JVW

I also forgot to add that there is mixed messaging here. The flier for the event explicitly states “Muslim only” at least twice. (You can see it in the YT link, it’s to a post not a video.) yet this guy who rented it is saying all are welcome…

Thanks for finding a good article to share. I wonder if the govt would have responded the same way if it was themed as a “modest swim night” instead of a religious holy day celebration. i wonder if the Jews rented out a govt facility to celebrate Passover if there would be a similar response. Whereas if that same event was framed as a non-religious dinner party if it would get the same pushback. i imagine that any event hosted would be open for anyone with a ticket, and the article you found suggests that was the case here. So maybe the specific tie to a religious holy day is the issue. Though now we are getting into Christmas territory and that will open a whole can of worms.

My wife stumbled on this news article today and we were trying to figure out the legality of it. http://youtube.com/post/UgkxsdFBF51Fq9zHrtT4PwTdn2gnSUiLQuPx?si=VcxugLUNslojTO5M Whether it was political/religious discrimination from the governor of Texas or was instead following the laws and protecting himself from a lawsuit? the long story short is that a group of Muslims rented out a city water park for an event exclusive only to Muslims and the the governor said it was religious discrimination against non Muslims using government property and forced its cancellation. i don’t know how the US constitution applies here, if anything like this has happened before in Texas from other religious groups, or how Texas law interacts here. what do you all think about this thing? Please don’t talk politics, we all know that you think politician x is a stupid idiot jerk, I don’t want to hear about it. Also I’m going to specifically ping @smac97 because I know he loves this sort of thing. thank you all very much for you time and consideration regarding this topic. Cheers!

On FB the pulse I got was that people didn't like him because he was a white Harvard businessman which is a perfect fit for the church's "corporation" image.

Dude, shut up. You are being obstinate and disingenuous. What even is your point? Your butthurt because people did deposition stuff and records were released to discredit slanderous claims?

How do you see this in light of the latest Epstein file drops? This article is a great one connecting a few dots (from some old news to the recent Epstein file drops) to pretty much every keyword @The Nehor mentioned above, all of the "debunked" stuff that falls right in line with a lot of the OP. https://substack.com/inbox/post/186994547 I'd quote the article here but half of it is screenshots. I promise you'll like reading it. @Pyreaux said, "This mirrors many such people that often use conspiracy rhetoric to deflect from their personal legal troubles by framing themselves as a martyr targeted by a corrupt establishment." Does this really happen a lot? I'm not familiar with people doing this except for maybe Trump? Have other presidents or powerful political or social figures used this tactic before? Does it stretch back throughout history, or is it a recent tactic? As far as LDS specific SRA allegations the only thing I've seen is an obscure site where a member accused President Monson of stuff. His wife wrote a blog showing her support. I don't believe his wife. I don't discount what the guy wrote, but I don't believe his accusations against Monson. I know public figures lie, but any time I watch President Monson speak he strikes me as a genuinely happy and holy man. Call me crazy. I can dig up a link if anyone is interested in reading his written testimony.

I am also happy that there is a bot protector on the site. Hopefully we can start seeing new members again. I refer people I chat with to this forum from time to time and hope some of them will be interested in signing up. Every time I see a captcha I'm now reminded of this article: https://substack.com/@thedreydossier/p-184044880 I'm like Santa Claus, bringing cheer into every thread I participate in.

You two remind me of the movie Grumpy Old Men, but in forum version. Your dialogue in this thread made me chuckle a few times. I bet you two would be pretty good friends if you were neighbors or something. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107050/

Oh ok, thanks Calm.

That's a beautiful charity, thanks for letting me know about it!

I'd like to formally request @Nemesis to lock this topic. It feels like I'm on FB right now.

What ties does the DoD have with scouting? I thought at this point the scouts were basically just kind of loosely floating along in random neighborhoods. I didn't know there were any ties to the US Govt?

