Vambram said:

Nevertheless, President Trump has not issued any unlawful orders to the military.

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He has mused about shooting protesters. Now, that was his last campaign where there were still people there erecting guardrails. There are no longer any guard rails in the either the executive branch, or the current GOP controlled congress. I personally would like to think the idea of not following illegal orders from any president something that all commanders of all branches stress. But to Trump, what he should be echoing "yes, that's right" is treason deserving the the death penalty. I mean, he did after all said he is not sure if he is obligated to uphold the constitution and the very pledge he took as president.

BPPLEE said:

The article is behind a paywall but the Navy and the Coast Guard are separate entities

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Very fair point.
I've kept it but crossed it out for commentary

Vambram said:

Nope. Your post is 100% incorrect.

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We'll see.lol

Vambram said:

Uncovered docs show top teachers union guiding gender transitions, bashing conservatives: 'Insane asylum'

Defending Education obtained documents showing one of the nation's top teachers unions training members on far-left gender identity postures while criticizing conservatives.

www.foxnews.com

The progressive left wing liberals really do want to indoctrinate your children against what parents believe.

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And Prager U is doing the same thing for the right.

PragerU is a conservative video giant. Here's why it's trying to get into schools

-- A2SG, equal time....

Upside-Down Cake.

CoreyD said:

I'm curious to know why this interests you though.

Does it have anything to do with Gods character?

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I get the impression that there are different versions of the afterlife throughout the Bible but I guess Christians would view it in a way that makes sure it is consistent and logical. Though the Sadducees (who were Jews) apparently didn't believe in the afterlife. I'm not sure eternal torment is in the Old Testament. Anyway I'm interested in that kind of thing. I guess it also is about God's mercy for people in the Old Testament.

Always in His Presence said:

And nothing - the facts in the OP showed it was multiple text during a hearing - not an email as you stated - oops

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Text, email....is there a significance to the difference there I'm not picking up on?

Always in His Presence said:

You would have to determine what is viable - you are the one who evidently thought it a salient point that you never heard of her before. Sounds dismissive and non viable to me.

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You brought the subject up, not me. You're the one who intimated that she was a "viable subject" for some reason. I'm still unclear on why. But if you prefer not to explain why, that's your business. I still don't see how any of this is a problem worth discussing.

Always in His Presence said:

No waiting at all - I'm glad you are content -

Care to correct your error?

-- Always in His Presence, content to wait also - in the middle of the Book of John...

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What error? That I said email instead of text? Mea culpa.

-- A2SG, personally prefer a Dortmunder book by Donald Westlake, but you do you....

BPPLEE said:

Are chemicals still self organizing?

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Everyday. Self-organizing systems are quite common. Crystallization is the most common form.

Modern life is self-replicating.

I suspect most of these cryptids are just overactive imaginations, too much we would expect to find that we simply don't if such things existed. Though I wouldn't write them all off, people thought Platypus was a hoax at first even after physical evidence had been produced and for the longest time where elephant dead go was a mystery.

Fervent said:

an over-emphasis on justification

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To me, it seems there is "justification" that is "imputed". This means you trust in Jesus and God "declares" you to be righteous. Well, this does happen > it is like if you have been on a losing high school football team, but then you become a water person on a Super Bowl championship team. You gain the standing of your championship team, just by joining. Like this, when a person first trusts in Jesus, yes we become part of God's kingdom with His righteousness and Jesus Christ's "track record" now as our background history >

"old things have passed away" > in 2 Corinthians 5:17.

But then the water server needs to grow and develop in relating with the coach and players and other servers. And this brings right standing which is more than what comes just with membership. And, like this, in Jesus we need to grow . . . in God's love, how the grace of this love has us submissively sharing with God and sharing as family with one another while the grace of God's love keeps curing and maturing our character so we become more and more gentle and humble and all-loving like Jesus.

Apparently they found one study to.counteract 26 ones finding no connection.

Prayers for @Michie and her mother, especially that her mother's back not be injured even as she feels better on it. Prayers for continued comfort and activity for her mother. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Belk said:

Something.. something.. old dog... new tricks.

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He’s well on in years. If his personality ever changes, that would be a miracle. But I’m not holding my breath, speaking as a MODERATE conservative.

dlamberth said:

From what I've seen, it depends on the depth of a person's own inner experience of deep consciousness.

