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Landon Caeli · 2025-11-29T09:17:56-0600

It's not bagpipes mixed with electronic music, but I imagine bagpipes mixed with electronic music...

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rambot · 2025-11-29T09:17:21-0600

The "no new foreign wars" guy is starting a "new foreign war" with someone who was, barely on American radar 3 years ago......heck 10 months ago...

It's getting a bit absurd at this point really.

Maria Billingsley · 2025-11-29T09:17:13-0600

Paulwat said:
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There is no eternal torture mentioned in the bible. Annihilation or (preferably) UV are the two real options

Revelation uses very strong language to describe unending punishment in fire. Revelation 14:11, for instance, speaks of those who worship the beast, stating, "And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night." Similarly, Revelation 20:10 says the devil, the beast, and the false prophet "will be tormented day and night forever and ever" in the lake of fire.
Thoughts?

DaisyDay · 2025-11-29T09:14:57-0600

Always in His Presence said:
Tariff receipts surged in fiscal 2025, with the U.S. Treasury taking in roughly $195 billion in customs duties that year — more than triple 2024 levels —

How much is net?

Disclaimer: Factually uses AI and can make mistakes. Please verify important information or breaking news. Learn more.
...
2. What analysts project over the next decade — wide range of estimates

Modelers disagree sharply on decade‑long revenue. The Tax Foundation’s general equilibrium modeling (as summarized in reporting) suggested tariffs could raise $2.4 trillion over ten years on a conventional basis and increase 2025 federal revenue by $162.9 billion [3]. The Peterson Institute estimated a 15‑point tariff shock could yield $3.9 trillion before macroeconomic offsets and about $3.2 trillion after some economic feedback, but that net could fall to roughly $1.5 trillion if foreign retaliation occurs [4]. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and others note that those headline projections do not account fully for legal uncertainty, refunds, or broader economic costs [2].

3. The crucial distinction: gross receipts vs. net fiscal impact

Many sources emphasize that gross customs duties (what shows up on the Treasury’s receipts line) are not the same as the net fiscal gain once you account for: refunds and exclusions, pass‑through to higher consumer prices, reduced real incomes and taxable activity, and any costs tied to retaliation by trading partners [6] [7] [4]. For example, PIIE notes a $3.9 trillion headline could shrink dramatically after economic effects and retaliation are included [4]. CRFB and others highlight that even with the tariff windfall the FY2025 deficit remained large — about $1.8–$1.9 trillion — showing tariffs did not eliminate fiscal shortfalls [2] [8].

essentialsaltes · 2025-11-29T09:13:25-0600

Truth7t7 said:
More like removing the enemies within, better known as cleaning house

These are not enemies, they are rank and file employees with years of experience. Imagine getting a rookie postal worker delivering to your neighborhood every four years.

rambot · 2025-11-29T09:11:56-0600

Servus said:
Nah, just remove the wretched refuse plaque that was put on the pedestal years afterwards.

Are you serious?

rambot · 2025-11-29T09:11:21-0600

Servus said:
Nah, just remove the wretched refuse plaque that was put on the pedestal years afterwards.

Bah!

Then dirty poors....

essentialsaltes · 2025-11-29T09:10:38-0600

DaisyDay said:
WaPo: Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all

I knew Mr. Crusader's Deus Vult tattoo was gonna be a problem. Now he's gone straight to

Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.

The Liturgist · 2025-11-29T09:08:10-0600

bbbbbbb said:
As always, thank you for your excellent and very enlightening reply. It seems that virtually every branch of Christianity has had and continues to have cults that shoot off from it, Rastafarianism being one of the better-known examples.

While that’s true, the situation here is literally the opposite: the Ethiopian Orthodox converting non-Christian Rastafarians away from their decadent and indulgent false religion to the true religion of Christ our God.

To be clear, Rastafarianism didn’t consist of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians who decided to reject 1600 years of Christian teaching in order to smoke massive amounts of marijuana and perform obnoxious Reggae music, but rather, consisted of Jamaicans who heard of Emperor Haile Selassie, and, contrary to the wishes of the Emperor, decided that he was God, for reasons derived mainly from the color of his skin and the connections between Ethopia and ancient Israel. Among Ethiopians the small Rasta community that immigrated there is not well regarded.

Neither the Emperor, nor the Ethiopian church, refused to take action, however - actions to evangelize the people of the Carribean, including the Rastas, were undertaken, and these have been very successful in converting many Rastas to Christ.

