NeuroTypical

Interesting historical tidbits: Back in Prohibition days, physicians were writing prescriptions for liquor on prescription forms provided by the government. Pharmacies kept medicinal whiskey stocked, and the government produced it. Churches and clergy also could receive wine for the sacrament - and there are a lot of accounts of people becoming ministers and rabbis and whatnot in order to get and distribute wine legally.

Don't forget the joys that come with US growers and dispensaries and governments joining the world drug trade as rival factions, or sometimes as customers. If you listen carefully, you'll hear that we don't call them Drug Trafficking Organizations any longer. We now call them Transnational Criminal Organizations - which rightly acknowledges the other fun things they do like child prostitution and kidnapping and slavery and bloody mass-murdering and stuff, no longer limited to any particular side of any particular border.

Again, here in CO, "prescriptions" are easily available for anyone who wants one - no valid need necessary. We set the system up so it wouldn't be that way, and yet here we are.

So, in my opinion, medicinal MJ is a legitimate medicine, and there is a legitimate need for it. That said, here's my experience:Years ago here in CO, a high councilman came on assignment from the Stake Pres, to a combined 3rd hour PH/RS meeting, to counsel us to vote against an upcoming measure that would legalize medicinal marijuana. He indicated the Father of Lies was behind the effort, and we all needed to act accordingly. Anyway, the church lost. Not only is medicinal MJ legal here now, but the state has exploded with growers and dispensaries too. The law says it's only for medicinal use. The reality is: * Now mj is basically legal, accessible, and not too expensive for anyone who wants it. * There are still laws on the books about who can and can't have it, but cops have better things to pay attention to, and it's really hard to get anyone to prosecute. * Any "doctor" can write a script for medicinal MJ. The laws define "doctor" as any medical doctor, or medical doctor in training. So basically, anyone taking a class at a community college qualifies as a "doctor in training". * Local growers and dispensaries, and the government, are now working with drug cartels as a drug faction. Sometimes as a rival faction, which brings some of the lovely South-of-the-border violence into our state. Sometimes as a customer and distributor - meaning you can now legally support organizations that participate in kidnappings, murders, and child prostitution with your cannibis dollar. * There is a gazillion percent increase in mj related crime. It's not really that the crime wasn't there before. It's because now the people getting jacked and the places getting broken into and robbed are now legitimate businessmen who now go to the cops for help. * When dood and his honey wanted to get high, they used to find a dealer, buy mj, and go get high. Now dood goes to his cousin, who writes "pain script" or something on a piece of paper, then dood goes to a dispensary and buys his michuecan or brazillian tornado or maybe a nice brownie mix or even chocolate-dipped laced banana, and they go get high. * The average dispensary customer is a male between 18-40. It's fun to watch ignorant people who think medicinal mj is wonderful and legit, try to explain this fact away. Happy toking from smoky laid-back Colorado! LM (the colors, dude, the colors!)

From where I'm standing, these two things (motivation and attitude) are the things to overcome. If you overcome them, you're good no matter what you end up picking. If you don't overcome them, well, America's homes are full of dusty unused exercise equipment, and our credit cards are full of bills for gyms we never go to, and few diets ever last.I've been you for most of my life. The last 6 months changed for me. I'm now using exercise equipment, going to gyms, and my diet is improving somewhat. Why? Dunno. There are lots of possible reasons. I had shoulder surgery and was given a specific set of exercised to do so I could do things like hug my wife and pick up my kids. But I kept exercising after I had back what I wanted. Why? Did I do it long enough to make it habit? Did I start to enjoy it? We all start out zealous and then fall into apathy - why didn't I? Is it because I hit 40, and worry that my kids will see me as fat and useless when they become teens? Maybe. Have I seen specific progress, and want more? Yes, but that happens with us then we fall back into apathy. So I dunno. I wish I could tell you what is working for me, so you could duplicate it. I will tell you this - I don't care what I weigh. Muscle weighs more than fat, so adding 1/4 inch to muscles is taking inches off of less desirable places. I am not dieting or trying to lose weight. But I find myself eating much less on days when I know I'm going to go have to do 20 crunches and 30 pushups to keep up with the rest of the class, and I can't do that without barfing now. Dunno. My best guess for why it's working for me, is I found real motivation beyond "I wanna", stuck with it until it became habit, and didn't spend a second thinking about my weight. Best of luck to ya!

