Say it aint so said:

LOL. It was brought you by Trump's own conspiratorial base and Trump, Bannon, Patel, aka his circle ran with it.
This is a case of being hoisted by one's own petard.

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-- A2SG, tried to stop myself, couldn't do it.....

Fervent said:

But go on defending gerrymandering...

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That's akin to saying I defend violent acts when I defend myself against someone punching me out. So no, I don't like gerrymandering and I'd be happy if everybody abided by the rules. But if the Dems didn't then I wouldn't expect the GOP to either. And that works both ways.

Fervent said:

just shows your true character. Or lack thereof.

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Here's a suggestion for you. Keep your petty personal comments about any given poster's character to yourself. I don't appreciate it and I know others don't.

People who think they can't back up their arguments resort to ad hominems.

I'm asking nicely...

Stopped_lurking said:

Next Thursday?! I see we are working with closed time curves here I think it will be found to be caused by the "oorsakad" phenomenon. We won't know how it works, but it will explain everything. No I won't try to justify it, but please know that I'm right.

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Last Thursdayism isn't extreme enough for me.

Bob Crowley said:

I have a personal concern due to something my father said the night he died and appeared in my room.

At one point he blurted out (with some alarm) "I always was doomed! I didn't really have any choice!"

I was an atheist at the time, but I argued back saying "That can't be right!"

He replied "Oh, it's right, all right. You can see that from here!"

But later in the same exchange he said "I was WILLING!" (to act as he did towards us and to consistently do so for over 20 years).

I still have trouble acceping his comment "... I didn't really have any choice!" I don't have any doubt he was condemned - his final terrifying scream just before he departed into eternity made that clear.

If we take Adolf Hitler as an extreme example, I don't think there's much doubt he "always was doomed" but I think we can also take it for granted that he was "VERY WILLING" to act as he did, with the mass murder of so many people.

In that regard, we might question God's goodness in that He was willing to sacrifice so many innocent people at the hands of one man and his cronies. I could make the same comment about Josef Stalin and the Gulags, Pol Pot and ground zero, Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes, and even natural evil such as the Black Death.

Were they all part of God's "loving" plan? Even my old non-Calvinist pastor said to me once "I sometimes wonder if it's true!" (God's love) "He seems to write people off pretty easily".

And on another occasion he remarked "I sometimes wonder if He (God) wants to win. He doesn't seem to help his own people much."

We might need to find out just what God means by "Love"?

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Remember that those remarks were typically said from the point of view of someone who doesn't know God. This life isn't for this life. I don't know whom your father intended by "[God's] own people", but 'helping them' is not God's primary purpose, but to turn his own each into those particular members of the Body of Christ, for which he created them.

One thing I might offer is to consider the difference between what "being" or "existence" is, as God, and what it is as mere humans. Can you compare our sentience to his? This is crass, but, do we consider the pain of worms worthy of foregoing a meal of fish?

Last, (and I can't prove this, but the math works): Everything good comes from God, even whatever good there is in a human. When God completely withdraws all that is good from them, there is nothing left but an empty husk at best, devoid of all that we thought human. A wraith, whose hatred for God is bubbling on the surface of their being, full of despair and loathing. There is no "made in the image of God" there.

The only good in any of us is God's doing.

The self-existent God did not need us. But he loved us. It is not up to chance, just whom he saves, but those whom he does not save have no excuse. Nor do we.

Here is the report from the Episcopal News Service: Southern Ohio bishop suspends operations at Cincinnati church over ‘safe church’ concerns

Praying as you requested.

interviewing but one thing stands out - stressing what you can offer them to fulfill their business goals.

Also, might want to check out "frugal" tips online - there's hundreds. Can weigh the pros and cons for your situation.

Asking the Lord to help you.

Pommer said:

RIP The Rule of Law, 1215-2025

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That's the point.

Delvianna said:

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has ordered a massive mobilization of nearly 200,000 troops, according to the country's defense minister, following the arrival of the US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford in the region, US media reports.
The mobilization is a response to the "imperialist threat" from the United States, says Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, according to CNN.

