New Posts

Stopped_lurking · 2025-12-01T23:30:49-0600

RileyG said:
Well? I’ll leave that up to the person they’re interacting with.

And schools should also be allowed to use the preferred pronoun?

Hans Blaster · 2025-12-01T23:29:07-0600

HARK! said:
Gold is the primary monetary metal.

Silver is the second.

In general terms, it is not that the value of these metals that increases. It's that the buying power of the fiat currency decreases.

There isn't enough gold on the planet to run the monetary system.

HARK! said:
If one compares the historic pricing of gold and oil in fiat US dollars; a inversely proportional trend will appear.

Oil is pretty flat in real dollars with ups and downs.

HARK! said:
In 1900. a silver dollar would buy you a steak dinner. Today, that same silver dollar will still buy you a steak dinner.

Not if tendered at the cash register.

Hans Blaster · 2025-12-01T23:26:26-0600

essentialsaltes said:
Immigration judge fired by Trump administration files lawsuit claiming discrimination
Tania Nemer is one of scores of immigration judges that have been dismissed.

Nemer was "abruptly fired" in the middle of her probationary period despite receiving "the highest possible performance," the lawsuit alleges.

The former Cleveland judge is among the more than 100 immigration judges who have been fired, resigned through the Department of Government Efficiency's "Fork in the Road" offer, or transferred out of immigration adjudication, according to the union representing immigration judges.

The lawyers called the DOJ's position that it can fire federal employees without a reason -- despite civil rights statutes -- a "breathtaking assault on a landmark federal statute."

Among the hundreds of reforms needed, it is clear that the system of immigration judges under the control of the DOJ is not good. Put them under the management of the district courts like the magistrate judges.

RileyG · 2025-12-01T23:23:54-0600

May the Lord have mercy upon her and restore her to full health and strength!

RileyG · 2025-12-01T23:23:18-0600

May God bless them abundantly!

RileyG · 2025-12-01T23:22:59-0600

May they rest in peace and rise to glory!

RileyG · 2025-12-01T23:22:39-0600

How sad! May God protect the persecuted!

RileyG · 2025-12-01T23:22:18-0600

Michie said:
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that aims to improve the nation’s foster care system, including the modernization of the current child welfare system, the development of partnerships with private sector organizations, and prioritizing the participation of those with sincerely held religious beliefs.

The executive order issued Nov. 13 states that the Trump administration is “dedicated to empowering mothers and fathers to raise their children in safe and loving homes.”

The order says current problems with the foster care system include overworked caseworkers, antiquated information systems, and policies that “prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.”

The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has represented Christian families who were barred from serving as foster parents because of their faith, suing on behalf of Brian and Katy Wuoti and Bryan and Rebecca Gantt after the Vermont Department for Children and Families informed the two families that their belief that persons cannot change biological sex and that marriage is only between a man and a woman precluded them from serving as foster parents in the state.

Continued below.

Trump signs order prioritizing faith-based participation in foster care

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that aims to improve the nation’s foster care system.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

Good! Leave the good faithful alone! They have God to answer to!

FireDragon76 · 2025-12-01T23:19:29-0600

PloverWing said:
Goodness, what an offensively written article. "Screeching", "hysterical", "sobbing", "dopy"....

How about this: When you vote in a primary, especially in states where your party has a large majority, carefully research the history and political views of all the candidates and make sure you approve of the one you're voting for. Good advice, and we don't have to insult anyone.

Alot of younger Democrats are just not happy at all with the older leadership in the party that made neoliberalism their north star. Sanders or Mamdani represent a rejection of the "Reagan Consensus" that was quietly vouchsafed by Clinton and Obama.

Reluctant Theologian · 2025-12-01T23:12:01-0600

Ellesmere said:
Productivity–Pay Tracker
Change 1979q4–2025q2:
Productivity
+87.3%
Hourly pay
+32.7%
Productivity has grown 2.7x as much as pay

View attachment 373883

The graph indicates that from 1948 until 1973 hourly wages and worker productivity operated largely in tandem!

starting in 1974, however, this link began to unravel - hourly compensation flat-lined while productivity continued with its upward trajectory!

Between 1979 and 2025 productivity increased by 87.3% while wages increased by a modest 32.7%!

That translates into an average increase of 1.4% per year in productivity versus 0,6% average increase in wages

Even !he advantage of a 2.7X factor in favor of productivity wasn't enough to satisfy some corporations transfer their manufacturing to off-shore locations - meanwhile citing high labor costs in America as the underlying justification!

