NeuroTypical

Well, to be honest, I still haven't realized any of that jargle, even after looking seriously for something to substantiate it for years. I mean, the vaccines were far less effective than we hoped (and the government pushed). And it's now becoming more accepted that 'vaccine' isn't an accurate description of it - it's better thought of as a 'therapeutic'. But far less safe? What's your data for that? The thing has gone into literally billions of arms. Every nation on earth has a health service or ministry or center of some sort - you'd think it would be easy to find. The negative impacts are indeed 'told', but the last I checked, it was a similar rate to any other sort of related therapeutic. I mean, you can't find it in the December '24 House report, full of Republicans more than willing to pin dirt like that to Biden. It claimed "The COVID-19 Vaccine, While Largely Safe and Effective, Had Adverse Events That Must be Throughoughly Investigated" It's chart, when compared with the billions of doses given, is pretty weak sauce: With 5.6 billion doses given worldwide, 10,000 deaths means the vaccine is safer than driving a car. You've got a better chance of being hit by lightning, twice, than having a serious negative covid vax event. Especially considering that any lying agenda driven yayhoo was able to submit an entry to VAERS on the topic.

The "disorder" part of ADD or ADHD may be a disorder, or may just be a way of existing. It seems like there are a bazillion of us with ADD/ADHD who are out just living our best lives the best we can, just like everyone else, but with some different coping mechanisms and learned habits and methods to make life work. The diagnoses themselves are probably waaaay over diagnosed with our youth, especially boys. "Sit still and pay attention" is a nice skill for a boy to develop, but it's often not the best way to learn.

There are mentally ill people, and there are scammers. There are lazy people, and there are low-iq people without the brain power to understand. There are entitled people and folks with PTSD who are struggling with being abused by people they should have been able to trust. Here's the thing - we often can't tell who is who by just looking at them or even working with them. The line from that hymn nailed it: Who am I to judge another when I walk imperfectly? In the quiet heart is hidden sorrow that the eye can’t see. Scripture is pretty clear on things too: So we're left with a good reasonable basis for not judging, a scriptural commandment to not judge, and a very reasonable question about what help looks like and what it doesn't look like. - Giving someone help who could do it themselves isn't help, it's enabling their laziness. That's not charity, that's not love, that's not respecting someone's agency, that's being a sucker. - Giving someone help who can't do it themselves is help, is charity, and we're commanded to do it, and if we don't and get all judgey about it we're going to hell. It can be impossible to tell which sort of person we're dealing with. So we take our best guess, do our best, and try to live with the consequences. I'm pretty sure that while @Phoenix_person and his folks' hearts are in the right place, subsidizing single motherhood with taxpayer dollars is the most harmful thing white folk have done to the black community since slavery. Paying people to keep fathers out of the home is evil, and has ruined lives and increased all the bad things these programs seek to prevent. That said, each of us will personally be judged by how we've treated the lost and the least of us, and if we screw it up it'll have eternal consequences. So do your best and make up your mind and pray for guidance to do the right thing.

Yay! Arguing economics! I bet if we try hard, the two of us can come up with at least 3 opinions! I'm new to opining about such things, and trying hard to cast a wide net across folks who seem to be bright about such things. It seems to me that the US has great leverage with China, but China may endure all sorts of hardships in order to save face. Trump is supposedly the dealmaker, the next few months we might see deals being made. I don't know. True, but even as we speak, all the companies importing things into the US are looking at what they import from China, and finding ways to import from other places, or even move manufacturing into the US. Probably my biggest worry about Trump, is how he has acted against the court in that one case. I've always been big on presidents acting presidential - it's been a gripe I've had about a lot of presidents. And POTUS is supposed to be big on checks and balances and our constitutional institutions. The fewer the steamrolling over court decisions the better. Oh, and Trump is a Republican in the same way that a biological man is a woman. Pretending it's true does little besides weaken what words mean, and tick off conservatives. The dollar is doing extremely well, as usual, thank you. That 6 month panicky chart sort of disappears into the noise when you look at a higher elevation.

It's the easiest thing in the world to just say "Just about everyone should serve a mission", and be back on the right side of things, aligned with our prophets. But people don't know enough about their fellow saints to be able to love them as God commanded.