I literally linked the most official source of information I can find. I can't help you beyond that.

I'll just leave this here https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/megan-fox-digital-cover-interview-april-2022 If you want more fun articles like this just hit me up.

I think it's a really sweet idea but poorly executed. Definitely has that "local" feel. It made me realize that the church should advertise donations b/c I never realized that non-members could donate before. AFAIK there isn't any other single charity program on the planet where 100% of donated funds go to charity. AFAIK Salvation Army has 18% admin costs and United Way has 15% admin cost. One thing I love about donating to the church's charity arm is that I know all money will be used for charity work and none will end up in any admin's pockets.

To be fair, there are a non-trivial amount of arrests made on people who have "criminal conviction" or "pending criminal conviction". https://www.ice.gov/statistics . And the ratio of those two statuses for detentions is overwhelmingly trending towards criminals. So I'm inferring that, while the arrest rate of non-criminal illegals to criminal illegals may be 50/50, the detention rate of those arrested is like 5/95 non-criminal/criminal ratio. This data isn't up-to-date so I'm interested to see what their next quarterly update looks like as far as this is concerned.

I appreciate your perspective and understand better why you framed your recent posts the way you did. Thanks for responding. ETA - I can't believe how your brain works. How can you remember and link to all of those ancient forum threads? Amazing!

OK, step one assume everything I see about Epstein files is AI or doctored. Step two, dig through FB to see if I can find the stupid post. Step 3, read the comments and.. what i saw was fake. Yay! Now to tell the nobody else that I mentioned this to. Thanks for the CFR, Calm!

Haha, you're funny Nehor! Holding powerful people accountable? What kind of world are you living in? On a side note (as this is related to AI, not to Epstein) this is an article examining accountability when committing war crimes using AI. I really like this quote from the article. https://substack.com/@thedreydossier/p-185970337

Thanks for the update Smac. Do you know the reason why ASPS chose the age of 19 instead of 18 or 21 or 25? Is there a legal reason that treats a 19 year old differently than an 18 year old? One critique from your last post is that you seemed to use it kind of as a way to vent. Whether you are right or not doesn't matter to me as much as I appreciate your well sourced arguments. Even if you are right, rubbing it in people's faces is just going to lead to a bunch of arguing which, I think, is the reason you backed away from the board in the first place because you didn't like it. If Analytics chooses to respond I expect the next three pages will be arguing that I'll have to sift through to find any more news updates you post, and the end result of those 3 pages will be both of you being mad and nobodies opinion changing.

I'm not sure what this directly has to do with illegal immigration but it was a lovely read. The thing that worried me while reading this is that nearly everyone I interact with, everyone I see in the govt both local, state, and federal do not behave with charity. I am, in many ways, no exception to this. The patterns I see here are: idol worship, ignoring the poor, judging others, corruption, and breaking the ten commandments. I thought that this passage from your writing was particularly prescient, "The opposite of the love of Christ does not suffer long, is unkind, envieth whoever has what it wants, vaunteth itself constantly, and is notably puffed up. Behaves unseemly, always seeking its own gain, is easily provoked, and thinks evil of anyone who opposes their ambitions and desires, or is just different. Rejoices in getting away with whatever it wants to do, and bitterly opposes any attempts to call it to account. Will not put up with anything negative, believes only what it wants to hear, hopes only for personal gain and power and fame and pleasure, so that it will never have to endure anything difficult or unpleasant." That quote sounds like every social media site I've ever interacted with, and the comments section of every news article I've ever read regardless of political bias. It also sounds like every protest I've witnessed in recent years and every political or social movement I've seen gain traction. In general, people are behaving like a two year old. Nobody is wrong, everybody is right, religion is used not as a vehicle to worship God but rather to reinforce personal political views. Idolatry is running rampant, even our little ones aren't immune to it with shows like Cocomelon where the creators are literally data scientists trying to determine the most effective way to get toddlers hooked. It's no wonder that our world is so messed up, these are the kind of people running for office, and the kind of people that are voted in by those who desire them. Fortunately, as an individual, I can choose to shift what I focus on towards Christ and He can change my heart. Hopefully one day I can be full of charity and treat my neighbors and the stranger within my gates with kindness. Not only that, but it will be a nice benefit to have God's direction on how to treat someone in the most loving way possible. For example, lets say I have two children who are both addicts and commit armed robbery to afford their habit. For one, reporting them to prison may be the most loving thing to do and just the thing they need to become broken and fertile soil to plant the seed of faith. For another it may be the worst thing to do as they'd end up radicalized in prison and instead the most loving thing would be to simply send them to a strict rehab center with the expectation that after they sober up they confess their crimes. It's hard to know what the most loving thing to do for someone is in any given situation. The way the world defines love is a lot different than the way that I see God express love in the holy text, and in my own life, and that confusion makes this challenge even more difficult.