Fast forward to 2025 with the Trump Administration with massive cuts being made to fund massive tax cuts for the wealthy
- federal s of Nov 18, 211,000 government employees have left the workforce
- insisting on stringent rules for the 42 million SNAP recipients,
- dispensing with financial support for Obamacare that translates into 10 million losing their healthcare insurance -a projected 15 million by 2034
- insisting that prices are decreasing despite evidence confirming the contrary

The wealthiest 50% of Americans own 98% of America's wealth, those at the very bottom of the other 50% with a combined 2% of the wealth and receiving government assistance have become the designated target by the rest of society!-

Meanwhile the top 0,1% which control 13.8% of the nation's wealth and benefited most from the productivity/wage gap since 1979 are waiting at the front of the line because they are deserving of yet another tax-cut - adding to the national debt that becomes the responsibility of all Americans

View attachment 373888

"According to a 2021 White House study, the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in the U.S. paid an average federal individual tax rate of just 8.2 percent. For comparison, the average American taxpayer in the same year paid 13 percent."
-
"The US government is estimated to have lost around $135 billion in revenue due to corporate tax avoidance in 2017. In contrast, corporate philanthropy has amounted to less than $20 billion a year.""

"Corporations shifted nearly $1 trillion in global profits to tax havens in 2022—depriving countries all over the world of desperately needed tax revenue.

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 23 of the largest and most profitable companies in the US paid no federal corporate income taxes from 2018-2022. And 109 corporations paid zero federal tax in at least one of those years."

The wealthiest members in American society are waiting in the wings while the poorer segments are fighting over "THE SCRAPS" - denouncing each other for taking advantage of the system! while the real culprits get a "FREE PASS!"

https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/by-the-numbers-harmful-republican-megabill-will-take-health-coverage-away-from

Do the rich pay their fair share?

Billionaire wealth and corporate profits have surged. New Trump administration proposals will affect both. Are they paying their fair share?

www.oxfamamerica.org

Interesting ... I'm not a USA resident but it can't be a coincidence that exactly from that year the gold-standard for the USD was abandoned (Bretton-Woods) and inflation started to erase the value of money in the USA (and similar patterns have emerged in other currency areas).

iluvatar5150 · 2025-12-01T23:07:56-0600

ThatRobGuy said:
And why does our society have have the kind of provisions that hold guys like that "in check"?

Because we have a bunch of rules built on centuries of mostly secular philosophy. It wasn't Christianity that spawned our pluralism and egalitarianism.

I'll argue that there are not "hoards of Christians in the US that praise strict rules like that" in comparison to our overall population size.

The fact that one has to find a random congressmen from Michigan that most people literally have never heard of to invoke a myth of equivalency is telling.

So because 1 congressmen out of 435 supports a particularly draconian version of LGBTQ discrimination means that "it's a wash"?

Politely: You have no idea what you're talking about.

I seem to recall having had similar arguments with you in the past (though it's possible I'm mixing you up with a different post who hasn't been around in a while). You didn't grow up fundamentalist. You didn't live in an illiberal religious environment. I did. And these folks are way more numerous and way more crazy than you think. Until recently, they weren't making a lot of headlines, but they're starting to now that these folks have essentially taken over the Republican party. It's similar to various online subcultures, where if you're not in them, you're unlikely to ever hear about them. How many people knew what qanon was before the pizzagate shooting? How many had ever heard the term "groyper" prior to Charlie Kirk's murder?

Likewise, how many people had heard of Dominionism or the New Apostolic Reformation prior to Jan 6?

If you had a scenario where a third of republican congressmen, a quarter of the senate republicans, most of the SCOTUS, and the president all praised Uganda's treatment of gays and "sexual infidels", then you may have something remotely approaching what's the "status quo" in Islamic theocracies (to enough of a degree that it's even worth bringing up as a point of comparison)

I didn't say we're equal in number. I said that there are a lot of Christians who would go that way if given the chance. And there are. Maybe they wouldn't jump to executing gays right away, but give it a couple generations and who knows.

Heck, how many conservative states have tried to make it easier to run over protestors? Last I recall, it was several. Greg Abbot couldn't wait to pardon that guy in Austin who blew a red light, drove into a crowd, and essentially instigated his own "self-defense" encounter. A current, active staff member of this board has argued to me that James Alex Fields was defending himself when he ran down Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. How far down the slippery slope is it from turning a blind eye towards political violence to executing people you believe are committing abominations against God? It doesn't look that far from where I sit.

Why can we not acknowledge that and just admit that certain cultures are superior to others?

Because I don't think the cultures you're putting at the top are as virtuous as you think they are. They're just as power-hungry and hypocritical as anybody else. Put them in a failed state with a bunch of guns and in a couple decades, they'll turn out just as bad.

