Latest activity

lucypevensie · 2025-11-14T08:57:56-0600

Americans need to eat better.

lucypevensie · 2025-11-14T08:56:45-0600

Incorrect posture

wing2000 · 2025-11-14T08:56:16-0600

Who will prosecute this circus? Word is the DOJ has no competent prosecutors left.

lucypevensie · 2025-11-14T08:55:49-0600

green beans.

You can buy…

Apple Sky · 2025-11-14T08:55:09-0600

Phil G said:
Asking a question is, by default, looking for discussion.

Is it ?

iluvatar5150 · 2025-11-14T08:54:48-0600

Landon Caeli said:
This is how the current administration helps Americans with getting good paying jobs. Things like this need to be happening.

Since when is driving a truck a "good paying job"? Maybe it pays well if you've got some extra certifications and drive for a specialty outfit doing stuff like high security or way oversized loads, but everything I hear about vanilla hauling is that it's a race to the bottom and that the industry is full of predatory firms conning drivers into expensive loans.

lucypevensie · 2025-11-14T08:54:46-0600

Look son, act nice!

SONC

durangodawood · 2025-11-14T08:54:30-0600

Servus said:
And? Russiagate was supposed to result in the downfall of the Trump administration according to all the commentary from the left. Compared to what they were predicting and hoping for, the whole thing ended up as a nothingburger joke. It gave the right a hardy laugh at its anticlimactic end. That will likely be the same result with Epsteingate.

A lot of people were never exposed to the findings of those investigations.

Ive come to realize how much people want their preferences reinforced rather than challenged,

Dikaioumenoi · 2025-11-14T08:53:43-0600

The Liturgist said:
Perhaps, my friend, you and I, with our knowledge of Patristics and the history of the early church and our shared sacramental, Trinitarian, iconographic and anti-Nestorian Christianity, and our veneration of the Theotokos, could find something interesting to talk about, if not on this subject, which seems to be a boring attempt to prove Calvinism from the scriptural text, which is impossible (I can’t completely disprove monergism or prove synergism, which is why I am patient with our Lutheran friends although I disagree with them on this issue because of the Fifth Ecumenical Synod and many NT texts), then on a related subject.

I, too, take great delight in weaving sprawling, breathless, period-defying sentences that wander amiably through thoughts and sub-thoughts like an overcaffeinated scribe in a dimly lit library, endlessly stacking clause upon clause in a kind of grammatical Jenga that no one requested yet everyone must now behold with polite astonishment.

I'm only having a bit of fun, not taking a jab at you. Crafting that sentence took me far more time this morning than I'm willing to admit publicly, so please don't be hard on me.

Consider it my small tribute to the noble art of the marathon clause.

I am curious, though: Why do you think proving (or disproving) "Calvinism from the scriptural text" is impossible? Are you claiming the position is unfalsifiable, or that Scripture itself is insufficiently clear on the matter? Since the little bit of back-and-forth I've had with fhansen on John 6:44 has produced little engagement with my actual argument, I'd be interested to hear how you approach the text.

lucypevensie · 2025-11-14T08:53:24-0600

So no, you didn’t understand?

BCP1928 · 2025-11-14T08:52:19-0600

stevevw said:
I think that this is a either/or fallacy. Either all situations have a physical or spiritual affect. That there is not mixture of causes or explanations. Lets apply the same scenario to miracles and prayer. I am sure they will come back and say that miracles and prayer is post hoc and in the imagination.

It still may be that remedies that are outside the box have a physical affect on reality. It may be that acupuncture though having a physical explanation ie stimulates the area. But we don't know the affect it has on minds. Much of this kind of medicine is based on mental states overcoming physical states. Even psychology is based on this. It is the mind that creates certain realities mentally. Physics even tells us this now.

So you don't know what degrees of influence the non material or spiritual has on the physical. You just assume its all physical. We even have an entire journal on spiritual auggmentation which shows that the spiritual actually changes the physical outcomes of patients. What sort of physical explanation could explain this. I am sure skeptics will find one. Even for miracles and prayer.

This whole debate about what line or threshhold is material or spiritual and transcends objective reality. Or visible and invisible is itself represents. Or what even the physical represents ontologically is an unsettled philsophy.

Lol yes money always trumps everything else. The same thing has happened with some indigenous groups who have claims to the land as original inhabitants. They are now using the system that took their land to make money by holding it to ransom for big $ deals. They realise they sit on valuable minerals. But this is not the average Abroriginal who just wants to be free on the land as it is like their spiritual home.

Look there are all sorts of specific examples which are not so black and white and I am not claiming that material sciences that explain the naturalistic causes are not explaining something real. There are degrees where the scientific explanation fits well and others it doesn't.

