NeuroTypical

That just means you need to watch more movies! And it ain't just humans - it's the dang aliens! https://www.ranker.com/list/best-movies-about-america-being-invaded/ranker-film

Yeah, I don't care about Red Dawn notions of armed incursion. (The original was ok, the remake was boring.) But there are endless valid and real reasons nations sneak people into other nations where they operate covertly. And there are also endless valid and real reasons nations worry about the various impacts of illegal immigration. If you like our culture, standards of living, economy, and institutions and want to preserve them, there's plenty of cause to worry about the impact all of it has on that stuff. History is fascinating. They tell me the reason our southern border is so porous, has to do with the terms they agreed to during the last US Mexican war in 1847. The US won pretty soundly, but was still in the process of inventing itself, and there were several American opinions at odds with each other. How a lot of the frontier lands were going to get populated , who got to be a "US Settler", how would citizenship work, etc. In the end, we signed treaties that officially made it illegal to be illegal, but everyone knew the border would see a lot of migration. There's been a flow back and forth ever since, especially seasonal as the US became a major food producer. Trump wants to do what he's done in the past, build another massive monument to his ego with a solid gold TRUMP on it to make sure he goes down in the history books as building the wall. But his ego aside, there are plenty of good nonTrump, non-ego-driven reasons to have a robust southern border with tall walls and wide gates with good immigration laws. The wall is one component to that.

Well, let’s work the math. ~37,000 Chinese national apprehensions at the border last year. Maybe that many again got through without being apprehended. That makes ~74,000 entered our country illegally last year. If 99.9% of them are not here for nefarious evil, that means .1% of them are, which means last year ~74 murderous malign evil bad Chinese bad people came into our country last year, intent on nefarious stuff. Maths.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/general-handbook/38-church-policies-and-guidelines?lang=eng#title251 So, that has to do with leaders. I see nothing in the handbook about how missionaries can't be witnesses or testify in legal proceedings.

Yeesh. I guess these are the two main principles at play: I'm also a big fan of these guidelines: The 3rd guideline is basically "mind your own business". If you're not personally witness to this story, then all of your claim to the 4th guideline is hearsay and gossip. Whenever I find myself in a situation like that, I'm happy to talk in principles to anyone who wants to listen to me, but I wouldn't be interfering with a criminal matter. Example: My friend is telling me this story, and my friend was there. I might talk about the options my friend has, which include being brave and fighting a system with risk of blowback, or keeping silent and not doing the right thing. But at the end of the day, it would be my friend's action to take, not mine.

Hey, this is a good place to scream into the wind. That link is really interesting, as it gives us regular folk a look into the inner workings of SCOTUS and how they go about getting ready to think and reason and create findings and rulings that impact all our lives. I have no idea if the Trump-on-the-ballot issue is similar to other cases they prepare for, but I'm having fun watching it go by. 70 amicus curiae briefs submitted so far. I only scanned through the first dozen or two. But there are plenty, from all over the place. There are plenty from both sides. Maybe I'm a geek, but I find it fascinating to look through these as a layperson.

I keep this at my desk, right next to my Moderna phase III COVID vaccine trial award.

You've got it all wrong. Roker isn't out to get me, because of my white privilege. But according to progressives, weather is racist. And not just TikTok millennial progressives either. We're talking institutional entrenched mainstream progressives. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220125-why-climate-change-is-inherently-racist https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2020/06/climate-crisis-racist-answer-anti-racism https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-white-colonisation-of-the-atmosphere-its-time-to-tackle-this-entrenched-racism-185579 https://time.com/5864704/environmental-racism-climate-change/ Nature: Racism is magnifying the deadly impact of rising city heat https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22022022/racism-climate-change-research/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/what-deniers-climate-change-and-racism-share/579190/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/climate/black-environmentalists-talk-about-climate-and-anti-racism.html Yeah. Conservatives don't take liberal bias far enough!

Love it. My favorite part was at the end in the footer: It took all my powers as a typist not to write, “Winter is coming.”

You can read all the briefs here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23-719.html As of the time I'm posting this, there are dozens of "brief amicus curiae". I read through the first dozen or so, and they were just about all in favor of Trump, making arguments like you're making. Perhaps some opposing briefs are in the ones I haven't read through.

Yep, from the "learning how to be married" crowd, this is what I've learned about the word "sorry": Sorry 1: Oooh - I said/did something quite wrong and it had a negative impact. I'm truly remorseful, regretful, apologetic, and sorry. Consider this the first step of my overall repentance process where I promise to rid myself of whatever problematic beliefs or thoughts or character defects that had me say/do something so insensitive in the first place. (Excellent choice whenever it's genuine. You don't have to ham it up that much to mean it.) Sorry 2: Oooh - I didn't mean to hurt you. You misunderstood me. I apologize, I could have said/did that in a different way. My intentions are good, just the execution was bad. Can I clarify or try again? (Good for anyone who wants to follow the 2nd great commandment, but you think you're right.) Sorry 3: Oooh - that came back to bite me. That didn't get the reaction I wanted at all. I'm sorry I ended up on the receiving end of negative blowback for my words/actions. I am experiencing discomfort and want it to stop, so I'll say I'm sorry so you'll stop being the cause of my discomfort. (Popular with all narcissists, people who have no empathy, and people lacking in self-esteem. Also occasionally popular with most of us on occasion.) Sorry 4: Yeah, sorry a [insert insult or negative judgment here] like you got offended. What a jerk you must be, to get offended by what I just said/did. Your reaction says an awful lot about you, and nothing about me. (A great way to argue with people when you're not feeling like following the 2nd great commandment, or you've got a passive-aggressive personality style, or HR is forcing you to apologize or get fired but you don't care either way. This was Justin Timberlake's apology after ripping off Janet Jackson's top and exposing her breast on national television during that superbowl halftime show.) Unless you know what definition the person is using, then you don't know what they're saying. And people also might be trying to convey one of those, but they don't really mean it. It can be hard to judge. Mel Gibson, after going on a drunken driving binge complete with a massive rant about how Jews are the problem, did the best version of definition #1 I've seen in hollywood. But I don't know if he meant it or not.)