Whenever I try to spell the word "anonymously", I usually end up wanting to pick "secretly" too. But either way, yes, an anonymous message board is a great plact to learn about stuff without letting people know who you are. Thanks, skippy, for the cut-and-paste!

My basic understanding: Early 1800's - everyone was racing to take bits of the new world and make it theirs. We made deals or fought over the good bits (coastal areas with good waterways like New Orleans, good farmland plains states, important geographic locations like Texas). The Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and the Mexican-American war in the 1840's, settled borders. But the US now had borders around a bunch of area that didn't have much in the way of people or resources (Utah, New Mexico, Arizona). Mexico had surplus people, the US had bought or won new borders that needed peopling, but the shooting was over. Illegal immigration was supposedly illegal, but not illegal enough to solve. Because ending it might have taken another war, and besides, the US needed the people. We've been reaping the consequences from those decisions for the last 160 years. This state of affairs is not new. This state of affairs absolutely belongs to the federal government - borders and other nations and stuff, is a big reason why the states created the federal government in the first place. The system was built broken on purpose ("the US won, Mexico lost - no illegal immigration here, *wink-wink*"). We have a broken system. LM's first rule of dealing with bureaucracy: Moral people can, and sometimes should, go against stupid, broken, or evil policy. It would seem that church leaders are thinking along similar lines.

I can think of one more:[*]Innocent ignorance about what we have that others don't. Sometimes, we don't realize what we have. Think about it - peace, love, joy, strength against the world's ills, security in a bright future that spans past physical death - these are blessings most of us can reap (at least partially) in this life. Many of us are reaping them now. We sometimes have no earthly clue how rare these things are in other people's lives. If you've never known what it's like to be starving, how can you realize what a blessing it is, compared to someone standing there starving?

Perhaps, but just because something is an economic/social issue, does not mean it can't also be a security issue. Consider: Fred wants to enter the US in order to work mayhem. For all intents and purposes, it doesn't matter what nationality Fred is. It doesn't matter what religion, or skin color. It doesn't matter that his real name isn't Fred. Maybe he's a Los Zetas, looking to send a message to US law enforcement. Maybe he's Al Qaeda, wishing to help with the grassroots uprising. But basically, he wishes to kill people and break things in our country, and he is currently outside our borders. Currently, it's pretty easy for the Freds of the world to enter the United States. Whether it's through faked credentials, or hiring a Coyote guide down south, or boating across Lake Ontario - he has many options. This is a reality - no matter what the current status of the national debate on legal/illegal immigration is, this is our current reality for Fred. He has so many options open to him, it's worrisome. You want to see someone's head shake with agape disbelief, travel with an Israeli into the US. He will be so incredibly unimpressed with security, he might refuse to believe that you're actually taking him into the world's strongest nation and only superpower. I'm not playing any 'my-issue-is-bigger-than-your-issue' games. I'm not advocating any action based on this situation. I'm just saying that it is a real issue.

Agreed. You understand correctly. My posts in this thread, and maybe a conversation or two with my wife, pretty much constitute 100% of my interaction with other people on MMA. Everything I know about MMA comes from watching youtube videos or reading articles.I call myself a fan, because I fit the dictionary definition: "an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, celebrity, etc." It sounds like you demand the word "supporter" be part of the definition. If one doesn't sit in bleachers waving a pendant around, or have a bunch of people to give hi-fives to, one can't be a fan - right? That's understandable, I'd guess the vast majority of fans support the thing they're fans of. Just not me (other than my participation in this thread). I dunno - maybe there are 'good' fans and 'bad' fans - based on the amount of stuff other people can see them do. Maybe I'm just not a very good fan.

Hi folks, Friendly reminder - not pointed at anyone in particular at all: This issue is as important as it is divisive. There's lots of passion involved. Let's make sure we're spending our energies arguing the points, and not trying to prove the other guy is a blankety-blank so-and-so.:)

I guess I live in a different kind of home, but I don't get the emphasis on sheltering or protecting (searching for the right word here) our kids from an understanding of what reality looks like. We'll make it age appropriate, but basically I don't get why we should keep kids away from an understanding that violence is a part of the human race (and most other things that live on planet earth for that matter). Stuff dies. Things eat things. There are wars and soldiers and funerals and parades. You can't have any sort of meaningful study of history without studying wars and death. What's the point of keeping this information from kids?