Of course the results of the knowledge work. Otherwise its useless. But it doesn't tell us the nature of how that works. The science is just describing what is happening. The physical processes and results. The results come from the physical explanations.

My point is we don't know that. We don't know how much the experience of nature made a difference to knowing and influencing reality. I don't think the ancients could explain the scientific causes. They have no idea. All they know is that they experienced something about nature that led them to deeper knowledge of how to manipulate it.

Observing from the outside is completely different to immersion within nature. This surely brings a different level of knowledge and one that is more directly linked to what is going on.

I liken it to an intimant relation with something. There are certain aspects you can measure about the material processes. But there are realities that can only be known by the subjective experiences. Just like Marys experience of the color Red. We gain knowledge of reality that all the knowledge of science and material reality could not tell us.

So there may be like knowledge that is gained by the deeper immersion and intimate relation to nature that only comes from conscious experiences of it.

That may be that the phenomenal experiences give a different view or paradigm. Open minds up to levels of nature that are not accessible from the outside in view of 3rd party sciences. Hense the ancients and Indigenous peoples were discovering some of natures secrets that the material sciences could never find or understand without the enlightened knowledge and science looking from the outside in.

I'm not sure what you mean by "third party science."

wing2000 · 2025-11-14T08:51:01-0600

durangodawood said:
Could be wrong, but I thought there was already an overall shortage of truck drivers.

...yes. But no worries, fully automated trucks will soon be the norm.

edit to add link (in Texas, automated trucks are already on the highway from Dallas to Houston....since May).

Driverless semi-trucks are on the road in North Texas

For the first time, driverless semi-trucks with no one behind the wheel are on the road in North Texas.

www.cbsnews.com

iluvatar5150 · 2025-11-14T08:50:22-0600

Landon Caeli said:
I don't know what kind of good you think you're doing, diminishing Christianity down to the level of Islam.

I don't know what kind of good you think you're doing propagating a fantasy that denies the realities of what @JosephZ posted. Do you think his claims are inaccurate or do you just not like them?

wing2000 · 2025-11-14T08:49:55-0600

...from the op's link:

Newsom's office said that every one of the drivers whose license is being revoked had valid work authorizations from the federal government. At first, his office declined to disclose the exact reason for revoking the licenses, saying only they violated state law. Later, his office revealed the state law it was referring to was one that requires the licenses expire on or before a person's legal status to be in the United State ends, as reported to the DMV.

Essentially, California failed to set the correct license expiration date to coincide with the end of the person's legal status.

durangodawood · 2025-11-14T08:49:30-0600

This DoJ nosedive will be consequential for victims of serious crimes, I think. In a bad way.

Bob Crowley · 2025-11-14T08:49:07-0600

It clarified what might be called "unhelpful" terms.

The Vatican’s doctrinal office said Tuesday the title of “Co-Redemptrix” is not an appropriate way to describe Mary’s participation in salvation.

In Mater Populi Fidelis (“The Mother of the Faithful People of God”), the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) said when an expression requires frequent explanation to maintain the correct meaning, it becomes unhelpful.

In addition to “Co-Redemptrix,” the document also addressed at length the Marian title “Mediatrix” or “Mediatrix of All Graces,” analyzing related Church teaching on Mary’s role as intercessor.

The DDF concluded that “some titles, such as ‘Mediatrix of All Graces,’ have limits that do not favor a correct understanding of Mary’s unique place.”

They still emphasised her unique role as "Mother of God" in the sense she was the "Mother of Christ, the Son of God".

The dicastery encouraged the use of other expressions for Mary, specifically titles referring to her motherhood, including “Mother of God” and “Mother of the Faithful People of God.”

“She is the mother who gave the world the author of redemption and of grace, who stood firm at the foot of the cross (cf. John 19:25), suffering alongside her son and offering the pain of her maternal heart pierced by the sword (cf. Luke 2:35),” the document said. “From the Incarnation to the cross and the Resurrection, she was united to Christ in a way that is unique and that far surpasses any other believer.”

My Protestant pastor, who was not anti-Catholic, said two things about Marian apparitions. First "There's been a lot of them" and second "I think they're a judgement on a divided church".

If Protestants think she has no special role, they're very much mistaken.

When Christ said to John at the foot of the cross, "Behold your mother", and to Mary "Behold your son", John was standing in as proxy for all the faithful people of God, hence the term "Mother of the Faithful People of God". Christ was God in the flesh and His words had more import than a mere local acknowledgement of one man. They were transcendant.

essentialsaltes · 2025-11-14T08:45:32-0600

essentialsaltes said:
Discharge petition to force House vote on Epstein files succeeds with Grijalva’s signature
There is a long way to go, though, before the bill gets a House vote, which would happen in early December at the soonest.