To be clear - I'm not excusing anything that happens in Muslim countries. The context here was not a general survey of the qualities of various world cultures; it was the OP's constant drum beating about how bad and evil Muslims are. I engaged in whataboutism because I wanted to push back specifically against his ongoing campaign of propagating of anti-Muslim bigotry.

RileyG · 2025-12-01T23:01:27-0600

Kingdom

sjastro · 2025-12-01T22:52:25-0600

stevevw said:
I disagree with the meaning you are defining conscious experiences as. I don't think its about creativity. Thats a different aspect and one that can be linked to processes we can define redlating to form. It may be associated with consciousness.

But whatever is the conscious experience related to creativity it cannot be measured by science because the very nature of subjective experiences cannot be captured in material terms. So I think your conflating something thats not consciousness but a cognative intellectual process about defining the line between creative thinking and consciousness..

Still this is correlation and not accounting for the actual nature of conscious experiences. We can map out all the neural correlations of conscious experiences and know exactly what brain parts and wiring lights up. But none of this tells us anything about the nature of the experiences coming out of those firing mechanism. You cannot see the golden sunset in those brain activities. You have to ask the experiencer directly.

It is only the experiencer who is directly having that experience and gaining that knowledge from it. Like colorblind Mary. She could know everything about the brain activity but none of that gave her any experience or knowledge of colors. It was only when she could then see the color Red that she experienced it and gained new knowledge.

All the above does is like mapping out the corelations of consciousness is tell us the technical data of what happens in the brain when we have a conscious experience. It tells us absolutely nothing about that experience or the knowledge that comes from it.

Thats silly. If I could tell you that then I would have cracked the Hard Problem of Consciousness and so far no one has come near to this.

All I can say is I have shown that there is an aspect of knowledge that material science cannot explain. So there is knowledge beyond the objective empiricle knowledge that tells us something about reality.

Methological naturalism deals with the naturalistic processes that are measurable through testing. That is matter, particles, chemicals, elements, forces and fields. So it is material or if you like physical in nature. Any non physical effect like consciousness is classed as an epiphenomena of the physical.

Actually its now classed as science and not magic. But to the ancients this was like magic. For all we know it may well have been. If you consider that nature has a prenancy test available then it shows how much in nature are the solutions to almost anything. Thats like magic and especially to the ancients.

But none of this tells us anything about how they discovered such things. I am saying that because of their deep immersion in nature consciously that its no surprise they were discovering such things as they came to know how nature worked through an intimate relationship with in.

As opposed to material science when has to first collect a lot of data to work out how nature works in the first place by looking from the outside in. Then after centuries of information come to understand such things.

Yes I have been saying that for some time now. Science cannot tell us anything about the supernatural. Yet it is a reality and gives us knowledge that methological naturalism cannot tell us.

Science cannot falsify God or consciousness beyond the physical brain. That means it cannot claim it holds all the knowledge of nature and reality. That means as the ancients lived within this supernatural realm more often or completely they gained knowledge that we cannot get today from material sciences.

Well we can but its taken millenia. Even then we are still struggling with stuff like consciousness and phenomenal experiences like belief.

In some ways methological naturalism is hitting brick walls and is naturally looking at ideas that involve other dimensions that could almost be classed as supernatural. Like the idea that Mind or Consciousness or Information itself is fundemental reality that the material world eminates from.

As usual you just don’t get it.
Technological progress prior to the advent of Methological Naturalism occurred by accident such as the Kahun Medical papyrus pregnancy test, or through inspiration or creativity which has a physical basis using the analysis of Einstein’s brain as a reference.
Do I need to remind you the point of this nonsensical thread is the ancient Egyptians possessed hi level technologies which is now due to some deep connection with nature where you cannot explain how the technologies emerged let alone evidence of their existence?

Now we have colorblind Mary as a philosophical argument which is irrelevant as it deals with subjective experience and whether physical knowledge captures consciousness and has absolutely nothing to do with the actual evidence of the technologies used by the Egyptians in manufacturing and construction.
Get over it, the evidence clearly shows the Egyptians used tooling as discovered by the archaeologists not your deluded, cognitive dissonant and confirmation bias relying on pseudoscience sites and amateurs claiming to be experts on Egyptian manufacturing.

Vambram · 2025-12-01T22:49:07-0600

Danthemailman said:
W.Va. Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Newsmax: Guard Victim Andrew Wolfe Is Responsive

https://www.newsmax.com/us/national-guard-shooting-wolfe/2025/12/01/id/1236611/

Praise the Lord! That is encouraging.

Amen and Hallelujah!!!

