Some humor

U.S. gives Flight 93 site landowners one week to sell

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20090606_U_S__gives_Flight_93_site_landowners_one_week_to_sell.html

What a stupid country. These people selflessly died to save others, and now the government forces people off their land to memorialize it. Words cannot express.

Terminator Salvation

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

Eh. Not so much.

At least they didn't disown the third movie, like the Superman series. It didn't tie it up in a bow, but I was very surprised to see Arnold again, if only in CGI. Other than that, there wasn't much to recommend this. Some things were hard to swallow.

http://www.ericdsnider.com/movies/terminator-salvation/

Star Trek

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

Good flick. Nice use of ICG. The story, like all Star Trek movies, leaves logic at the door. Otherwise, I'll definitely buy the DVD.

http://www.ericdsnider.com/movies/star-trek/

Monsters and Aliens

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Animation

Very good use of 3D. The theater that I was in had a few problems, but other than that, very nice movie.

More of Kirby's wisdom on baptism for the dead.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12317033 Kirby: Did we Mormons baptize your deceased loved one? I can help

By Robert Kirby Tribune Columnist Salt Lake Tribune

Updated:05/07/2009 03:35:12 PM MDT

With the revelation that President Barack Obama's mama may now be a Mormon, the LDS practice of baptism for the dead is once again in the news. Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995, was baptized by proxy recently in an LDS temple. Mormons believe Dunham would need this ordinance when she got to the other side. Obama hasn't commented on the matter. According to my double secret source inside the White House, he might have said, "If I didn't care what Mormons thought when I was running for president, why would I care now?" Mormons tend to see baptism for the dead as a personal favor rather than spiritual conscription. It's not as if you have to accept it. This life or the next, you're perfectly within your right to shout obscenities at us and slam the door. But baptism for the dead makes a whole lot more sense than the afterlife plan some faiths have, which is that you go straight to hell if you didn't see it their way before you died. At least with Mormons there's a second chance. And if we end up being right, you just might be grateful for that baptism. What's that? You'd sooner go to hell than become Mormon? OK, but hell isn't very pleasant. I've got a hundred bucks that says an eternity of sponge-bathing Hitler will change your mind. This assumes, of course, that Mormons are in charge on the other side. Frankly, even though I'm Mormon, I don't think we will be. I believe God will be in charge -- and that we're all of us (you included) in for a big fat surprise. On the other hand, it's easy to see how some people don't like the idea of Mormons giving their dearly departed an ecclesiastical makeover. In the wake of angry protests, the church has reiterated its stance that only the deceased relatives of living Mormons should be baptized by proxy. But what about those baptisms for the dead we've already performed? After all, you can't simply unbaptize someone, right? Actually, that's not exactly true. If you're upset that Grandpa may have become Mormon on the other side, I can help. It's called Excommunication for the Dead. I thought it up several years ago but got into trademark trouble with the church. They're not interested in it anymore, so I'm back in business. Here's how it works: For an appropriate consideration, I can get your ancestor's baptism for the dead thrown out. It won't be free, though. There's serious effort involved. For $250, I'm willing to commit some horrible proxy sin on behalf of your ancestor that will get him (or her) excommunicated from the LDS Church. For example, I specialize in lusting in my heart. It says right in the Bible that gazing upon a woman with lust in your heart is the same thing as committing the actual act. This is a huge ecclesiastical loophole, people. NOTE: My wife and Jennifer Aniston don't think lusting in my heart is the same thing as the actual deed, but we're talking about what the Lord thinks. Send me Grandpa's name, a certified check and the woman you want the proxy sin committed with, and I'll get right to work. I'm a professional, so it won't take longer than the average church meeting. If it's Grandma, I can still help. I commit murder in my heart every time I drive to work. It's easy. By the time I get to The Tribune , she'll be a mass murderer and no longer a candidate for becoming Mormon. For your money, you'll receive an attractive certificate of proxy excommunication worthy of framing. Simply present the certificate to whoever is in charge on the other side. Unless it's the Mormons. If that's the case, then we're both in a lot of trouble.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12372124

By Robert Kirby

Tribune Columnist

Updated: 05/16/2009 04:26:08 PM MDT

If I can believe all the "check is in the mail" response I got to last week's column offering excommunication for the dead for those who are unhappy that Mormons baptized their dead relatives, I am well on my way to becoming a millionaire.

