation without representation. I'd like to see less double-triple-quadruple taxation on things, maybe a simpler tax code, like a flat tax or straight consumption tax. Here's how it works:Bob is rich. He spends his money on stuff, meaning some company somewhere has hired people and bought stuff, and use the people to turn the stuff into what he bought. If he wasn't rich and buying stuff, that company wouldn't be employing anyone or buying anything to sell to him. Or, rich Bob invests his money. Businesses use the money he's invested to expand - hire more people. Other folks borrow Bob's money to do things like pay for college. The more govt takes from Bob (and the rest of us), the less money gets into the economy. Economic advantage: People like to improve their situation in life. Making oodles of money is nice. If you exist in a country where it doesn't matter how hard you work or how smart you are, you'll never get rich, you're less likely to work hard. People ask "what economic advantage is there for you to have all the money". Something they are saying that they miss, is "I want the government to take your money by force and give it to someone else." It sounds different when you think about it like that, but that's basically what the idea entails. Someone gets rich, but the govt has a policy to take it away, just because they have it. That's not fair.LM

Yeah, my dad went through WWII, and lived his entire life apparently content that he didn't know or care if there was a God or not. Yet he was also fond of that phrase though, so I dunno. Maybe a traumatic experience like combat can solidify one's conception of deity, as either someone there or someone not there? Dunno. LM

So, important question - what difference would it make if you had answers to these questions? If you could understand why your sister acts as she does, what would be different? Maybe she's selfish. Maybe she's hurt and afraid. Maybe she was offended by someone. What is different about your relationship with her, if you understand her motivation? Does it help you love her more, or give you ammunition to use against her, or help you talk her into something different, or what?I guess my question is, are you looking for advice on how to change her, or how to love her? You really might just have to pick one or the other, ya know... If you are out to change her, no. If you're out to love her, then probably yes. Yes. Either accept her and love her, or stay away from her. Because you can't change her.LM

Very true. Love might mean, but IMO doesn't always mean, having to carry on family traditions after you're all grown up. Or living 5 minutes away from someone. Or having lunch once a week. Or going to the family reunion. Or whatever. Something many of us suffer from, is looking at change as evidence that someone doesn't love us or hasn't forgiven us. But we've ALWAYS had thanksgiving dinner here! Please, can't we set aside that thing I did three years ago and just go back to the way things were? ** But uncle Bob is always that way, and we've just always put up with him! Your boatrocking means you need to work on forgiving him. ** But all my other kids live close to me - why do you have to be so far? Don't you love me? Are you still carrying a grudge for that thing I did? I might be the wrong person to ask about the lesser, more common difficulties we face living around each other. But my general attitude is that no really, living 300 miles away, updating your blog weekly with pictures, and being polite and civil when in the same room - all that goes a long way to loving someone you don't want to be around. And if someone is a recurring source of harm, stress, grief, or extreme unpleasantness, then maybe loving them means giving them less opportunity to be that difficult person they always end up being. Allowing someone to be comfortable and secure in their choosing to act like a jackass year after year, doesn't sound like a good definition of Love to me. Teaching your kids through example, that you have to endure abuse because you're related to someone? I foresee myself having a hard time explaining that one to the righteous Judge I'm kneeling down before and giving an accounting to. LM

Thanks, Mr. Lenon, for your song Imagine. It helps to have such a widely-agreed-upon summary of liberal thought to use as a playing field for a political argument.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I'm surprised that a prison chaplain would ask the question. I know a lady who escaped out of a family where there was numerous cases of incest. She tried to work with her parents and brothers, until the incest started impacting the next generation of kids - including a 4-5 yr old boy and 8 yr old girl. Well, this lady has her own kids to raise, and the deep scars of her abuse leaves her weak and vulnerable around her brothers and parents. Various members of that tightly-knit family are a known threat to her kids. Yes indeed you can love someone from a state away. You can love someone while making it clear you'll have them arrested for tresspassing if they show up. You can love someone while aiding the prosecution that results in a 5-life sentence for aggrivated sex abuse of a minor. You can love someone while standing with the victim's family at a parole hearing (also known as standing against the perp.). You can love someone while learning how to carry and use a gun, should the incarcerated brother get out and seek vengence against those that put him there. It comes down to knowing what love and forgiveness is, and what they aren't. Love and forgiveness does not mean you expose your children to harm. It does not mean being a doormat. It does not mean willfull blindness to obvious threats. You do not abdicate stewardhip over your children because of the commandments to love and forgive. It does mean doing what you can to keep someone this sick from harming others. It means even though you spend much prayer time asking God to help these people get rid of this horrible cancer, you don't walk blindly. LM

Not to mention they have a surplus of cheap labor, and this country has benefited by it over the last 150 years or so, despite the serious and troubling issues it brings with it.