A2SG · 2025-12-01T22:48:22-0600

Aryeh Jay said:
So the tolerant left who provides litter boxes in our schools for the kids that identity as cats, and preformed gender realignment surgery with out parental consent, and forces drag queen reading in the classroom all of a sudden is loosing their minds because a Republican wore a female jacket.

Do we really need another FBI head wearing women's clothing?

-- A2SG, dunno, maybe it's a job requirement....

DamianWarS · 2025-12-01T22:42:07-0600

SabbathBlessings said:
There is no Scripture that says Moses wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, sorry if I don’t just take your word for it over what God said plainly.

sure... i never said that either. You seem to be confusing some ideas together. Moses never wrote anything on the tablets; I never said that or even suggested it. Although he carved the final version (since he destroyed the first) God still put the commandments on it (using his finger as you like to so often remind me). However, this doesn't change the fact that the contents of the tablets were already part of a covenant relationship prior to the physical tablets themselves. This couples the tablets with the existing covenant, rather than separating them from it, unique to the tablets themselves (which is such a strange idea, I'm not even sure if that's what you're saying)

As a simplified example, X speaks commandments to Y and Y agrees. X then makes a more permanent display of the commandments, showing the most vital; the remainder are written down in something more exhaustive (but all from X). The permanent display piece does not become separate to the written-down piece; they are still under the same original agreement, and they work together. This is exactly how Ex 20-40 shows it. Why you are trying to separate them into distinct covenants is beyond me, but the text doesn't support this motivation.

SabbathBlessings said:
You than again make arguements I have not made such as rejecting transcripts. Moses wrote the law of Moses written by Moses in a book. It’s what the Scriptures plainly state Deut31:24;26. God wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone Deut 4:13 Exo34:28 Exo31:18 His Laws Exo20:6, not Moses.

And what of the laws in Ex 21, 22, and 23? These are God's commandments (not Moses), along with Ex 20 (the 10 commandments), that all of Israel agrees to in Ex 24 in a blood covenant. Ex 24 itself calls it "the LORD'S words and laws". Moses is acting as a mediator, not an author, and the contents of Ex 20-23 are all God's commandments and laws not Moses

wing2000 · 2025-12-01T22:41:00-0600

Retired Lt. General Mark Hertling:

"Leaders are shaped by their experiences—and some experiences harden your reverence for standards, while others distort it.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth frequently cites two moments from his Iraq experience as forming his worldview on military justice and rules of engagement. The first is a 2005 rules-of-engagement briefing by a JAG officer that he attended and which he has repeatedly described as excessively restrictive—and, in his view, dangerous. The second is the May 2006 “Tharthar Island” incident in which several detainees were killed after being captured. Three soldiers of Hegseth’s former unit were later convicted, and the brigade commander received a formal reprimand for toxic leadership and command-climate failures.

All these events sparked deep professional debates throughout the Army at the time. For commanders across Iraq and those preparing to go to combat, the cases underscored that a leader, even just through the climate of their command, communicates to their unit the boundaries of lawful actions—and that accountability is essential. In the case of Hegseth’s old unit, others viewed the investigations as unfair or overly legalistic. Secretary Hegseth’s public statements over the past decade reflect a belief that military legal oversight constrains warfighters, that investigations burden troops, and that commanders should be freer—rather than more disciplined—in the use of force."

Pete Hegseth, Moral Failure, and the Erosion of Military Legitimacy

Congress needs to find out if any laws were broken and who is responsible.

www.thebulwark.com

Lady Bug · 2025-12-01T22:37:12-0600

mourningdove~ said:
I'm not going to attempt to analyze your situation, but I will share that thru the years I've heard numerous successful comedians talk about this very same thing ... how they can make us all laugh ... and be the funniest person in the room ... but inside they are feeling the things that you've described. IRL, they personally deal with depression, loneliness, etc.

(Some that easily come to mind are former Saturday Nite Live cast members.)

I don't know what it all means, but I share this just to say that I don't think your experience is unique to just you.

Yup, the fact that I already knew this before making this post, makes me perplexed that this applies to me, too.

Oompa Loompa · 2025-12-01T22:16:35-0600

Say it aint so said:
In other words, just like the OP article and claims made by poster's here, the allegations have no proof.

No proof that has been released by the DOJ.

GodAndChocolateVanilla · 2025-12-01T22:09:40-0600

A new Hobby of mine right now is painting Rocks!! ^w^

I love painting and I love Rocks!!

I also like collecting Rocks and Crystals. ^w^

Multifavs · 2025-12-01T21:50:24-0600

I put up most of the Christmas decorations today. Tomorrow I'll take care of the tree.