E-mail orders poured in from people anxious to ensure that their ancestors didn't become the Mormon undead through proxy baptism.

My grandfather's name is Ed. Please commit adultery in your heart for him with Dolly Parton.

Sweet. I want a franchise when you're up and running. What about stock?

You got competition, dude. I'll do the same thing for a hundred bucks.

Wow. Who knew there was so much money to be made in undoing the service of the Lord?

But my favorite responses were from the peeved; those who insisted their ancestors would never become Mormons because they had all been staunch [pick one] while alive.

Reader: "What Mormons are doing is an insult to my ancestors. My people have always been Catholic."

Her ancestors [hollering from the other side]: "No we haven't. We were pagans until the %*$&@ Romans came."

Say what you want about missionaries, the greatest conversion tool in the history of the world has been the sword. Baptism for the Dead is nothing compared to Baptism or Be Dead.

As nice as it is to think about freedom of choice in religion, we're all trickle-down products of some sort of "forced" religion.

Most people who have a particular faith got at least a semblance of it from their parents, who got it from their ancestors, who got it from whatever culture overran and dominated theirs. Those who didn't convert at the point of a sword did so through gradual assimilation and social pressure.

Islam and Christianity are the two biggest culprits. Simple benevolence isn't what made them the largest two religions on the planet today. They spread their faith through conquest and then enforcement.

Most Latinos and American Indians wouldn't be Christian today had it not been forced on them. And not only would most blacks in America not be Christian, they wouldn't even be in America.

The same is true of me. My ancestors converted to Mormonism from Anglicanism in merry old England. Before that, we were Catholic (if we knew what was good for us), and before that we probably painted ourselves blue and danced naked around a maypole.

Not only do people change religions, the religions themselves change. More than 150 years later, I'm still Mormon, but it would probably drive my great-grandfather nuts that I only have one wife and I don't live on a collective. What he believed in back then isn't even on the program today.

Go back far enough and your ancestors would be shaking their heads at what you became. All that faith and tradition and you didn't turn out anything like you were supposed to. Here's the kicker: Neither will your descendants.

 

Hitler's pics.

Some new cool pics of Hitler's miserable life on this earth. Good for history.

http://www.life.com/image/last/in-gallery/26982/adolf-hitler-among-the-crowds

Why the H*** isn't this reported more?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Geithner-tells-China-its-rb-15396905.html?.v=2

"Chinese assets are very safe," Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.

His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting skepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home.

That's right boys and girls, the chinese are laughing at us. Or, to be more correct, laughing at our president and his minions. But NOOOOO, Obama is too big to fail, or show what a laughing stock we are becoming. So much for that international respect he craves so much.

What do you know, Pravda really does mean "Truth"

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

Stanislav Mishin

I am so sick of this, again.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=a7Hk3ZEF4QyM

When we start throwing these crooks out?

From ELO II's "Honest Men"

We're just a stone's throw
From Burning Hellfire
Does anybody know,
Where did all the heroes go?
We've had our fill of
This gallery of scoundrels,
The leaders of the world,
Those power hungry liars

Rise up and sound the sirens,
Send out the searching powers,
All we need is a few good men
Send the S.O.S. and red alerts
All across the universe
Calling your honest men?
S.O.S. emergency,
Sinking fast and getting worse.

Where's your honest men?
In some village, far away,
Or in a little town pub.
High on a mountain top
There must be an honest man
Calling all honest men

Throw out the tyrants,
The aged fat cats
Outlived their usefulness
They have led us to this mess
Make them answer,
Hold them to their promises,
And throw them in the street
If they won't tell the truth

S.O.S. and red alert
All across the universe,
Calling all honest men
S.O.S. emergency,
Sinking fast and getting worse,
Where's your honest men?
To your stations,
Man the ramparts,
The barricades
We need new heroes urgently

We need a few good honest men
Calling all honest men
Calling all honest men
Call to him
He lives next door,
Across the street
On the upper floor.

