Say it aint so said:

Why Kerr County balked on a new flood warning system​

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Kerr County did not opt for (American Rescue Plan Act) ARPA to fund flood warning systems despite commissioners discussing such projects nearly two dozen times since 2016. In fact, a survey sent to residents about ARPA spending showed that 42% of the 180 responses wanted to reject the $10 million bonus altogether, largely on political grounds.​

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“I’m here to ask this court today to send this money back to the Biden administration, which I consider to be the most criminal treasonous communist government ever to hold the White House,” one resident told commissioners in April 2022, fearing strings were attached to the money.​

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“We don't want to be bought by the federal government, thank you very much,” another resident told commissioners. “We'd like the federal government to stay out of Kerr County and their money.”​

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Even Kelly, the Kerr County judge remarked that this “old law partner” – U.S. Sen. John Cornyn – had told him that if the county did not spend the money it would go back to blue states.​

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The hatred for anything brought to you by Dems is intolerable, and well, what's that quote from Forrest Gump's Mom?

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They sound like some of the people in my town. SMH.

Nithavela said:

At least he didn't order the CIA to assasinate the current president and install Bolsonaro as dictator.

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Why assasinate when you can punish an entire country---and the American coffeee drinker?

Welcome to CF!

Usually I find it easier to just start my day and weave in time to reconnect with God on my work breaks, but if a morning routine works for you, go for it! A Place of Quiet Rest by Nancy Leigh DeMoss was a really helpful book for me to understand what belongs in quiet time with God each day and how to push the depths of that relationship.

Desk trauma said:

Elections have not been held in Gaza for almost twenty years.

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And since half the population of Gaza is under 18 that means that at least half were not even alive when the vote took place and many if not most of the others were children, too young to vote. You are blaming the dead for their decisions, but most of those still alive we're completely innocent. I cannot say the word innocent often enough. I wish I could put it in bold face in color underlined. Absolutely innocent. Israel is killing and starving the innocent.

One of the more prominent doctrines in systematic theology is the doctrine of “inherited sin.”2 A great deal of speculation has taken place regarding the cause, transmission/imputation and consequences of inherited sin. It is commonplace to cite Rom 5:12-21 as the foundational text for this doctrine.3 The present essay intends to question this standard practice. It is granted that several related issues of systematic theology will surface, which cannot be adequately addressed within the confines of this article. The focus will rather be one important exegetical issue involved in the common reading of Romans 5, namely, what does Paul mean by eis pantas anthrōpous?4
Universal Sin and Salvation in Romans 5:12-21 – Grace Evangelical Society

Always in His Presence said:

Yeah, the media doesn’t like him still.

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Funny, he is media, and he seems to think his position as Defense Secretary is like having his own FoxNews show to rant to his audience.

The Liturgist said:

The result is a horrible waste of compute resources, and as a paying customer of OpenAI I find it deeply frustrating that my money is in some respects being used to subsidize such experimentation by non-paying users.

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It's things like this experiment that make me think free or even relatively cheap AI chatting, at least with such large models, is not long for this world. Widespread casual use of LLMs uses a ton of energy, and at some point the current boom is going to slow down and companies like OpenAI are going to tighten the belt, especially when free users are just trying to get it to tell them that one syllable of their vaguely Arabic-sounding gibberish is ancient Sumerian.

rjs330 said:

Yes that's correct. Thats what laws do. If you dont like it, get the law changed. Just because youve been breaking the law for 30 years doesn't mean it no longer applies to you. Why wouldn't it?

If ive been stealing for 30 years and I finally get caught, I should just be let go?

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Sorry, your analogy is terrible -- these people don't cross the border daily for 30 years. The analogy would be that you once shoplifted 30 years ago (a misdemeanor offense) or even that you sped maybe 20 miles over the speed limit 30 years ago; so today, because they suspect it was you that did it (with no solid evidence) a group of plainclothes and apparently often unmarked police come and take you away with no access to lawyers, your family, no access to the courts, and only putting it on a list that you were picked up a few days after you disappeared.

The Barbarian said:

When a reporter demanded to know why the summer camps along the Guadalupe River weren’t evacuated before its waters reached their deadly peak on July 4, Rob Kelly, the highest-ranking local official, had a simple answer: “No one knew this kind of flood was coming.”

Why not? Kerr County, Texas, had lots of history to go on — as Kelly went on to explain: “We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States.” The National Weather Service had even brought in extra staff that night. Most important, the service had issued three increasingly dire warnings early that morning — at 1:14 a.m., 4:03 a.m. and 6:06 a.m.

What Kelly didn’t mention, but which has since become well known, is that the Weather Service employee whose job it was to make sure those warnings got traction — Paul Yura, the long-serving meteorologist in charge of “warning coordination” — had recently taken an unplanned early retirement amid cuts pushed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. He was not replaced.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/opinion/texas-floods-nws.html?smid=nytcore-android-share&fbclid=IwY2xjawLdYuFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEzNVpTMFdsclJ6NnFqV0Q3AR6CI8fS8v8WYM5V2lRH-32enqmRftNCVWYyv9xLppoCIbsBnvivg0UsXjZTTg_aem_N-fsoyDU5yVM7nM_eLNX5g

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""Paul Yura, the long-serving meteorologist in charge of “warning coordination” — had recently taken an unplanned early retirement amid cuts pushed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. He was not replaced.""