Venezuela mobilizes nearly 200,000 soldiers | Sweden Herald

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has ordered a massive mobilization of nearly 200,000 troops, according to the country's defense minister, following the ar

swedenherald.com

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Hope he can find the means to keep them fed!

I hope and pray everything has worked out for you; may God bless.

The U.S. bishops received a briefing on the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) from Paul Scherz at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore.

Scherz, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, has studied the ethics of AI. At the Nov. 12 meeting, Scherz highlighted some of his findings and shared how the bishops should approach the technology within their dioceses.

AI technologies “have great potential to contribute to human flourishing and the common good,” Scherz said. “But note that it would be a mistake to describe these programs as intelligent in the same way that humans are.”

“They lack consciousness and any kind of subjective relationship to the world. So as Pope Leo says, ‘The person is not a system of algorithms. He or she is a creature, relationship, mystery.’ Thus, despite their power and utility, they shouldn’t be called persons or truly intelligent,” he said.

“We’re made for a relationship as created in the image of the triune God. We don’t find our good alone,” Scherz said. “Instead, our individual flourishing is enmeshed with the flourishing of those around us. Together, we see the common good in our common life.”

AI in Catholic ministries​

Continued below.

Pope Leo XIV on Nov. 13 received Rolando Álvarez, the exiled bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí in Nicaragua. Álvarez is in forced exile after being deported by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, in January 2024.

“The Holy Father received in audience this morning His Excellency Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, bishop of Matagalpa (Nicaragua),” the Vatican Press Office reported, without providing further details.

From Chicago, Father Erick Díaz, an exiled Nicaraguan priest, said that Pope Leo XIV’s meeting with Álvarez is “an audience of hope and ecclesial communion” as well as “a significant moment for our Nicaraguan Church, marked by challenges, fidelity to the Gospel, and hope in the Lord.”

After offering his prayers “that this event may be fruitful and filled with the Spirit,” the priest wrote on Facebook: “‘Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation’ (Mark 16:15). May the Lord continue walking with us!”

Continued below.

Guojing said:

Galatians was written before Paul's final visit to Jerusalem in Acts 21.

If the Israel of God, is us, and he taught us that we are dead to circumcision (Galatians 5:2), then what James and the elders accused him of in Acts 21:18-25 would have been correct.

That is how I know the Israel of God in Galatians 6:16 is not us

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How about addressing the biblical evidence above instead of merely expressing your bias and faulty opinions.

jacorian said:

The GOP controls all branches & passed a clean CR. The Dems revolted b/c of the ACA & the 2 parties go at to see who blinks first. As the days waned, then the SNAP issue came into play. Both SNAP & ACA need to be fixed. I don't know if Congress will ever fix public aid programs. 2 roads diverged in a wood & I. Two problems. First the Dems believe in socialized everything. Their goal is to get all citizens hooked on a good made by govt so that they can get elected by holding that citizen hostage over the delivery. This is a clear lesson to never be dependent on govt. The other extreme is that some of the GOP do not believe in a safety net. Fact is you do have people with issues & the other issue is lack of work. What to do. There is waste, fraud, abuse, & just poor design. All programs need a reworked formula & better quality product. The SNAP budget is $99 billion. The Pentagon just got approved for $770 billion. You would think they could transfer $5 billion over to SNAP.

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Or the Democrats could have just voted for the CR on day one and skipped all the drama and theatrics.

The Barbarian said:

Trump actually isn't against Christmas per se; he just hates the teachings of the One who's birthday is being celebrated.

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Trump hates Mithras?

-- A2SG, who knew?

Delvianna said:

So I guess the meme was correct??

View attachment 373120

17,000 for 1 state for drivers is a huge number. I'm glad to see California doing something about it but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

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der terk err jubs...