It's our only hope we need him now
Send the S.O.S. and red alert,
All across the universe,
Calling all honest men
S.O.S. emergency,
Sinking fast and getting worse,
Where's your honest men
Strike a blow,
Save the ship,
We need a few good honest men
Calling all honest men
Calling all honest men
Calling all honest men
S.O.S. across the universe
Where's your honest
We need your honest
Calling all honest men

Calling out all over the world,
Where's your honest men
Looking out all over the world,
We need your honest men

Penn Jillete on libertarianism

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/25575/

I must admit that I agree with much of this article. I'm never quite sure where my own libertarianism stops, but I do agree with this.

It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion.   Helping poor and suffering people yourself is compassion.  Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness.  People need to be fed, medicated, educated, clothed, and sheltered. If we’re compassionate, we’ll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right.  There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint. 

 

On another point alltogether, I did find a good article on church history, http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2004_I_Dont_Have_a_Testimony_of_the_History_of_the_Church.html. It's a good read.

Oh Brother.

http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/05/milk-screenwrit.html

 

[QUOTE]Dustin Lance Black, who just won an Academy Award for his Milk screenplay, will direct Liam Neeson and Jennifer Connelly in his feature directing debut, What's Wrong With Virginia. The project, based on a script by Black, centers on a psychologically disturbed mother (Connelly) who has been entangled in a 20-year secret love affair with a highly visible Mormon sheriff (Neeson), who is running for a state senate seat. TicTock Studios will finance the picture and produce alongside Killer Films. Milk director Gus Van Sant will exec produce. Production is expected to begin at the end of summer in Michigan.[/QUOTE]

 

This is the same guy who did MILK. He also gave a vindictive speach at the Academy Awards about how his mother was taught by the LDS church to hate him.

 

I really liked Neeson in Taken. I still have a boyhood crush on Connelly. Now I can't see them that way. Just as my Beloved General Zod has been besmirtched (sp??) by playing a horrible Brigham Young in September Dawn.

 

All this because the LDS church doesn't believe in homosexual marriage, and that homosexuality is a sin. This is such a wonderful world we live in.

Fascism

I don't know what else to call it. There are so many examples of government misusing power.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123879833094588163.html

By STUART VARNEY

I must be naive. I really thought the administration would welcome the return of bank bailout money. Some $340 million in TARP cash flowed back this week from four small banks in Louisiana, New York, Indiana and California. This isn't much when we routinely talk in trillions, but clearly that money has not been wasted or otherwise sunk down Wall Street's black hole. So why no cheering as the cash comes back?

My answer: The government wants to control the banks, just as it now controls GM and Chrysler, and will surely control the health industry in the not-too-distant future. Keeping them TARP-stuffed is the key to control. And for this intensely political president, mere influence is not enough. The White House wants to tell 'em what to do. Control. Direct. Command.

It is not for nothing that rage has been turned on those wicked financiers. The banks are at the core of the administration's thrust: By managing the money, government can steer the whole economy even more firmly down the left fork in the road.

If the banks are forced to keep TARP cash -- which was often forced on them in the first place -- the Obama team can work its will on the financial system to unprecedented degree. That's what's happening right now.

Here's a true story first reported by my Fox News colleague Andrew Napolitano (with the names and some details obscured to prevent retaliation). Under the Bush team a prominent and profitable bank, under threat of a damaging public audit, was forced to accept less than $1 billion of TARP money. The government insisted on buying a new class of preferred stock which gave it a tiny, minority position. The money flowed to the bank. Arguably, back then, the Bush administration was acting for purely economic reasons. It wanted to recapitalize the banks to halt a financial panic.

Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He's been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He sees the writing on the wall and he wants out. But the Obama team says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with "adverse" consequences if its chairman persists. That's politics talking, not economics.

Think about it: If Rick Wagoner can be fired and compact cars can be mandated, why can't a bank with a vault full of TARP money be told where to lend? And since politics drives this administration, why can't special loans and terms be offered to favored constituents, favored industries, or even favored regions? Our prosperity has never been based on the political allocation of credit -- until now.

Which brings me to the Pay for Performance Act, just passed by the House. This is an outstanding example of class warfare. I'm an Englishman. We invented class warfare, and I know it when I see it. This legislation allows the administration to dictate pay for anyone working in any company that takes a dime of TARP money. This is a whip with which to thrash the unpopular bankers, a tool to advance the Obama administration's goal of controlling the financial system.