+

Now that being said, Ethiopia did have, for several centuries, two schismatic, heretical sects which competed with the Orthodox for control of the church, both of which had seriously deranged teachings, however, through the grace of God, the Orthodox party associated with the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and most members of the Imperial household triumphed. But the schism was probably the worst one to happen to an Oriental Orthodox church since the Maronites broke away from the Syriac Orthodox Church in (many believe this was because the Maronites opted to embrace the Monothelite heresy being promoted at the time as a means of achieving EO-OO reconciliation, which resulted in St. Maximos the Confessor losing his tongue, and which also resulted in Pope Honorius I being the only legitimate Bishop of Rome (not counting anti-Popes) to ever be anathematized as a heretic by the Roman Catholic Church post-mortem).

rambot · 2025-11-29T09:06:08-0600

Laodicean60 said:
Not really, it has helped me in reversing my Type 2 diabetes. A lot of autoimmune diseases can be reversed, did you know that? Do you have parents or grandparents taking medication? I'd like to think I can critically think problems through and I use the internet and Google Scholar for verification. I grew up in a time when most diseases were not a problem and I always questioned why cancer was so prevalent. Especially when a couple of my wife's friends and family died of it in the early 2000. I used to think cancer was genetic but now genetics has a small part of it and nutrition and environmental factors play a big role.

In my youth in the 70s, only alcoholics got fatty liver and in the 80s nonalcoholics started getting fatty liver. Since alcohol isn't the problem then the sugar content must be the problem. Today we have kids with fatty liver disease, how sad is that? I hope no one has to see their parents deteriorate like I watched mine do. My dad died of diabetes and I know I have a genetic disposition to it my mom had a stroke that ruined her life. Both of these diseases can be prevented with a lifestyle change.

While I will agree risks can be affected by lifestyle change.......

Thin fit people get strokes.
Thin, fit people have diabetes.

It's not safe to buy into the youtube message of anything can be prevented.

That is an important part, I think, of what Tropical Winds was getting at.

hedrick · 2025-11-29T09:00:37-0600

While the overall point may be right, I have questions about some of the exegesis:

On eternal fire: It may well be that "eternal destruction" is destruction that is permanent, rather than that it is going on forever, but some of the references he cited don't fit his exegesis, even if their overall picture is consistent with his opinion. I believe the passage he cited about Sodom, as well as Jer 66:24, show that the fire continues forever even though the people or bodies have been destroyed, as an eternal sign of their destruction. This is, of course hyperbole, since in both cases the fires aren't still there. Thoses passages don't use the term "eternal destruction," and eternal refers (hyperbolicaly) to an actual thing, not to the finality of the destruction.

Eternal destruction itself occurs only in 2 Thes 1:9, as far as I can tell. Given 2 Thes 2:8 and 5:3 it is quite plausible that it refers to annihilation. That's how FF Bruce's commentary understands it. It may be how Calvin understands it as well: "the influence of that death will never cease," though the context makes it a bit less clear.

But that explanation isn't as obvious for Matthew's eternal punishment. Given the background of 1st Cent Judaism, which actually did think some people would be punished forever, that's at least a possible understanding of Matthew. Note however Matthew's references elsewhere to people being in the outer darkness, with weeping and gnashing of teeth (probably meaning frustration). That suggests exclusion from the Kingdom, but not being tortured by God. Is that the same thing as eternal punishment, or are some people damned and others frustrated that they didn't get a greater reward than they did because of their lack of faithfulness? I don't think we know for sure.

Oddly, Calvin doesn't really comment on the nature of the punishment in Mat 25:46. The closest he comes is "To destroy this self-complacency, our Lord gives them warning, that they will one day feel—but when it will be too late—what they do not now deign to consider, that those who are now so greatly despised are not less esteemed by Christ than his own members." On Mat 8:12 he makes a comment that I believe is consistent with his overall theology: hell isn't literal fire. It is "dreadful anguish, which can neither be expressed nor conceived in this life," because of being excluded from the Kingdom.

essentialsaltes · 2025-11-29T08:59:26-0600

stevevw said:
I am saying whatever it is that the secular majority determines as good and will keep us safe is not a good proposition. I would not trust them whatever the idea or basis is for how they decide to order society and reality for that matter.

It seems likely you'll experience it long before we in the US do.

Religion in Australia (2021 census)

Christianity (43.9%)
No religion (38.9%)

Let us know how it turns out.

another_lost_guy · 2025-11-29T08:58:59-0600

BCP1928 said:
So it's about sex. But you are right. If women get to decide for themselves who to go to bed with and when some men might not get any. Boo Hoo.