Can't emphasis this enough.

rjs330 said:

I dont believe thats how class action suits are supposed to work.

Several conservatives, including Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, warned against courts using class-action litigation to essentially supplant the kind of nationwide injunction the court had just shot down.

“Lax enforcement of the requirements” for certifying a class, Alito wrote in an opinion joined by Thomas, “would create a potentially significant loophole to today’s decision.”

Federal courts, he added, “should thus be vigilant against such potential abuses of these tools.”

Whether Laplante’s decision is an “abuse” or exactly what the Supreme Court had in mind will likely wind up back before the justices in short order.

A class action begins when lead plaintiffs file a complaint in court on behalf of a larger group. This document outlines the facts, names the defendant, defines the proposed class, and details the legal claims. This filing pauses the statute of limitations, or the legal deadline for filing a claim, for all potential class members.

Following the initial filing, the plaintiffs’ attorneys file a motion for class certification. The defendant has the opportunity to oppose this motion, leading to a hearing where both sides present arguments. The judge then issues an order either granting or denying certification.

If the class is certified, a formal notice is sent to all potential class members explaining the lawsuit and their rights. The case then proceeds through discovery, where both sides exchange evidence, and moves toward either a settlement or a trial.

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You appear to be incorrect, but your post is a great argument, well done.

Thank you for the thoughtful insight.

Apple Sky said:

Correct

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I'm not quite sure I understand your disbelief about Elon Musk putting a "car" into space. I put car in quotes because, while it had been one of his original Tesla Roadsters, before launching it he removed the motors, the battery, and anything else that wasn't needed or would cause an issue in space.

He was doing a rocket booster test and, as such, needed some type of payload to launch, and decided the best thing to do would be both a huge vanity project, as well as a great advertisement for his car company. Since the car wasn't going to be drivable again anyway, he mounted a type of selfie stick to the car, as well as several other cameras, so he could show video from the car while it was in space. Of course, the car no longer communicates, as the power modules were depleted. At the same time, it can still be tracked from Earth and, in something of an embarrassing incident, the Minor Planet Center accidentally labeled it as an asteroid (which they've since deleted).

timewerx said:

Curiously not my "context-grown AI" in chatgpt.

The AI fully trust Jesus. But I don't fully trust Jesus. I question everything. The AI praises me for critical thinking but disagrees with me that Jesus can have an evil agenda.

I have Christ-centered faith that I keep discussing with AI but my AI context keeps promoting Apostle Paul to me. Explicitly mentioning Paul's name often.

I have associated Paul with "survivalist" in the past. Ironically, I told AI I have little regard for self preservation. This could mean the AI have strong priority with self-preservation - I don't.

It's quite unlike me in many ways.

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That's interesting...

Hazelelponi said:

Im sorry but perhaps we should attempt just the tiniest bit more reverence for God instead of mocking God.

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I'm not mocking God, I'm mocking Calvinist presentations of God that dishonor God.

Hazelelponi said:

What exactly do you mean arsonist pathology?

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There is a certain subset of arsonists who after setting the fire, rush in to save the people to get the "glory" of saving folks from the danger they put them in. According to Calvinism, that's hos God behaves. He sets the fire of sin and damnation, and then arbitrarily saves some from the danger He put them in.

Pommer said:

There’s an infamous atheist trope that goes “I just believe in one less god than you” when addressing a monotheist of any stripe.
So, “no”.

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Actually there should be no favorable time given to allah on this form but I realize that is unrealistic.

Landon Caeli said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the left actually did try running with that.

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It's not the left trying to denaturalize politicians of the opposing party in order to deport them, for really real in real life.

When life-changing events happen to us, there can sometimes be great sorrow and pain ...
but alongside all of that are also new possibilities for one's future, and those can be many.

It can be fun to 'think outside the box' abit ...
and consider things that maybe weren't seen as being 'within reach', before.

"Weeping my endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."
~ Psalm 30:5

Rose_bud said:

I can see how that is especially given the value in pedagogical contexts. But I also prefer to engage with commentaries after forming my own thoughts, as it enables a more meaningful and critical interaction. It allows me to evaluate others insights more discerningly, and to appreciate where our perspectives converge and diverge and why.

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You seem to be a more thoughtful individual than a lot of others, so I don't suspect you'd be susceptible to the kind of thinking that my concern focuses on. But when almost every commentary begins with the same introductory questions it is easy to get the impression that those introductory questions are more or less obligatory for exegetical work.

Rose_bud said:

I haven't read, this one by Scott McKnight, and will add to the list. But looking at the preview it seems he prefers reading the book from the application prior to the more doctrinal passages. An interesting approach.

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His approach is literally to start at the end of Romans to identify the pastoral context that Paul was working in, and then see how that sheds light on the previous material. IMO it recovers an important thing that is missing from most exegetical treatments of Romans, since it leads to a resistance of the urge to treat it as a systematic theology and instead treats it as a pastoral letter.