Trump is absolutely playing unfair hardball, unashamedly, out in the open. The math is simple - we don't buy necessities from China, just stuff we can do without. China's economy is based on exporting to us, and they need us to fuel their economy and stay employed. China has upwards of ten million jobs they could lose very quickly. The US has maybe a little cold breeze through our economy as everyone retools and finds other suppliers. Everything else is just noise. Interesting question: If China refuses to blink, and just goes on a murderous deadly communist rampage to suppress the dissent of its own citizens as they lose their jobs and get mad, is it Trump's fault? The US administration is changing from the world's pushover parent that hands over the credit card to all it's kids to shut them up, to hard-nosed my-way-or-the-highway domineering parent that forces it's children to work 4 hours of backbreaking chores on Saturday before they can go play. Punishment is swift and severe for children who disobey or talk back. I have mixed emotions. I liked the post-WWII US-led peace and prosperity that has caused the greatest lifting of human rights, health, and wealth ever seen. I'm not sure what things will look like after the transformation. On the other hand, it has been obvious to me and others for over a decade, that the US can't continue to survive with it's ever-increasing deficits, waste/fraud/abuse on a global scale, and a million corrupt ways to funnel money to our enemies. So, yeah. Bumpy ride. China doesn't appear happy.

Traveler, cease this twisting of the words of our prophets and apostles. Your statement is the dictionary definition of the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture. When you take their "every worthy and able young man", and you turn it into "calling from G-d meant for everyone", you put words in their mouths, twist the truth in their message to your own. Then you stand proudly upon this rameumptom of your own creation, looking down on those who you decide to think of as sinners, and pronounce their problem for them. Maybe I can suggest that you clarify, try again? @Ironhold, you taking notes here?

Ah yes. The urging from our leaders is "every worthy and able young man". So people see a young man not going on a mission, and they feel it's their right to gossip, unrighteously judge, and demand "so which is it? You not worthy, or you not able?" Here's the thing about unrighteous judgments and demanding things: @Carborendum's response is a righteous response. Maybe it needs to be phrased a bit more civilly (although 'go phillips yourself' is my new favorite term of the month). But they are doing wrong by butting in to things that aren't their business, and it would be nice if they would stop doing wrong. Here's why they're wrong: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1999/08/judge-not-and-judging?lang=eng "Thus, we must refrain from making final judgments on people because we lack the knowledge and the wisdom to do so." Translation: If you're telling me I'm going to hell for not serving a mission, you are being unrighteously judgmental, and you should go phillips yourself. Third, to be righteous, an intermediate judgment must be within our stewardship. We should not presume to exercise and act upon judgments that are outside our personal responsibilities. Translation: Mind your own business. Fourth, we should, if possible, refrain from judging until we have adequate knowledge of the facts. Translation: You don't know me, go phillips yourself. People acting like gossipy intrusive busybodies are everywhere. In and out of the church. When you encounter one, they are best dealt with from a position of Godly righteousness. They are sinning with their unrighteous judgments, they are sinning with their butting-in to things that aren't their business, they are sinning when they assume from a distance that they know best when they don't. You're just standing there being a disciple of Christ, and they show up peddling their nonsense. They are the first offenders. It's ok to treat them as such. Now, folks with stewardship (parents, teachers, quorum advisers, bishops, stake presidents) get to try to urge and work with as many young men as they can, to help them be worthy and able. They get to care. They get to try. But the second they use some high-pressure sales tactic like "go on a mission or you're going to hell", their behavior should be called out as luciferian, and we can ask them to stop preaching satan's doctrine. From the same article: refrain from judging people and only judge situations. That's the secret. We must not unrighteously judge, but we are COMMANDED to judge righteously. That means we judge situations, within our stewardship, with adequate knowledge of the facts. @Ironhold, you didn't go on a mission. That's between you and the Lord. You have nothing to prove to me, or anyone else. Related story: My wife has many health issues, and has a handicapped placard. When she parks in a handicapped stall and jumps out, it's usually not apparent how she 'qualifies'. Invisible illnesses are certainly things. At least weekly she sees judgmental looks from people. Maybe once every couple months, she runs into someone who feels it's a good idea to bring it to her attention. Like it's their business. Like she owes them an explanation. She's got a thousand responses in her arsenal. She'll have 1001 once I tell her about 'go phillips yourself'.

Gonna need a link to this claim. I looked at the session summaries here, but nothing like you describe. I remember someone talking about a mission, but I did not get the vibe you're getting. Since we can easily review both the video and transcript, it might be helpful. There are endless, endless times where I've seen lots of folks go off half-cocked about what this or that speaker "basically declared", only to find out that no, that's not what they said. The truth tends to be helpful here.