Church leaders in northeast present evidence of ‘genocide'

ABUJA, Nigeria — A pastor in Nigeria is facing death threats for speaking out on Islamic extremist attacks on Christians and calling for protection against “genocide.”

The Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, who's based in Plateau state as regional chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Barkin Ladi, told reporters in Jos on Oct. 24 that Islamic extremists have marked him for assassination for calling on the Nigerian and U.S. governments to help protect Christians against genocide.

“My life is in grave danger. Even as I speak, I am on the lookout for attacks,” he reportedly said. “I no longer sleep with my eyes closed. I have been attacked before but escaped.”

Continued below.

Vambram said:

That anyone believes and swallows the lies of progressive left wing liberal activists and politicians astonishes me.

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If you think that's wild, just wait until you find out that lots people don't belief the world is flat.

Good! I don’t care what adults do. Just leave minors out of it.

Light of the East said:

The same is true for those who do not like the idea of God really and actually having a love so expansive and great that He forgives and heals ALL sinners, not just those we like. (In other words, we don't like Hitler, so how dare God ultimately save him, but our drunken father who beats us, well, perhaps we hope that God's mercy will override his sins.)

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And I, personally, pray that it is so, that He ultimately brings every last one of us to Him through His Son's sacrifice. Who am I to cry out for God's mercy but demand that He still "get those other filthy sinners!", whether with eternal torture or literal destruction/death?

The last genocide was INFESTED with Freemasons who did to Turkey more or less what they did in France.

But my info on the region is about 100 years out of date.

I've heard some people say the trad-Islamists are trying to take it back.

(Gladstone once commented that Disraeli would lean against Armenia for religious reasons; I suspect DJT might. I still think he's paganized, but Jewish.)

essentialsaltes said:

Nothing says authentic MAGA better than a pardoned Jan 6 Capitol tourist.

He stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Now he's running for Nancy Mace’s seat in Congress.​

As evidenced on his campaign website, Dykes’ platform is built around an anti-immigration stance, blaming immigration for disrupting the housing and job markets and driving down wages.

“We’ve lost control of who enters our community, our state, and our nation. This is a deliberate policy to displace us,” Dykes writes on his website.

Following an investigation by the FBI’s Columbia and Washington field offices, Dykes was arrested in Virginia on July 17, 2023. He pleaded guilty in April 2024 to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and agreed that his use of a police riot shield constituted a dangerous weapon.

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After reading through his stuff he's not really anti-immigration. He talks about the problems of our immigration system and the issues of the unfettered immigration policies we have had.

We have handled immigration very poorly. He's correct in his listing of the issues unfettered immigration has caused.

We need to severely limit our immigration, do a much better job of vetting who is coming here, not just focusing on criminality but also on belief systems.

It sounds like the current administration is doing a better job of that, at least thats the claim.

Would I vote for him? I don't know enough about him. Can't say I would. But I do agree with the stuff I read regarding immigration which would of course include illegal immigration
As far as quick review went.

Well, OK...

"Gather Your People"??

Spiritual Jew said:

Yes. And? I said that it doesn't say they were appointed to believe. Which is true. Is there something you don't understand about that?

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Do you have a point? I've not argued that the text says "they were appointed to believe." They were appointed to eternal life. But their act of belief flows from that prior divine appointment, not the other way around. You can't dispute that grammatically. Your best bet for defending your view would be to argue for the middle reading of τεταγμένοι, not a reversal of the syntax.

Spiritual Jew said:

Wrong. That doesn't line up with the rest of scripture.

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This comment of yours was offered in response to a straightforward grammatical analysis of Acts 13:48, not a theological argument. Labeling the grammar as "wrong" or saying it "doesn't line up with Scripture" tacitly concedes that your theology, rather than the text itself, is your standard of truth. Luke's syntax is painfully clear: the entire relative clause ὅσοι ἦσαν τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον ("as many as had been appointed to eternal life") functions as a single substantival unit and occupies the subject position of ἐπίστευσαν ("believed"). It cannot mean "those who believed were appointed." That reading is grammatically indefensible, as it would require ἐπίστευσαν to lie within the relative clause as its predicate, reversing the syntactic relationship. Luke wrote the opposite: the appointed ones [subject] believe [predicate]. The Greek allows no other reading.