Welcome doss. I hope you're finding the responses here useful. One comment: I just wanted to point out that while you can say "many Christians" or maybe even "most Christians" believe in ex nihilo, it is not correct to say we all do.Because I'm a Christian, and I don't believe the ex nihilo viewpoint.

No, no it doesn't. It's a cultural myth, perpetuated by people who are stuck in tradition, or overly-willing to have other people do their thinking for them. Our church says, among other things: Please note, not only the absence of the term "R-Rated", but also the inclusion of the word "entertainment". You will never budge an inch away from your current take on this issue, until you grapple with the word "entertainment".

LDS.org: Immigration: Church Issues New Statement LDS.org: Responsibility of Church Members: Avoiding Being Judgmental What I got out of it: * You shouldn't come here illegally. * If you're here illegally, you can still be worthy to go to the temple. * This is a problem that needs fixing, and there are a whole lot of horrible ways to fix it, so be careful. * Don't be judging the worthiness of your fellow churchmembers who may be here illegally. Thoughts?

Well - a clarification. Coupons are not about advertising. Coupons are there to attract price sensitive people that will otherwise not spend $ or spend it elsewhere. I don't see anything dishonest about it. Just because someone has a reason for something, that reason does not bind someone else to any set behavior. Maybe I don't get the concept you're thinking about. Why is "free" in quotes? Were they free or weren't they? Is someone breaking the rules? A lot of coupons say things like "one coupon per customer per visit" - are folks getting around that somehow?Because if there's no rulebreaking going on, then no, the coupon user is not taking away anything. The company is making an offer - something they're willing to do, and the coupon user is accepting that offer. Well, whenever you see a try with a sign that says "one per customer please", you can rest assured that someone tried it once. Signs, rules, and policies: Things that change when something results in an unwanted result.Here are some things we occasionally do: * Signed up for credit cards and bank accounts and whatnot we'll never use, to get the sign-up bonus. * I used to frequent this site for their free offers, back when lots more companies had free offers. I built a stash of DVD read/write media that lasted 5 years this way. * Comparison shop the heck out of everything we buy. We do a lot of business on ebay, amazon.com used, overstock.com, woot.com, and craigslist. I've made some wonderful deals that approach zero (not counting my time). * We legally reduce the heck out of our taxes to keep them as low as possible - zero if we can manage it. Former U.S. Appeals Court Justice Learned Hand: “Anyone may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible. He is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the Treasury. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike, and all do right; for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.” Guilt due to extreme frugality seems misplaced to me. LM

I'm not usually alarmist (and the OP is certainly from an alarmist POV). But dang - some of the disasters of the greatest magnitude to ever visit humanity, have fallen on China in the form of famine and flooding. Folks who buy into the sensationalistic language of "past winter's devastating drought" are missing what 'devastating' actually mans. 9-13 million Chineese starved in 1876-79. 15-43 million from 1959-61. Flooding killed between 9-2 million in 1887, 2-3 million in 1931, and half a million in 1938. China's disaster history is what I think of whenever someone starts talking about end times because of the tornado in Joplin (or whatever). I don't know anything about what China has done to keep these things from happening again, I just get a little itchy when folks start predicting another cycle.

Interestingly enough, this is what athiests are always telling me to do. Isn't it fascinating how we can start with a desire to know truth, and end up in such different destinations?

Hey Joey - welcome! Well, love is more than a feeling - it's a set of actions. As a personal example, my wife's parent's family are dangerous folks that we do not allow in our lives. My wife bears scars from growing up around them. We don't really have warm fuzzies when we think about them. But yes, the commandment is to love them and honor the parents. So we fill those commandments by forgiving them, wishing them well, and not allowing them to do anything more harmful to any of us. We're hoping they'll get their act together, save themselves, and end up in the celestial kingdom. We're comfortable going through life a state away from them. From what I can tell, that's what loving them looks like. Feeling remorse is tricky for someone in your situation. I would read up on the difference between "Godly sorrow" and "worldly sorrow". D&C 20:37, 2 Corinthians 7:9–10, and Mormon 2:10–14. What does a 'broken heart and contrite spirit' mean in your situation? I'm guessing they can apply to you - no emotional reaction necessary. Well, in it's most black-and-white terms - you might choose to care in order to gain access to the blessings that come from doing what God wants you to do. Or to avoid the difficulties that might come from walking the path of a jerk. Or for selfless reasons - as a way of helping other people in ways that mean a lot to them.Anyway, welcome. In a lot of ways, my wife is a lot like you. She identifies with the TV show Dexter. That guy has figured out how to be a 'good guy' of sorts, she has too. Here's hoping you can find a satisfying and meaningful way for you to walk in righteous paths. LM