After 35 years in America, I never thought I would see this. I still can't quite believe we will sit by as this crisis is used to hand control of our economy over to government. But here we are, on the brink. Clearly, I have been naive.

I wanted to add this

It might not be in keeping with the latest feel of the board but I wanted to show this.

http://www.mormonapologetics.org/index.php?showtopic=42418&view=findpost&p=1208629217

I find that I pretty much get out of church what I put into it. If I don't actively seek nuggets from a lackluster speaker, I won't get any. If I come cynical, I leave cynical. If I sit there bored during the sacrament, the sacrament does nothing for me. If I don't actively seek to serve, my passivity doesn't serve me at all.

As for being a passive spectator in an undemanding church, well, I guess that's a possibility, too. Watching television is much easier than performing in a play; sitting in the stands is considerably less demanding than playing football. I've recently been reading again about the earliest Christians, though, and I don't think that they would have recognized such a comfortable thing as Christianity at all. Peter, James, John, Paul, Stephen, St. Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp -- all of them were actively committed.

Have I often found the three-hour block fairly long? Yep. And I'm now a bishop. I've already been there for at least a couple of hours before the block, and I'm typically there for several hours after the block. But guess what. I feel energized by serving as a bishop. Even after very long days and very late nights, I feel that I've done something good. I've accomplished something, helped somebody. I could do it for hours more. It's much better than just sitting there, grousing, has ever been for me.

Finally, a testimony: Other churches may have better preachers, trained for public speaking. But the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it alone, has the fulness of the saving gospel and the authority to perform the ordinances required for salvation. What keeps me going, when my spirits are low, is my conviction that it's true. This isn't about taste. It's about truth. The religion of ancient Rome had polished religious professionals, lavish ceremonies, and spectacular buildings, and it made very few demands on those who professed it. The poor, relatively uneducated Christians, hick bumpkins for the most part, meeting in caves and homes, couldn't really compete. Except that Christ had risen from the dead, and Jupiter had never lived at all.

 

I can't take this anymore.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090330/ap_on_he_me/med_heart_polypill

It seems that even in a study of heart medicine, Dear Leader is a prime component.

"Widely applied, this could have profound implications," said Dr. Robert Harrington, an American College of Cardiology spokesman and chief of Duke University's heart research institute. "President Obama is trying to offer the greatest care to the greatest number. This very much fits in with that."

Why in the HELL does it matter what Obama wants? It's like reading a newspaper in facist Germany.

The end of food

http://www.wilsoncountynews.com/article.php?id=22843&n=time-warp-the-death-of-farmers-markets-csas-and-local-food-production

It looks like the farmer's markets and farmer's rights are at risk. If you are a farmer, you no longer have the right against a search. BTW, no more Girl Scout Cookies.

This government has gone insane. Why didn't we want term limits?

Wonderful talk about British PM....and US too, if you think about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs

"You have run out of our money." Classic line.

End of America

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/03/19/terence-corcoran-is-this-the-end-of-america.aspx

This is one of the scariest times I can remember. The nanny state has come and is in full flourish. Things that I never thought would happen have happened and are being contemplated. I'm hoping I'm not seeing the beginnings of a dicatatorship and I hope that some form of sanity will break out. The government has lost its senses and I hope it can recover.

Damn. I don't want to tell my children of the country that it used to be. How could I ever apologize enough for the mess that we made of it.

Chicago Tea Party

There is a move afoot on protesting taxes. In chicago, the site for info is http://www.officialchicagoteaparty.com/. I strongly suggest you attend one near you. It might not be much, but the insanity has to stop, since the elective process seems to be failing us.

Dark Angel

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Literature & Fiction
Author:	Robert Kirby

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Angel-Robert-Kirby/dp/1892936097/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237054946&sr=8-2

I've read most of his stuff and much of his work at the Tribune. I think this was his first fiction that I read. I actually liked it. His characters weren't all that well formed but he took a pragmatic look at the church in the days after the Civil War. People are people, regardless of which religion. Anyway, it took a couple of days and was an enjoyable read.