Thanks! I always like to go to the source, and get some context. I note this address was given one year after the US Civil War ended. Some quick googling and wiki-ing reinforce what I thought I had been taught earlier: Post-civil war Black Christians were all about self-segregation, and the LDS church was one of a very, very short list of "white churches" that would even have them as members. From that lens, such statements as Brigham's were markedly progressive for the era. Anyway:

Call for sources, please. When I go to the scanned digital copy of JD 11:266 located here, I do not see that quote or anything like it. https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/4493 Where does BY say what you say he says?

Well that’s tragic and horrible.

I keep all my stuff in boxes, so when the grid goes down and society collapses, I'll have something to teach the youth to occupy them during their downtimes.

A few years ago I saw that a CNN show had fallen behind a Cooking channel show in ratings. Probably one of my favorite 10 things that happened that year. It's been wonderful watching CNN/ABC/MSNBC/CBS/FOX online news sort of fragment and rebrand and turn into little more than irrelevant outrage clickbait hatep0rn with a side of underwear ads. It's been astounding watching the rise of true unfiltered citizen journalism made possible by Twitter and Tiktok and others. That said, - Radio stations still get their news from the media giants. - TVs still have endless media giant news sources readily available right up front, and most US adults still watch ~3 hours of TV a day. Under 65's at lower rates, but hardly nothing.. - Even though newspapers are going the way of the buggy whip, there are still newspapers everywhere. Still high levels of trust in 'BigNews'. Feb 2022: I smile and don't frown when I hear of mainstream media's continued decline. But it ain't fallen yet.

Hm. Reagan 2nd term GHW Bush Clinton Clinton GW Bush GW Bush Obama Obama Trump Biden I now have 10 presidential elections under my belt where I have real memories of people talking and opining about stuff. Every singe one of the 10, I can remember people giving variations on these themes: "This is the most critical election we've ever had. The future of our (democracy/republic/country/nation/way of life) is at stake!" "When are (my party leaders) gonna finally get serious about who they run?" "If that person wins, I'm moving to another country." "Say goodbye to your freedom/rights/friends and allies in other countries/money/culture/gains we've made in the last 50 years" So no, I'm not more or less unhappy with 2024 than I have been with earlier ones. It's just the next cycle. The pendulum continues to swing. I do believe every single empire that has ever risen in the world has eventually fallen. And I believe that the post WWII decades of economic expansion and peace came largely from the US running the show, although we don't call it an empire. More like Hegemony, rule via being the biggest kid on the block. Militarily, economically, and culturally. I'm not worried about Trump or Biden. I'm worried about China's ascendency. I'm worried about Israel/Gaza turning into Israel/Gaza/Jordan/Syria/Yemen/Iran/US/UK. I'm worried for my kids, because we're now throwing billions at every issue covered by the press, because our politicians get votes by throwing billions at issues.

Yeah, math and I have a love-hate relationship too. I'm a finance major, but that means my entire math brain is kept in spreadsheets, where all the work happens. Homeschooling rocked, because I was blessed to be there and witness the exact moment my daughter surpassed her old man in math. She was like 6 or 7. I was introducing her to 3rd grade addition problems. Adding lots of numbers together all at once. 234 563 +602 I was going row by row, showing her how the stuff she already knew could be used. You already know 4+3, it's what? Seven. Yep, so just add 2 to 7, and write it at the bottom of the first column. I asked her a question about the 2nd column, and she thought for a minute and said "It's 1399!" I asked her what she meant, and she said it was the answer to the whole problem. I quickly did the rest of the math to discover she was correct, and asked her how she did it so fast. She said it just worked that way in her head. That's when we moved to the "here's the assignment, ask me or mom if you need help" phase of math for her. She basically got herself through algebra with occasional help from Mom. To this day, I still count by internally singing those school house rocks videos in my head. Dang smart kid.

New hobby: Posting stuff like this on social media in order to draw out the worst and most ignorant folks from many different sides of different fences.

Yesed?

I've heard stories my whole life of folks who went and served in areas full of crime or addiction or poverty or some type of horrible lack. The folks telling the stories seem to have something in common: They never knew how much love they could have for folks who live so differently. Cool beans @mikbone!

@LDSGator talkin' like he ain't got this inspirational poster hanging in his bedroom.

I'm also seeing an awful lot of anti-Biden stuff from the left. Some of it is downright antisemitic, but most of it is plain old anger at Biden for siding with Israel, not doing enough to pressure them to stop operations in Gaza, and not doing enough to get help to the Palestinians. Biden criticism seems to be occurring at every pro-Palestinian protest. These folks ain't exactly MAGA Trumpers: https://uscpr.org/oct-2023-protests/

By the way, my gulcher end-times buddy recently produced a new giant wall of text prediction. We're currently in "The trial of the saints". Tribulations start in 2027, then Great Tribulations in 2031, then in 2034, the Lord sets his foot on the mount of olives. I share with his permission: There's also a spreadsheet, if anyone wants.

I practically lived in arcades in my pre-teen years. But no matter how I tried, I simply lacked the hand-eye coordination for all the dang buttons. Seriously? A reverse button? What, they couldn't afford a 4-way joystick?