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As a meditator now of 50 years I cannot say I have an answer. Some deep silence and stillness, awareness without “thought” samadhi style. Something there but without faith to help interpret the experience it seems more of a silent void. John of the cross apophatic realm. Perhaps like the awareness of a molecule or lets get fancy and say monad.

essentialsaltes said:

Experts have long viewed thorium reactors as the next leap in energy innovation. Some scientists estimate that a single thorium-rich mine in Inner Mongolia could theoretically supply China’s energy needs for tens of thousands of years with far less radioactive waste than current uranium-based reactors.

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Having never studied physics, it took quite a few conversations to get my head around this tech.

THE CAMPFIRE
Nuclear waste does NOT have to be stored for 100,000 years. The only reason it is radioactive for so long is we have not got all the energy out of it. I’m no physicist and got the following metaphor from chatting with them. But after a regular uranium fuel rod has been in a reactor for about 18 months, it stops fissioning efficiently. It has not run out of energy, but instead is being stopped by ‘nuclear poisons’ - things that dampened the reaction. It’s a bit like a huge campfire that gets rained on. The fire is put out, but the fuel is still there. Only in this case, ‘drying out’ the ‘logs’ involves melting down the fuel rods, separating out the good ‘wood’, and then ‘drying’ it around the reactor core (where the fertile stuff can soak up extra neutrons to become fissile). As a result, breeder reactors can get something like 90 TIMES the energy out of each fuel rod! America has enough waste to run her for thousands of years.

There are many differences between standard fuel rods using uranium, and liquid thorium molten salt reactors - including RADICAL safety advantages. But one of them is my metaphor breaks down, because it's like the 'drying out the logs' process happens continually. They have the liquids in a self-cleaning loop in many models.

WHAT ABOUT THE ‘ASHES’ FROM THIS ‘CAMPFIRE?’
Some of the nuclear fuel is fissioned away into energy. (That’s what E = MC2 is all about.) By the time all the energy has been extracted this way, it’s only about a golf-ball of waste per human lifetime of abundant clean energy! Your whole life. One golf ball! That’s amazing!
So, what to do with the REAL waste - the broken atoms that cannot be fissioned any more?
We can melt it down into glass like ceramic tablets that contain it. (If there’s ever an earthquake or unanticipated event, we don’t want radioactive dust getting out into the water table, etc.) Bury these bricks in a bunker on site, and in about 300 years they are safe! The hotter it is, the faster it burns out. See this Argonne Labs video - 4 minutes. Login to view embedded media
Not only this, but they can also supply many medical radioactive isotopes useful for nuclear medicine.
It's an amazing technology. But they're going to have to work hard to bring the cost down, because solar panels are expected to halve in price AGAIN by 2030!

Are we talking about philosophical nothingness? A state of complete non-existence? If there was nothing, then nothing would exist, and if nothing existed, it couldn't be nothing.

Hm. I have deleted in the past but don’t see the option now.

Belonging to Abba said:

I set time limits on texting and other apps with the Lock Me Out app on Android, and some of the time it has not been effective. Like yesterday when I had a 10 minute time limit on texting, but I still ended up being glued to the phone and not able to put it down for a long time. When I was glued to the phone, I felt like there was a lot less to do on the phone so I was using the phone cut off from the activity I love, and really not liking it. If I have much more of these experiences feeling stuck on a phone and feeling severely limited in not being able to text friends, I might disable the time limit on texting and just use Lock Me Out for limiting or blocking other apps like social media. I might even disable the time limit on texting soon.

For controlling my addiction to my phone I turn the phone's power off before/when I get home, but not always consistently. It seems like this may be a more effective barrier to texting or my phone addiction because I cannot as easily grab the phone and immediately spend time on it, and I may decide to keep it off for my own good and to be able to get more tasks done. I have a landline and cell plan on my Galaxy Watch so I can still receive urgent calls from my mom if she has a pressing need to call me.

With my smartphone addiction, I also have weird behavior of wanting to get in bed in with my phone. Previously, I loved to just get in bed and text friends and found it really relaxing. Now with a time limit in place if I get in bed with the phone, I may spend some time browsing the Google Discover Feed, or scroll through YouTube to see what is there, but yesterday I kind of ran out of stuff to do on the phone, so I just put the phone aside and laid there.