I really want to enter the chat but I think it's better that I stay out of this one lol. This is pretty dark territory. I will say that I'm glad that the flavor of the month changed although I'm already kind of burnt out of it. Hopefully next week some new big headline will happen. In fact, I just saw an Epstein file that stated that investors are planning for WW3 to begin on Feb 8, 2026. So maybe we'll see a big ole war pop up in a few days!

I said it was a synonym because of this https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/gs/predestination?lang=eng I've heard the "plan B" for Joseph thing before. I don't believe it. I believe that God foreordains people while taking into account their agency which means we still get moral agency and the foreordination is fulfilled without either one stepping on the other's toes. ETA: I didn't expect a topic to go on a tangent trying to reconcile God's omniscience with human agency, but I'm totally here for it. What an interesting concept to explore!

That's hilarious. I appreciate this story a lot! You're response requires 50 minutes of my time to communicate? Dang, that's hardcore. I'm sorry but I won't be able to watch this for a while due to my hectic life. But if I ever get a moment to sit down and enjoy a short film then I'll do so and respond to you at that point. I take a different stance here, I suppose I could say it's more "Old Testament-y Biblical" stance. I think the weather is under God's purview and man, like they do with everything else, are trying to insert themselves in the place of God regarding the weather. I think that praying and fasting for certain weather just because someone feels like it is the religious version of Bill Gates getting permission from the UK to spread a bunch of chalk dust in the air to dim the sun for Climate Change. Predestination is a synonym for foreordination. Do you not believe in foreordination? I agree with you that the future isn't a pre-written script, but I do believe that whatever God wants, God gets. Everything that is, only is because God decides to take action (or not). What you wrote here reminds me a little of the Bible Dictionary entry on prayer which, while nice, is not canon and I'm happy that we can have differing opinions here. There is still a lot I have to learn about prayer and fasting, but from what I currently understand I view prayer and fasting as tools to help facilitate one's submission wholly to God's will. As Bluebell mentioned, it doesn't hurt to ask, and that vulnerable expression of fears and desires in prayer is part of what it means to commune with God. But I believe that any expectation beyond "God will do what He wills and I accept that" will lead to cognitive dissonance and struggle. Life is a wrestle, prayer helps us submit, expressing desires and working hard for what we want are expressions of vulnerability and commitment which can strengthen our relationship with God if done with humility. The most beautiful prayer ever prayed was in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ says (Mark 14:36), "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." There's vulnerability in using a term of endearment that a little child would use, expression of honest personal desires to not do it, there's acknowledgement of God's power, and there's submission. Imagine if Christ prayed that exact same prayer but in pride, not in humility. I agree with you here. But I think the action that God is waiting to do is changing our hearts; breaking us, humbling us, comforting us, yoking Himself with us. Because, in the end, the only decision that matters is whether or not we choose God to be our Father.

Do you have any good articles I can read about how many have died in detention centers and/or the treatment of detainees and stuff? Please and thank you!