Ok, that was a rivetingly enjoyable slice of life. Where I live, the [flash flash flash] is usually from oncoming traffic, and it's always a warning that we're approaching either deer/antelope in the road, or a speed trap. Colorado doesn't flash lights out of annoyance, we just move straight to road rage. As for my kids, we approached rainbow topics the same way we approached everything else, by trying to have an open complete discussion about everything. We try to explain why people do the things they do, in a way that if our Savior was watching the conversation, He'd smile at the treatment we're giving some of His children. We explain why we think and believe what we think and believe, and why. Risks and dangers, blessings and advantages, difficulties and hardships, right and wrong. Then they go about making up their minds and forming opinions and arguing and whatnot, in an open dialogue of shared trust and respect. At least that is what we have tried to do. We maybe accomplish the bare minimum half the time. Wife is much better at it than I am, and 95% of the successes are hers. I've had some good moments.

A few years ago my neighbor decided to start reviewing the old General Conference talks starting with the oldest. I should see if he's aware the videos are there now.

Trump and I must have watched the same Law & Order episode back 25 years ago. Everyone hated the new managing partner, and was preparing to oust him. Before they got their dirty tricks underway, he called an emergency meeting. He revealed that he had landed a surprise account for the guy who hated him most. He then said something about pulling a few strings to get a judge to okay an appeal that would put them back on the map in the legislation world. Then he pulled out a stack of envelopes and passed them around, saying these were their Christmas bonuses. A confused partner said "I thought we were circling the drain and couldn't afford bonuses this year." He replied that he had started shopping around for cheaper office space. When the partner started to get mad, he said "relax, we're not going anywhere. But just the threat that we might, brought the building manager to the table and I renegotiated our yearly lease down by enough to get us all bonuses." Someday I might actually read his 'art of the deal' book.

"Adams, of Minneapolis, to be entered into an adult diversion program meant for first-time, low-level offenders." “My client is very remorseful for his actions, and is beginning the process of making sure the victims are made whole financially,” said Adams’ attorney Robert Paule, in an email to the Star Tribune. “We are grateful for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office exercise of prosecutorial discretion and apologize to the victims and law enforcement.” I think diversion programs for first time low level offenders are pretty dang common. I'd be surprised if really any first offender couldn't manage to land a deal like that, for really any low level offense. I see that dude didn't just offend once. He offended 6 times over a course of days. But even then, demeanor in court can have an impact. Maybe dude, instead of showing up all entitled and haughty, looked like he was about to wet himself. (Lawyers and anyone with experience to the contrary, please chime in). It might be nice if he lost his job over the incidents. He works for the state's DHS, and they're reviewing things. Doesn't look good there for dude. Bad press can get you canceled and fired, although firing may not be as easy when working a govt job in a liberal state/city.

In the spirit of @Ironhold's method of dealing with talks, I actually keep a link on my phone in case a Bishop (or President Nelson) surprises me with a last-minute request to speak publicly. It's doctrinally sound, written to be easily understandable by most audiences, and I've never seen a group of humans who couldn't do with internalizing it's advice a bit more. Ten bucks says even if I delivered the talk to the Quorum of the 12, they'd chuckle and someone would say "that's a good message, I need to keep working on that." I'll just change the name to whoever is asking me to talk: https://thoughtsofmark.blogspot.com/2006/04/when-anthony-preaches-when-anthony.html

Well, when you've intentionally steered your boat into the iceberg thinking it would somehow be a win for you, and you are sitting there watching the iceberg slice your ship to pieces, and you realize you're all gonna die, you might as well try to steer away from it before it can finish the job. It's all about votes. If the polling said people liked Abrego Garcia, they'd still be fighting hard. If the white house hadn't been so good at getting the message out about who he is (illegal immigrant MS13 gang member who lost his asylum claim years ago, whose own wife filed a protection order against him) and who he isn't (a Maryland man who fled persecution and has been allowed to stay). I'm sure the Dems curse the white house press office and it's easy command of relevant facts. Curse Trump's ability to talk directly to the little guy without going through a media filter. Things were so much easier when this was happening:

Dang Carb, you trying to win some sort of understatement trophy or something? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Banqiao_Dam_failure https://www.jstor.org/stable/2937756

In my attempt to follow the 2nd great commandment, I've now met and befriended 3 folks who struggle in various ways with just living as the sex they were born with. There are a lot of struggles I don't mind having in this life, those are struggles I never want to experience. Imagine trying to live in your own skin with the pervasive, sometimes overpowering pressure screaming at you that "you're wrong". Gender dysphoria, the closely related body dysmorphia, and the host of various intersex conditions that exist on a hormonal, chromosomal, structural, or genetic level are real illnesses and defects that people struggle with in varying ways. That said, the SCOTUK (did I get that right?), and most of the stuff Trump is trying to do (because we elected him to fix this), is spot on. Humans have two legs. Some folks don't have two legs. Humans are still correctly categorized as bipedal. It doesn't matter if there's a thriving industry that has sprung up to add/remove legs to people who want such things.