With the time limits in place, it would be super productive if I opened the Bible app and worked on memorizing Bible verses. I did that once with these new limits, but a lot of times I have not.

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You sound like this is surprising to you. If it is an addiction, controlling it is like controlling any other addiction.

My job requires me to be available 24 hrs if only to answer texts troubleshooting equipment over the phone, with customers all over the world. Truth is that most nights I can sleep without interruption, but the phone is by me in bed. If I can't sleep, I might actually watch a few police chases on TikTok, and about 3 hrs later realize it's already time to get up. If that is wrong for me to do, rather than just inconvenient to my productivity and state of mind, I shouldn't do it. Simple as that.

I like to drink beer, I like to have a buzz, but I don't do it all day, because it is harmful to my life. I don't get drunk every night to be able to sleep because I need to be available to answer the phone coherently. "Because" can be a strong motivator.

I'm not going to tell you I'm addicted to my phone, nor eating, nor anything else, because in the end it is like sin or any other pursuit. In the end, we always choose what we most want to do at that instant of choice, even if it has become automatic.

I expect I don't need to tell you what happens when you pursue Christ, and find yourself desperately needing him, and seeing the weakness, stupidity and self-indulgence of the flesh, and his continuing patience in demonstrating to you repeatedly that apart from him you can do nothing.

The Grace of God can be overwhelming.

Michie said:

Pope Leo XIV is defending the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ message opposing what he characterized as the “extremely disrespectful” treatment of illegal immigrants being deported by the Trump administration. His comments come as border czar Tom Homan continues to defend the federal government’s actions and reiterate earlier allegations of hypocrisy by the Catholic Church.

In response to reporters seeking his comment on the USCCB’s “Special Message” on immigration Tuesday, the pontiff said, “We have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have.”

“If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts; there’s a system of justice. I think there are a lot of problems in the system. No one has said that the United States should have open borders. I think every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter,” he stressed.

Continued below.

Pope Leo says he opposes open borders, blasts Trump's deportation of illegal immigrants

Pope Leo XIV is defending the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops message opposing what he characterized as the extremely disrespectful treatment of illegal immigrants being deported by the

www.christianpost.com

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No open has called for open borders. That is just a right wing lie. The Pope understands and he knows that Trump lies, especially about immigrants.

Mark Quayle said:

Mark Quayle said:
Can you demonstrate that anything can happen besides what does happen? Can you demonstrate the actual possibility of other options? Or is that only in our thinking? When God demands that we choose, do we not always only choose the one option? Was God not aware of those decisions before creating, but went ahead and created anyway? Well, then! He INTENDED it to be decided the way it was

CORRECT enough! That's why I asked it. Can you do it? Can you prove that "apparent" free will choices (or any other choice) could have gone a different way? You will say, "of course!", but you can't do it. You will provide some statement you consider axiomatic, but is not, like, "God would not demand what you cannot obey".

Mark Quayle said:
Otherwise, you need to demonstrate that {actual "chance" can determine outcomes}. The notion is by definition self-contradictory. But your whole construction depends on it.

You are defining justice according to the creature's ability to do what he is commanded to do. Sorry, but the command does not imply the ability to obey— it only implies the responsibility to obey. God is not unjust to create beings who will pay for their rebellion, as intended. He is making use of them for his Glory, to demonstrate his love and mercy to the objects of his mercy—us.

Can you demonstrate that actual "chance" can determine outcomes? Or do you first need me to demonstrate how your notion of free will implies chance determining outcomes?

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You seem to completely miss his objection, which is that you are engaged in a special pleading argument by demanding your opponent meet a standard you yourself cannot.

X-Men: The Animated Series

​

Reed has a long criminal record. CBS News Chicago found 49 arrests — including 10 felony cases. Three cases were later dropped, six ended up with convictions ranging from probation to 30 days in the Cook County Jail — and in the case of one drug conviction from 2003, two years in Illinois state prison.
Among them was an active aggravated battery case from just this past August.
In that incident, Reed is accused of hitting a social worker at MacNeal Hospital Psychiatry and Behavioral Health in west suburban Berwyn. The attack caused loss of consciousness, ER visits, lasting memory issues, headaches, and daily nausea for the social worker, the Cook County State's Attorney's office said at the time.

They still don't get it.

Since it's apparently acceptable to use funeral situations as a means for political posturing based on the invite list...