Or maybe not. Looks like Johnson wants to rip the bandaid off.

Johnson says House will vote next week on push to compel DOJ to release all of its Epstein files

The Republican leaders’ suggestion that he would move more quickly than expected to put the bill before the full House is a reflection of the growing sense of agitation among members of his party on Capitol Hill. The House GOP – which is fiercely loyal to Trump – is not eager to take the vote, which goes against the president’s own wishes. But many members of the party are also sick of the months of growing pressure from some vocal members of their own party, including Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and feel they need to vote in favor of releasing the files or risk being accused of protecting pedophiles.

Pressed by CNN why Congress shouldn’t release all Epstein documents when the president himself has said he supports doing so, Johnson said: “He is for maximum transparency. He said it as recently as a couple of days ago, and I talked to him about it today. He’s for everything coming out.”

[That's probably why the White House was saying it would be a "hostile act" for Republicans to sign the discharge petition.]

Other Republicans, however, remain staunchly opposed.

“I’m a vote against,” Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana told CNN.

“My understanding and I’ve looked into it extensively is that the president didn’t like that guy, he had no friendly relationships with him. You can’t control who takes a picture with you,” he said.

[Surely the release of the files would show the nation how correct you are.]

stevevw · 2025-11-14T08:44:37-0600

sjastro said:
Don't let hypocrisy get in the way, referring to me as some random individual on a social media site not fit to challenge your so called experts is ad hominem attack.

But its a justified one. Unlike the testers I am linking the peer review or they provide detailed tests and analysis with sections laying out methodology, testing and results with calculations in a formal format and not on an informal social media thread.

You may have qualifications and so do most of the researchers. You challenge on precision tooling and engineering and I give you two experts with over 50 years experience. I give you Petrie one of the worlds greatest archeologists.

If we are playing teh game of ad hominems then I win lol. I don't think you have better qualifications. At the very least they are as good that their opinion should be taken with as much credibility as you.

sjastro said:
The problem is your gross ignorance in failing to comprehend your so called experts are not experts at all if flaws can be found by random individuals as myself.

This is silly. I know some random individuals have on sites like these devalued experts according to their less knowledgable claims. Are we going to have a qualification of everyone who speaks. Or is it that if anyone says something that aligns with the skeptics is an expert and those who don't are not.

Let me ask you do you think there is bias and some without the knowledge or expertise are making claims beyond what they can know. That is motivated by personal beliefs and assumptions rather than fact or truth. Can you assure than none of that is happening. I already know your answer.

sjastro said:
Your idiotic obsession with moulded limestone concrete casing stones

Here it is again. You have qualified the suggestion that stones were molded or softened as idiotic obsession before we have properly investigated it. I know there are at least scientific articles that support stone softening or molding. So already you have shown the bias and taring everything said as stupid and idiotic.

By the way regardless of who is right or wrong on the facts when people use such emotive and moral language over what is just a factual matter shows they are the ones injecting personal feelings and beliefs into the equation. That in itself is usually an immediate disqualifer as its a signifier that the person is more supceptible to being influenced by their feelings.

sjastro said:
was suggested by me being refuted with a simple high school chemistry HCl drop test described in post #1184.

Ok I must have missed that one as well.

Then how do you explain this. Do these scientists also have an idiotic obsession with moulded limestone.

After extensive scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations and other testing, they found that the tiniest structures within the inner and outer casing stones were indeed consistent with a reconstituted limestone. The cement binding the limestone aggregate was either silicon dioxide (the building block of quartz) or a calcium and magnesium-rich silicate mineral.

The stones also had a high water content--unusual for the normally dry, natural limestone found on the Giza plateau--and the cementing phases, in both the inner and outer casing stones, were amorphous, in other words, their atoms were not arranged in a regular and periodic array. Sedimentary rocks such as limestone are seldom, if ever, amorphous.

The sample chemistries the researchers found do not exist anywhere in nature. "Therefore," says Barsoum, "it's very improbable that the outer and inner casing stones that we examined were chiseled from a natural limestone block."

More startlingly, the presence of silicon dioxide nanoscale spheres (with diameters only billionths of a meter across) in one of the samples. This discovery further confirms that these blocks are not natural limestone.

The Surprising Truth Behind the Construction of the Great Pyramids

"This is not my day job." So begins National Science Foundation-supported researcher Michel Barsoum as he recounts his foray into the mysteries of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. As a well respected…

www.nsf.gov

Were the casing stones of Senefru's Bent Pyramid in Dahshour cast or carved?: Multinuclear NMR evidence

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167577X10008979

Ancient organo-mineral geopolymer in South-American Monuments: Organic matter in andesite stone. SEM and petrographic evidenc
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272884219300288

Microstructural Evidence of Reconstituted Limestone Blocks in the Great Pyramids of Egypt
https://ceramics.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1551-2916.2006.01308.x

sjastro said:
When taken further by the true experts in their fields of petrology, palaeontology and archaeology the use of moulded casing stones is beyond doubt complete utter nonsense.