I had two interesting things happen a few years back. First, I inherited an old book from my grandpa, published by the church in the early 20'th century, about the claims of Joseph Smith III. It presented the RLDS claims on leadership, and refuted them point by point. Second, I ran into someone from the RLDS church who tried to convince me that us Brighamites were in the wrong. I dug out my book, and was surprised to find this guy presenting the exact same points refuted by my book, in pretty much the order they were presented. I have never before done so well in a discussion about something I knew so little about. I guess those guys were still going off century-old justifications, long after they were soundly refuted. We have a member or two of the CoC on this site - not sure if they're active posters right now. They're nice people.

Hey Stan - wanting to provide for your family is of course natural, and being frustrated when the ends don't meet, is of course also natural. Go talk to your bishop. The church welfare program doesn't MAKE anybody do anything. It's a source of help for people who need help. Your bishop will work on a plan with you to bring your family to a position of being self-sufficient. We don't know what the bishop will tell you - it's on a case-by-case basis. The only other thing I can tell you, is "We don't want to" doesn't go very far when considering how to be self-sufficient. It's about have-to's and need-to's. The want-to's come after the ends are meeting without assistance.

I haven't seen any calls in this thread to ban anything - have you?Further, teletubbies and the lion king were both innocent. Apart from a handbag, there was nothing gay about poor Tinky-Winky. Folks who see signs of satanism everywhere, are bound to see signs in disney cartoons. Hooters, on the other hand, is guilty as charged. Any quick visit to their website pretty conclusively proves their intentions. GB-UK's last post demonstrates this pretty well, IMO.

On behalf of all the well-behaved people out there with chronic health problems, these parents sound like the problem.What a crock. Health problems do not mean free ride to be a jerk. Unless 'chronic health problems' means behavioral issues, this kid is capable of being good. Appropriate consequences and lots of love work wonders. Free reign and zero consequences is not love.

I like owls too. Here are some owl pictures: Odd, when I look at owl pictures, I don't think of female breasts. And yet when I drive past a Hooters sign... Yeah, that group of guys liked owls - and they liked something else too. Making money by packaging and presenting the female mammary glands for the enjoyment of their male clientelle. When you spend a dollar there, that's the thing you're supporting - whether you partake of the visual experience or not. There is really no coherent, serious counter to this obvious state of affairs. It's possible to go to Hooters for the food. It's possible to read playboy for the articles too. It doesn't change the focus of either. I am not claiming people who go to Hooters are bad. I'm not saying they're sinning, or need to change. I'm certainly not claiming to be better than anyone else. I have no judgement to offer anyone. I once allowed myself to be suckered into going there. Just for the love of pete, be honest with yourselves about what you're doing when you spend money there. All this tapdancing and avoidance and denial is just goofy.

Repentence is an interesting deal. It hinges on you doing everything you can - and not one bit more - and not one bit less. Remember the steps: We Must Recognize Our Sins We Must Feel Sorrow for Our Sins We Must Forsake Our Sins We Must Confess Our Sins (sometimes just to the Lord, sometimes to a Bishop or injured party) We Must Make Restitution (to the extent possible) We Must Forgive Others We Must Keep the Commandments of God From what I can tell, you, me, and everyone else here have a few of those we struggle with. I appreciate your post, because every time I go remind myself of these steps, I get renewed direction about what I need to do. My thoughts would be this: Pick one thing burdening you the most, and go through this process until you are ok with it. Then pick the next. Do this at a pace you can handle - and don't beat yourself up for how long it takes or how overwhelmed you feel. Don't get overwhelmed - take it at your pace. Would God ask for more than you can give? I don't think so.