NeuroTypical

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Everything posted by NeuroTypical

  1. I guess the question on top of my head: What are her parent's wishes?
  2. I suppose it comes down to the geopolitical concept of an ally. In an ideal world, the shiny perfect moral US would only form alliances with other shiny perfect moral contries. In the world we all have to live in, we're all fallen sinful agenda-driven error-prone humans, and we all have spotty pasts and current problems on all levels - individual, family, community, and national. Countries make agreements, treaties, and alliances with each other for only one reason - doing so benefits each nation in some way. You might not like the other nation. You might have serious issues with things they do. Keep in mind they probably have serious issues with some of the things you do. There are plenty of folks in Saudi Arabia all ticked off that the kingdom works so closely with 'the Great Satan'. But the oil flows, and our economies benefit, and we all get to sit in a clilmate controlled room on a comfortable chair surrounded by abundance and plenty, and gripe about how things should be different.
  3. I've encountered incestuous siblings and enabling parents with a long track record of protecting the perpetrator and blaming the victim. I can testify very clearly, that the heart-wrenching, painful, horrible journey I made to forgive these people, was worth every nightmare, every tear, every stumble. Being able to not just forgive, but love these people with as pure a Christlike love that I can manage, has relieved me of a heavy and dark burden in ways I can't even begin to describe. Even though they are who they are, and will likely never change in this life, my life has been freed by hoping and praying that they will find their way into heaven. Life got much easier, when I realized what forgiveness and love mean, and what they don't. They do not mean putting up with evildoers. They do not mean having to hang out or associate with people who cause you trauma by their very presence. They do not mean forgetting evil, or turning a blind eye to it. They do mean turning over your (very valid) gripes to the Lord to deal with. Because you know that where you'd do something imperfect, He'll admisiter perfect justice. He will do what isn't happening here - make it all better. I'd say something like that.
  4. I always go back and forth on the whole "Current disasters are strong evidence of millenium coming quickly" notion. Yes, end-times prophecies tell us things are going to get a whole lot worse, before they get better. Pointing to the Joplin tornado (a hundred dead) looks pretty silly compared to 2004 tsunami (230,000 dead). And that looks pretty silly compared to the big Yellow river floods of 1931 and 1887 (a million or more dead each flood). I mean yeah, upwards of 3 million could have died in last decade's North Korean famine, but it's been 50 years since 15-43 million died in the Great Chineese Famine. When was the last time a plague killed off a third of a region like Europe? Aids hasn't even killed two million total since it started. Wars? There hasn't been anything close to WWII (40-72 million dead) in 65 years. So it seems like 'things getting worse' isn't as clear as one might first assume. Then people point to rising yearly numbers of disasters, that cost the world more and more every decade. Then others point to the fact that the earth's population is growing, and we're living more an more in earthquake zones and flood plains, and point out that the earth is doing what it's always done, it's just that we're living there now to make a disaster out of it. Then the first folks point out that regardless of the reason, the numbers are going up. So I dunno. I'm doing what I always do - trying to live life as if I won't be around next week. When you're at peace with your God and the humans in your life, you don't fear the end times so much. Tomorrow or next century - doesn't matter to me. LM
  5. Just to make sure, it's still ok to name kids and pets after Star Trek characters, right? Little Seven of Nine would be very sad to hear otherwise.
  6. Howdy and welcome.
  7. Welcome to the forum eternallytrue! Everyone in the thread so far is a mature adult (or at least occasionally acts like one) - enjoy your chat.
  8. Or, as more manly put in LM's Big Book for Big Boys: If you're a jerk, she won't care if you're right.There is no amount of right you can be, that makes self-righteousness ok. Conversely, it doesn't matter who you are or what you're like - it's always ok to be righteous. In other words, learn the difference between righteousness and self-righteousness, and act accordingly.
  9. It wouldn't surprise me. What I know for sure, is that a member's record can be permanently* annotated with information about that member's acts of abuse - especially that of minors.* Permanetnly = there forever unless a member of the 1st Presidency authorizes it's removal.
  10. bcoyer, our legal system is founded on the principle that even the scumbags get competent legal counsel. Do you disagree with this foundational principle? If not, then what's your gripe here? I would much rather have a moral bishop represent a sex offender, than a schyster lawyer who would try all sorts of dirty tricks. Wouldn't you?