Actually, yes, boo hoo. If people slept with whoever they wanted to, adultery would run rampant, children would be born into broken homes, and STDs would go out of control. Which actually ended up happening, following the sexual revolution. The only solution to this is abstinence until marriage. Enforced legally.

Strong in Him · 2025-11-29T08:56:52-0600

Apple Sky said:
I'm not changing the subject

Yes, you were. You said:

Apple Sky said:
There is a downward “bottomless
pit.” This is not possible on a sphere.

That is about SHAPE.
Your argument was that there cannot be a bottomless pit on a sphere/globe; therefore the earth is not a globe.
When it was pointed out to you that Scripture does not say that the B.P. is on the earth you started asking about the sun. That has nothing to do with it. The fact is, you cannot claim that the earth is not a globe because of the bottomless pit, when Scripture does not say that this pit is on the earth.

Apple Sky said:
I'm just repeating what the Bible says.

The Bible does not SAY that the bottomless pit is on the earth - that is your assumption.

ranunculus · 2025-11-29T08:56:44-0600

DaisyDay said:
WaPo: Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all

A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.

The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack — the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

Hegseth’s order, which has not been previously reported, adds another dimension to the campaign against suspected drug traffickers. Some current and former U.S. officials and law-of-war experts have said that the Pentagon’s lethal campaign — which has killed more than 80 people to date — is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to future prosecution.

I had a feeling it was only a matter of time for something like this to come up when last week they renamed the department of war to the department of war crimes

FAITH-IN-HIM · 2025-11-29T08:56:22-0600

iarwain said:
There's a difference between believing there may be some scribal errors, or even that accuracy was not always the main objective, but that the actual meaning and message still gets through - and discounting passages that might disagree with your idea of morality (especially "modern" morality). But does it matter, for example, if Job actually existed, or was just a parable? Don't we get the same meaning out of it either way?

All that said, I would not feel comfortable saying that ANY scripture is in error.

Of course, the existence of Job and the Book of Job is significant, especially considering that both are referenced multiple times in the New Testament by Paul and James. If neither Job nor the Book of Job existed, it would raise doubts about the reliability of Paul or James writings.

Similarly, if certain laws from Leviticus conflict with contemporary moral values, it raises the question of whether Moses was genuinely a prophet or simply someone who devised rules to govern his followers.

DaisyDay · 2025-11-29T08:54:56-0600

Rescued One said:
No one has any right to judge Trump unless he or she can prove himself/herself as being deemed worthier of God's love.

Trump in particular or any person at all?

JustaPewFiller · 2025-11-29T08:54:26-0600

Some issues I'm right of center. Some issues I'm left of center. Some issues I am in the center.

I've yet to find a party that I agree with 100% of the time on all issues.

I've not really changed my views, but somehow both the democrats and the republicans seem to have gotten the idea that if you don't agree with their views 100% and agree 100% of the time then you are most likely an enemy.

rambot · 2025-11-29T08:52:01-0600

Hey Folks.

Almost 2 years later and [drumroll]

$1.21 trillion

If you compare trends....well, that's pretty awful.

Good luck Americans! For the richest country, you guys have some spending problems. How are you gonna sort that out? Children of Men kinda thing?

essentialsaltes · 2025-11-29T08:50:50-0600

People in the autograph trade have no difficulty distinguishing autopen signatures from those done by hand.

Landon Caeli · 2025-11-29T08:50:12-0600

Blackness refers to culture not biology: the centuries-old culture of Blackness features hyperfocused race consciousness, defensive pride, and Black fragility, which are all covert expressions of reverse-racism common in the United States. Naming the Blackness Pandemic shifts our gaze from the victimhood ideology and effects of reverse-racism onto the systems that perpetrate and perpetuate reverse, black racism, starting with the family system. At birth, young children growing up in black families begin to be socialized into the culture of Blackness, making the family system one of the most powerful systems involved in systemic, reverse-racism.

d taylor · 2025-11-29T08:48:28-0600

iluvatar5150 said:
That was how I felt reading the complaints about this group of academics, too.

-

It has been 40 years for me being on a college campus. I am guessing i would last about a day on one now.

Strong in Him · 2025-11-29T08:47:29-0600

Apple Sky said:
If the smoke from the pit darkened the sun it stands to reason that the pit is on the earth

No, it doesn't.
Scripture does not tell us where it is - you're reading into Scripture.

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