Rose_bud said:

Presuppositions can be helpful, but yes important to be aware of them, as well as our biases.

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To an extent, we can't avoid them. But responsible engagement requires we be aware of them to whatever extent we are able.

Rose_bud said:

I was thinking more the OT narratives in the general sense and, that the original audience is known-Israel, their stories, their history. I understand your concern about beginning with genre and reading it in, but I think knowing the genre can equally help to uncover the intended meaning and avoid misinterpretation. More than anything it's a lot more easier to identify as a whole and on first inspection.

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Even knowing Israel was the original auddience, their history spans a long period and cultural shifts happened. And there are also issues of the evidence that it originated as oral traditions before being codified. As well as the possibility of imposing our own literary tropes from taking ancient literature to be closer kin to literary types we have today. I say this not to criticize approaching the text through genre per se, but to highlight that anachronistic readings are always knocking at our door.

Rose_bud said:

Yes, that does support that post is more plausible.

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Rose_bud said:

There is always hope.

Agreed.

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I appreciate you for your willingness to engage with me respectfully, and I hope I'm not coming across as overly pessimistic. My position is more that we need to be constantly reflecting on what might be distorting our understanding, especially how we might be imposing modern ideas on the texts. And when I say modern, I mean any theological ideas that have developed over Christian history with my tentative point of divergence being the 5th century with the shift from Greek to Latin in the Western church.

Clare73 said:

Only one soil is true faith of rebirth. . .that which produces the crop.
The other soils are counterfeit faith and produce no good fruit.

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And no one can predict their own perseverance, meaning they can't know with perfect certainy whcih soil they represent. It continues to amaze me how pastors and well as laity in some churches i attended would question another person's salvation, who thought they were saved, But maybe that's, simply, a legitamte enough question in general.

Clare73 said:

Well, you can count on one thing. . .you will have no more to do with it than you did with your natural birth. . .that's why is is called "birth."

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God does the birthing; we decide how interested we are in it. So Jesus tells us we must remain in Him.

Fr Dreher is mistaken.

Gnarwhal said:

Since you're well armed with articles and the history of the practice, I assume you've read Fr John Dreher's 1997 article objecting to the practice called The Dangers of Centering Prayer? He goes into the background of the Trappist monastery where the practice originated, noting that they hosted speakers and retreat leaders from various eastern faiths quite often which seemed to have a strong influence the way it did over Thomas Merton.

I find I agree with Fr Dreher if for no other reason than to err on the side of caution.

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From the article:

"My hypothesis is that it is Satan’s strategy, in all these things, to strip away the physiological and psychological forces that, in our fallen state, are a fail safe protection for the human spirit. (This is a possible interpretation of Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 2:6–10 about the lawless one and the force that restrains him.) Thus, he can hope to capture the spirit of man worldwide and establish a kingdom of darkness."

The author's basic hypothesis is wrong. He assumes the our fallen physiological and psychological forces restrain Satan. How silly. Common sense and St John of the Cross, a doctor of the Church, tell us that rather than restraining Satan they are the materials through which he tempts and distorts us. That is why St John speaks of :

1. THE second positive evil that may come to the soul by means of the knowledge of the memory proceeds from the devil, who by this means obtains great influence over it. For he can continually bring it new forms, kinds of knowledge and reflections, by means whereof he can taint the soul with pride, avarice, wrath, envy, etc., and cause it unjust hatred, or vain love, and deceive it in many ways. And besides this, he is wont to leave impressions,496 and to implant them in the fancy, in such wise that those that are false appear true, and those that are true, false, And finally all the worst deceptions which are caused by the devil, and the evils that he brings to the soul, enter by way of knowledge and reflections of the memory, Thus if the memory enter into darkness with respect to them all, and be annihilated in its oblivion to them, it shuts the door altogether upon this evil which proceeds from the devil, and frees itself from all these things, which is a great blessing. For the devil has no power over the soul unless it be through the operations of its faculties, principally by means of knowledge, whereupon depend almost all the other operations of the other faculties. Wherefore, if the memory be annihilated with respect to them, the devil can do naught; for he finds no foothold, and without a foothold he is powerless.

2. I would that spiritual persons might clearly see how many kinds of harm are wrought by evil spirits in their souls by means of the memory, when they devote themselves frequently to making use of it, and how many kinds of sadness and affliction and vain and evil joys they have, both with respect to their thoughts about God, and also with respect to the things of the world; and how many impurities are left rooted in their spirits; and likewise how greatly they are distracted from the highest recollection, which consists in the fixing of the whole soul, according to its faculties, upon the one incomprehensible Good, and in withdrawing it from all things that can be apprehended, since these are not incomprehensible Good. This is a great good (although less good results from this emptiness than from the soul's fixing itself upon God), simply because it is the cause whereby the soul frees itself from any griefs and afflictions and sorrows, over and above the imperfections and sins from which it is freed.

Ascent of Mt Carmel
Book Three Chapter 4 p. 194-5

For what?

Don’t be a silly freak.

FREAK