To claim its beyond doubt is an absolute claim that theres no chance thats its possible. I think thats a bit unreal and flies in the face of the evidence above.

sjastro said:
On the subject of softening granite why did the builders of Menkaure's pyramid who was the fifth pharaoh of the 4th dynasty start off with the first 16 courses with granite casing stones but complete the remaining courses in Tura limestone resulting in 25% granite and 75% limestone casing stones?

Who knows. Whats your point. It may have been for many reasons.

sjastro said:
The answer is ridiculously simple, there was no granite softening technology as using dressed granite casing stones was extremely time consuming to make using abrasion cutting, pounding and smoothing. The evidence suggests Menkaure died before his pyramid and mortuary temple were completed resulting in the builders finishing the pyramid with softer limestone.

Ok well your the one making absolute claims in spite of the counter evidence. I would not be so quick to claim anything at the moment. Further tests are needed. But so far from the evidence above they were moulded.

Not just that. Do you not see with your own eyes that the signatures clearly show stone softening or moulding. Why is it so bad that these ancients were smart enough to create artificial stones. They worked with it everyday for 1,000s of years. Of course they got to know natural minierals and chemicals and how they worked.

Your not giving them enough credit.

Let me ask. Do you think the obvious signatures that look like softened stone only look like that and are actually pounded or ground into those shapes that happen to look like they were soft or melted.

DaisyDay · 2025-11-14T08:44:00-0600

essentialsaltes said:
Now in a minimum security facility, not available to sex offenders generally.

Plus catered meals and puppy petting privileges!

The Barbarian said:
Point is, Russiagate is a good analogy. Republicans claimed it was a witch hunt until one criminal after another was taken down.

Until? If only....see posts #34, #41, #42, #44, #48......so far, in this thread alone.

Vambram said:
Russiagate was a fraud and a hoax perpetuated by the progressive left wing liberals upon the American people.

It's so meta! The real hoax is labeling Russiagate a hoax.

Apple Sky · 2025-11-14T08:43:39-0600

Strong in Him said:
Also, she seems to genuinely believe that unless Genesis 1 is taken as a literal description of God's creation, then people are doubting God and the Bible.

Is it literal or is it not ? As I have stated 'I'm not discussing Scripture on this thread.

wing2000 · 2025-11-14T08:43:17-0600

ThatRobGuy said:
How would that jive with what I mentioned before regarding actions by other executive agencies like the IRS, EPA, or FDA?

For instance, when the EPA or FDA decides to do a "surprise pop-in" and start searching a private production facility for potential violations (not based on any existing evidence, but purely based on trying to find evidence), or the IRS requesting non-specific account information from banks about wide swaths of customers in one swoop so they can go fishing for reasons to audit?

Is it a case where people are willing to play a little fast and loose withe definition of "unreasonable" for the particular types of crimes they personally see as more egregious based on a "punching up vs. punching down" perspective?

By that I mean, a perspective of:
"going after an undocumented migrant who's just trying to make a couple of bucks" = "punching down...so, bad"
"going after a greedy corp like Pfizer or Dow Chemical, or some rich fat cat who may be cheating on his taxes" = "punching up...so, okay"

We're discussing the rights of citizens, not corporations.

Bob S · 2025-11-14T08:41:23-0600

SabbathBlessings said:
For me, I would want a verse from God, before I start telling God what are His commandments,

Hi SB, can't you see that is exactly what you are doing by referring to the commandments of God as being only the Ten Commandments?

Bob S · 2025-11-14T08:38:21-0600

HIM said:
If you are sinning the Law is for you.

Absolutely wrong, the shed blood of our SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST is for me. It is called GRACE. It is not what we do, it is what Jesus did.

The power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us teaches us true love for God and our fellow man. There are hundreds of ways to sin, not just nine. Over and over, Paul teaches us that the Old Covenant law has been done away. It was temporary until Jesus came and gave mankind the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Please read about it in 2 Corinthians 3:6-11.

Apple Sky · 2025-11-14T08:38:01-0600

Phil G said:
You're getting more obnoxious by the post.

No I'm not, I'm just agreeing with you.

Latest activity

Latest activity

Johnson says House will vote next week on push to compel DOJ to release all of its Epstein files​

Filter

Forum statistics

Share this page

Johnson says House will vote next week on push to compel DOJ to release all of its Epstein files