BCP1928 · 2025-12-01T21:47:53-0600

RDKirk said:
I said that earlier myself.

Maybe they'll find a way to let him weasel out. It depends on how bipartisan the Congressional complaints get. All it does is feed fuel to the fire of troops being sure not to obey illegal orders, particularly if the lower ranking people catch heat.

He wouldn't have had to say anything, simply not do it. The survivors of the later boat were rescued alive.

Guess what? They weren't all Venezuelan.

Lady Bug · 2025-12-01T21:42:58-0600

Michie said:
I too feel that ketchup is an abomination on a hotdog. We have a Pope that does not know how to eat a hotdog!

I don't know if it's the ketchup being an abomination, but the hotdog ^_^

RocksInMyHead · 2025-12-01T21:27:36-0600

Servus said:
So what crimes are acceptable for a president to pardon?

In theory, any crime is eligible to be pardoned, because pardons are primarily about the person, not the crime. Generally speaking, I'm not opposed to pardons in cases where there appears to be a miscarriage of justice or where the law has changed such that what the person was convicted of is no longer a crime (or is a much less serious crime - e.g. a misdemeanor instead of a felony). Commutations make sense in cases where the person has been a model prisoner, has served a significant chunk of their sentence, and has shown an effort to reform and give back to the community. But that's really about it.

childeye 2 · 2025-12-01T21:23:30-0600

CoreyD said:
Well, I'm glad to hear you admit you are not addressing the OP, but only an argument that exists in your head, because the OP is proving free will exists in man. Nothing else.
Since you do not have anything against this information,

The Bible says, at Hosea 14:4, in part...

The Hebrew expression nedabah (נְדָבָה) is rendered freewill offering, freely, plentiful, voluntary, offering, willingly, offering.
This Hebrew word comes from the Hebrew word nadab, of which Topical Lexicon says...
The verb נָדַב consistently underlines a movement of the heart that is neither coerced nor merely dutiful. It describes people stirred from within to give, serve, or step forward because they have first been moved by God. Throughout Scripture this spirit of readiness is linked to worship, stewardship, civic responsibility, and warfare, revealing a multifaceted biblical theology of voluntary devotion.

At 1 Corinthians 9:16-18, verse 17 says,

Paul uses the Greek word hekón: Willing, Voluntary. Which means of one's own free will.
According to Thayer's Greek Lexicon...
STRONGS NT 1635: ἑκών
ἑκών, ἑκοῦσα, ἑκον, unforced, voluntary, willing, of one's own will, of one's own accord: Romans 8:20; 1 Corinthians 9:17. (From Homer down.)

At Philemon 1:14, Paul says...

The Greek word hekousios - meaning free will, is the neuter of a derivative from hekon; voluntariness -- willingly, which is (an adjective, a primitive term) – properly, willing; "unforced, of one's own will, voluntary" (J. Thayer), i.e. acting on one's own accord. The root (hek-) emphasizes intentional, deliberate action (choice), i.e. "of free-will" (J. Thayer).
voluntary

adjective
Done or undertaken of one's own free will.
a voluntary decision to leave the job.
Acting or done willingly and without constraint or expectation of reward.
a voluntary hostage; voluntary community work.
Normally controlled by or subject to individual volition.
volition
The act of willing or choosing; the act of forming a purpose; the exercise of the will.
The result of an act or exercise of choosing or willing; a state of choice.
The power of willing or determining; will.

As well as this information
Adjective
▲
Voluntarily imposed upon oneself
voluntary

freewill

uncoerced

unforced

willing

willful

intended

deliberate

conscious

ungrudging

willingly given

intentional

free-willed

Then we have nothing else to talk about.
Freewill; Free will; Free-willed decisions are indeed a reality.
That is my point.

These terms you've listed are neutral terms in the moral/immoral context. Therefore, in the moral/immoral context, you still have not proven Adam was not persuaded by the woman who was deceived, and you still haven't proven people can be good apart from God's Spirit.

New Posts

New Posts

Immigration judge fired by Trump administration files lawsuit claiming discrimination​

Productivity–Pay Tracker​

Change 1979q4–2025q2:​

Productivity​

+87.3%​

Hourly pay​

+32.7%​

Productivity has grown 2.7x as much as pay​

W.Va. Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Newsmax: Guard Victim Andrew Wolfe Is Responsive​

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Immigration judge fired by Trump administration files lawsuit claiming discrimination

Productivity–Pay Tracker

Change 1979q4–2025q2:

Productivity

+87.3%

Hourly pay

+32.7%

Productivity has grown 2.7x as much as pay

W.Va. Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Newsmax: Guard Victim Andrew Wolfe Is Responsive