Whatever your view of the rest of Scripture, it must be reconciled with the grammar Luke actually wrote. If it cannot, then it is your interpretation, not my presentation of the syntax, that produces the apparent contradiction.

Spiritual Jew said:

Does it matter to you if you interpret that verse in a way that doesn't contradict other scripture...

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The irony is hard to miss. You ask whether it matters to me not to contradict other Scripture, yet you dismiss the plain grammar of the verse because it contradicts your interpretation of other passages. Which is more likely at fault: Luke's Greek, or your reading of the rest of the Bible? I am letting Luke speak for himself; you are imposing your system over his syntax. If anyone is forcing a contradiction here, it is not me.

Spiritual Jew said:

Acts 13:46 which talks about the Jews who were there and rejected the gospel judging themselves unworthy of everlasting life, implying that it was their choice to believe the gospel or not

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The issue isn't whether humans make choices. We obviously do. The question is why some believe while others do not.

Spiritual Jew said:

In your doctrine, God alone judges people to be unworthy of everlasting life

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Misrepresenting my argument won't help your case. As I stated in my prior replies:


and


Did you miss these, or are you deliberately misrepresenting my position?

Spiritual Jew said:

God has appointed that anyone who believes will have everlasting life (John 3:16)

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This is a direct contradiction of what Luke actually wrote, and it is not what John 3:16 says. Ὅσοι is a nominative, headless relative pronoun introducing a substantive relative clause. The entire clause, ὅσοι ἦσαν τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον, functions grammatically as the subject of ἐπίστευσαν ("believed"). That is not a matter of interpretation. Grammar dictates the logical order: appointed [subject] --> believed [predicate].

John 3:16 contains no concept of "appointment," let alone an appointment that could override Luke's syntax. You are subtly shifting the meaning of "appointed" in an attempt to evade the text. In Acts 13:48, τεταγμένοι refers to persons who had been placed, assigned, or arranged toward eternal life. But in your statement, "appointed" suddenly refers to a general principle ("God has appointed that anyone who believes..."). These are entirely different categories. You are changing the sense of the term to try to neutralize what Luke clearly wrote.

Spiritual Jew said:

That does not mean He appointed anyone to believe, as if people don't have a choice in the matter.

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Can you clarify what you mean by "choice in the matter"? Again, choice itself is not the point. The issue is the basis of that choice. Does the desire to believe originate autonomously within the fallen human will, or must it be generated by God? (See John 6:44; Rom. 8:7-8).

Spiritual Jew said:

Acts 13:46 shows that people do have a choice in the matter. Why interpret Acts 13:48 without taking Acts 13:46 and other scriptures into account?

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This is a loaded question. You're implying I've ignored verse 46, when it is obvious I've already addressed it. Your choice not to engage my comments doesn't erase them. They're right there for anyone to see. At this point, it looks like you're just firing off replies to keep the disagreement going.

I did not interpret Acts 13:48 without considering verse 46. I explained Luke's contrast: verse 46 reflects self-judgment in unbelief, while verse 48 reflects divine initiative in belief. You've chosen to ignore that explanation, misrepresent my position, and double down on remarks I already addressed. If this is how you intend to engage, our conversation is over.

And once more: context does not override the grammatical subject-predicate relationship. If your understanding of Scripture conflicts with what Luke actually wrote in Acts 13:48, the problem lies in your interpretation, not the text.

I am interested to know what kinds of dishes you guys will be having?

My menu tends to gravitate towards Southern US but I wouldn't mind a change?

This year, I was thinking of trying Old- Fashioned Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting and Sage and Brown Butter Biscuits?

I usually make pumpkin and pecan pie but some of the older people (who are not American) have grumbled about pumpkin