Well, it's the kind of policy that the USA basically agreed to at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848.Check it out. You can't be properly disenchanted with how hard it is to find a solution, until you understand why things are a problem in the first place. LM

Well, I've never written such a letter, so take my advice for what it's worth. I'd try to give all the relevant facts. That's facts only - not judgements, not assumptions, not how things felt. Just things he did or didn't do, that lead you to believe this sealing should be canceled.

I'm a living example of the blessings that come from forgiving and loving folks who have done horrible things. Figure out how to forgive people. Figure out how to love them. Fight with yourself until you've won this battle - it is worth it. Even if they betrayed your trust and robbed you, even if they molested you or a loved one. No matter what they did, your job is to forgive and love them. You'd be surprised at how many people don't understand what forgiveness and love means, and what it does not mean. Satan does some of his best work in muddling these terms and keeping us from filling the commandments. It's always good to see people grappling with the nuts and bolts of this commandment. Sometimes I think the rest of the Christian world could use that little extra oomph we get from D&C 64:9. (Well, sometimes I think we mormons could use a little more thought on it too.) LM

Oh man, don't get me started on service rep calls. This really happened to me: Customer Service Rep: How can I help you? Me: My telephone is only set up to call numbers in this building. I need to call offices in other states and countries. CSR: Um... Can you send me a screen capture of the error?

I agree wholeheartedly with the athiests. Yes indeed, if something making extraordinary claims wish to be taken serioiusly, it needs to produce extraordinary evidence. Allah, bigfoot, ufo's, homeopathy, zeus, psychics, and Jesus Christ absolutely can be legitimately lumped together into a group of things making extraordinary claims. From where I'm standing, the stuff listed between Allah and Christ have pretty much failed abysmally at presenting any extraordinary evidence. Allah (same root word as Elohim, basically the Muslim's concept of God) and Christ, IMO, produce extraordinary evidence. Maybe not conclusive evidence, maybe evidence that not everyone finds persuasive. But yes indeed, extraordinary evidence. I don't see any reason to be offended by a bunch of athiests trying to get a rise out of me, by saying true things in a snarky way. LM

I remember my dad laughing at the teen girl working at the tanning salon. He just couldn't see her handling a deer hide to save her life.

Hi there. You weren't the NZ poster from ldsfriends, were you? Or were you the Pahoran from ZLMB/MADB? Howdy regardless.

geopolitics rule #1 - don't let people with nukes and oil sort anything out amongst themselves.

once there is universal healthcare, everyone will be entitled to it. Semantics.While we're discussing semantics, I'd like to point out a very important bit of semantics. Consider for a moment, the difference between two things:Healthcare Health Insurance If you had to pick one and only one, which would you choose? No really - think about it for a minute - if you could have healthcare but no insurance, would that be a better or worse choice than having health insurance but no healthcare? LM

Well, I thought I communicated this notion rather effectively in the last election, but don't worry, I intend to send another message in 2012 as well. But ok, if you want to see it in print, here you go: Hey all uninsured Americans: Health insurance is not a right. And forcing people to give it to you isn't Christian.Tell me HoosierGuy, what the point of this exercise is supposed to be? LM

Yeah, Sec. Gates' office called me last week to see what I thought about it. Good to see they went with my take on things. LM (lying through my teeth)

Yeah, because we never worry about how we're going to pay for all the spending the government does in our behalf. Once they take something over, it's as good as free. Right?Oy. No it isn't, and no it isn't. Rights are about things we're able to do, and things other people are not able to do to us. Rights are not about things other people have to do for us. And mandating or forcing people to do things is not Christian. LM

Meh. None of the things I've read have done any of that. It basically embarasses us and makes diplomacy a little harder for a little while. Iran already knows what Arabs think about them. Prince William already knows what we think about him, and what we think the business leaders in Kyrgizstan think about him. Nobody cares what the oil minister in Whatevereistan says or thinks or does. It's just now that they can wave our own words in our faces, and embarass us into maybe making some concessions we wouldn't have otherwise made. It's a minor play in a very long game. Mind you, I'm not against finding this soldier and executing him for treason. These leaks do make it harder for the US to do our thing on the world stage, and I wouldn't be surprised to see us punish this guy sufficiently to dissuade the next young dumb kid from wanting to do the same thing. LM

Spencer W. Kimball was pretty clear that he considered the concept of 'soul mates' false doctrine - calling it "fiction and illusion".I'm teaching my girls: Not every cool clarinetist who shows up with a story about friendship and love in the pre-existance, is someone you want to spend much time with on earth. It's possible my daughters will find their eternal companions through such a story. But it's almost a certainty that they'll also encounter at least one Mr. Wrong who is making the same claim. Part of their education includes reciting the phrase "I'm sure I promised myself to you in the pre-existence like you claim. But I've changed my mind since then. Sorry!" LM