I'm a massive fan of the up-and-coming undiscovered artist. There's endless amazing works and creations out there on discord servers and bandcamp and such places. The folks producing these works are some of the most immature, clueless, rainbowest children out there. And their works are totally hit-or-miss when it comes to being in the same universe as truth, beyond insanely vivid and accurate portrayals of emotion. But that's rarely stopped me from enjoying what they produce. Art ≠ Truth. Great art ≠ Great truth. The spirit can speak to people through art, but not always, and not exclusively. I remember a handful of LDS folks who watched the heaven scene from What Dreams May Come and believed they were having the spirit testify to them that "that's how it is in heaven - it explains how making your own world works".

Actually, nobody does a bloodthirsty-madman-dictator-Joseph-Smith as well as the Chick tracts. (I'd post it, but it's technically against the site rules.)

Another similarity is both of us have active missionary efforts, which is why you get an opportunity to scare them off in the first place. They first came around my house like 15 years ago. I remember complimenting them on the artwork in the Watchtower. Nobody does a "whore of babylon riding the beast" as well as the J-dubs! (View it and weep, Arnold Friberg!) Anyway, I guess I was so friendly to them, my house ended up on their permanent list of places to go tracting. Probably over half a dozen visits over the years. And yes, the visits are always short when they find out I'm still LDS. But for whatever reason, that info doesn't make it into whatever file they keep on me, because another pair stop by next year.

RIP Pope Francis. I thought he was doing better, guess not. I had a bit of a political crisis this morning, as I thought about how one of Pope Francis' final acts in life was to chew out VP Vance on deporting illegals. I mean, I'm LDS, but I have a measure of respect for the Catholic church and it's leaders and find Popes worth listening to, even if we differ politically and on various religious details. With about every hospital I've ever been to having "Saint" in the title, and a full 20% of my church service projects for the poor involving some sort of group run by Catholic Charities, they know a thing or two about the plight of the less and the lost and the least. Vance converted to Catholicism a while ago, had been battling out Catholic theology on the matter on X, eventually advising people to google "ordo amoris" I hadn't heard of it before, so I did. It's interesting stuff. It helped me resolve my political crisis, leaving me still mostly supportive of our efforts to control our border and remove illegals, coupled with a re-emphasis on "what you do to the least of these thy brethren, ye do it unto Me".

Fair enough @Phoenix_person, I now update my list of personal stories I've gathered to "a bunch who did it when younger then matured out of it, a bunch who did it and have regrets and various suffering, and one guy who figures taking it medicinally has improved his mental state and quality of life." It's been 25 years since I was involved with someone experiencing active PTSD and mental health crises. They had tried desperately self-medicating with alcohol and became a lifelong alcoholic, although they haven't touched a drink since I've known them. I remember those fun times. I'm glad you're finding something that works for you.

Over the decades I've gathered maybe half a dozen or so stories from folks who smoked mj at some point. Some are of the "yeah, I tried that stuff when I was younger and it was fun but I don't do it any more" kind. I don't know enough to know if they're more crazy or stupid than they would have been without the mj, or if they're unaffected. The other group has regrets. One guy told the story about how he was excited when medical mj was legalized in Colorado, and gladly started a regimen to help with his anxiety and improve his marriage. During the legalize MJ fight in CO, such things were touted as the norm. It had the opposite effect. His anxiety turned into depression, he lost his job and everything got worse in his marriage as he self-medicated himself away from giving enough of a crap to work on his stuff. Over the years, I've grown ok with the various well-studied medicinal benefits, and I've watched the industry mature in some ways. I notice folks understanding that smoking anything is bad for you, and going for THC distilled into oils or candy or whatever. Colorado is learning when you wrap it up like candy, then kids eat it and end up in the hospital. Colorado is still mostly refusing to deal with the fact that we've turned our state into cartel heaven, as they moved their mj production across the border into our state. But yeah, if something had been available legally in the '90's when my mother was dying and couldn't keep pills down because of nausea, and her veins were too frail for a needle, I would have brought her a toke or an oil or something, to see if it might have helped in her final months. That's about as close as I ever want to come to the thing. Maybe if someone is trying to get clean off of meth, I might support MJ as a step down replacement, but I'm not exactly surrounded by people I know hooked on meth, so it's an intellectual exercise for me at best.