  11. Irish/Celtic dance is another good option. We settled on gymnastics and martial arts.
  12. Hi LeKook, LDS folks aren't big on blaming natural phenomenon on satan. I don't believe that not every emotionally impacting thing that we encounter is a message from either side - although I guess you can find some mormons who do believe that. We're big on "If it's true, accept it. If it's false, reject it." Knowing one from the other can be tricky, and sometimes we're just not given the tools to tell one way or the other. That can be very hard for some people to accept, but there it is. Anyway, welcome! LM
  13. I don't think so, no.
  14. For the love of pete, that's not what we said.And nobody knows who we are. Um, who they are.
  15. I saw a hillarious video of a guy with a camera going undercover and trying to join the KKK. Things were going swimmingly until he told them his mother was Jewish, but "he never even went to synogogue or anything". Before they kicked him out because 'his mother was a daughter of the beast', he asked them if he married a non-Jewish girl and had a kid, could that kid join the KKK. They said that would be ok. It honestly never dawned on them.
  16. How about currently-incarcerated violent felons? The amendment doesn't draw a distinction between free and imprisoned, so by your logic, taking guns from prisoners infringes their rights, right?
  17. I'm very sad that Ohanaswimwear went out of business. Their modest swimsuits rocked.
  18. Who's 'we' - you got a bird in your pocket? I don't fight with anybody.I just claim the title Christian in the face of people saying it doesn't fit. If someone else wants the title Mormon, I can say it doesn't fit without being a hypocrite. LM
  19. As a daddy of daughters, I hereby command everyone to get together and resolve all these important issues in the Scouting program, so it can get back to performing it's main purpose - providing my daughters with an adequate dating pool. I write out my Friends of Scouting check every year to forward this agenda.
  20. Ok fine - so in this town, once or twice a week you get an idiot driving 90. Urgency to solve the problem goes up, but seems to me that we have the same options, with the same pros and cons. Oh, that's easy to explain. Just point to a single example of unjustified homicide by firearm in the US, where the shooter did not violate at least one existing law currently on the books. Most of the ones I read about in my local police blotter are in violation of 3 or more. If you can find a gap in fed/state/local gun laws, then by all means, fill the gap. But I'm thinking you could make it a full-time job to find such a gap. It makes sense to make it illegal to let violent felons own or posess firearms. It makes absolutely zero sense to expect lawbreakers to follow the law - and yet the standard outcry after a shooting makes the news is "we need tougher/more laws!". By definition (lawbreaker = person who breaks laws), it won't work. That's why it's silly to react to a 90MPH vehicular homicide by lowering the speed limit from 45 to 40. It just makes all the law abiding people be late to work, and the speeders keep speeding. Yeah - my basic take is that it makes no sense to compare the US to other countries. And that includes giving flak to other countries about their laws. Apples and Oranges. The US was founded by people who figured the general population should be able to rise up and overthrow whatever government it had if the need arose. The notion has remained deeply, deeply ingrained in a huge chunk of our culture in the centuries since. You don't really have that anywhere else.
  21. America has a problem with gun violence that many other countries do not have. I don't see the point in comparing the US against other 1st world countries with stronger gun control and much less cultural acceptance of firearms. Here's a simple analogy that I heard a while ago that stuck with me. It was full of snark and sarcasm, let me see if I can take that out: The speed limit on most streets in town is 45 MPH. Most people drive somewhere around that speed. Occasionally, some reckless idiot drives 90, gets in a crash, and people die. What is the best response to this situation? Is it to lower the speed limit to 40? (Yes, say the folks making news by advocating more gun laws) Is it to change the culture, build trains, reshape society so folks bike and walk to work? Is it to ban cars (or make them harder to get, as Blackmarch advocates)? Is it to spend more on enforcement on existing laws, and make sure penalties are harsh enough to discourage speeding, and sound enough to protect society from those not discouraged enough? There are some pros, and many cons, to all of those ideas. (The problem with the first two is they'll never work, although I've been wrong before.) My response to the situation is to be law-abiding and moral, smart and capable, and raise law-abiding/moral/smart/capable children. And to help other people raise their kids the same way. Because children form tomorrow's society, and the more good folk you have in society, the less reckless idiots you have.
  22. Me too - along with all the other INTJ's.
  23. FWIW, For years, I've been asking LDS critics if it would change their mind if they woke up tomorrow and found non-LDS archaeologists discovering Zarahemla, the sword of Laban, Nephi's burial site complete with Hebrew DNA, and evidence of Reformed Egyptian. About 50% say it would, the other 50% say no. Go figure.
  24. Gah - bad flashback. A few months ago, I wondered how much movie and audience dialogue I could still remember. About 85% until they knocked on the castle door.Dangit - now every single song from that movie is simultaneously running in my head.
  25. I intend to use this post to prove my association with you back when you were a nobody. That way, I have better chances of borrowing money after your fame and fortune has arrived.