I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange
Comments
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Bren, love the pic! Me tired. ttyl!
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Lewing
So So sorry for you and your daughter.
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Linda, so very sorry!
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Just doing some reading and ran into this. I hope I'm not re-posting, but found it interesting. Especially how she arrived at her viewpoiont: Hope I don't get tyhe strange marks but haven't done well with that lately:
Editor's Note: Joanna Brooks is a senior correspondent for ReligionDispatches.org and author of "The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith."By Joanna Brooks, Special to CNN
(CNN)–There are two moments and two moments only that made my soul sit upright during Tuesday night’s presidential debate:
President Obama, speaking about the loss of manufacturing jobs to low-wage economies like China: “There are some jobs that are not coming back.”
Obama, speaking about four lives lost in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya: “I am the one who has to meet those coffins when they come home.”
Morbid? Not at all. I’m just a believer in the gospel of hard truths.
And as I am the mother of two school-age children, a teacher at an underfunded public university and a progressive Mormon, hard truths about the challenges our nation faces are all that makes sense to me.
CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
As a mother, I am acutely aware that right now, our nation invests a smaller and smaller share of its resources in our children, the generation that will assume the debts my generation and our parents’ generation have incurred.
As an educator, I have witnessed firsthand how failure to generate responsible levels of public revenue has significantly compromised generations’ worth of investment in our public schools and universities.
And as a Mormon, I grew up with a healthy sense of respect for worst-case scenarios. I was raised, after all, with a religious aversion to debt and a year’s supply of canned wheat, beans and powdered milk in the garage, as instructed by LDS Church leaders. The Mormon food storage tradition isn’t about end-times-paranoia: It’s a lesson passed down from our pioneer ancestors, who knew the importance of being prepared for difficult seasons so you can do right by your family and community.
Profile of Brooks: Crossing the plains and kicking up dirt, a new Mormon pioneer
This nation is in a difficult season, and I listened carefully Tuesday night for a proper sense of respect for worst-case scenarios. What I heard instead were the usual rhetorical swerves.
Mitt Romney offered personal anecdotes about “binders full of women” that have nothing to do with economic security for American families. He promised allegedly revenue-neutral $5 trillion tax cuts but refused to provide solid details on how he’d balance the books. And he made throwaway references to all people being the “children of the same God” without substantial reflection on how that should translate in terms of budget and policy.
What I really wanted from the debate was more of the hard truths that Obama seemed to be on the verge of saying:
“This recession is fundamentally different than other recessions, and there are no short-term fixes.”
“Our old strategies for managing Middle Eastern conflict through military intervention or propped-up dictators don’t work. And there is no easy way forward.”
“The only thing the $3 trillion Iraq war produced for the United States was a mountain of debt and a legion of disabled Americans.”
“We need to have a serious discussion about Social Security.”
“Debts don’t get paid down without adjustments in revenues.”
These are the kind of hard truths that speak to the same part of me that took notice when Obama at his inauguration quoted the Scripture: “It is time to put away childish things” (1 Corinthians 13: 11).
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And given the challenges we face in bringing down deficits while investing sensibly in the nation’s future, here are some other Scriptures I’d like to hear:
“Turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come to smite the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4: 6).
“Set your house in order, for you shall die” (2 Kings 20: 1)
Morbid? Not at all. But I do feel a sense of responsibility for keeping an eye on the worst-case scenarios. And a few months’ worth of rice and beans in the garage, like Mormon leaders teach me. And an ear out for the gospel of hard truths.
I have seen Obama work steadily, patiently through a difficult season. I have seen him face some hard truths and accept that there are no easy fixes. And I will vote to give him a second term.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Joanna Brooks.
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Por-Obama PAC ad to air...
Interesting:
WASHINGTON -- The Obama-supporting super PAC Priorities USA Action is going back to Bain in a campaign-closing television ad campaign that attacks GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney for his time in private equity.
The group, which just reported raising $15.2 million in September, is re-releasing its most effective ad from the summer in key swing states. The spot features an employee at a Bain-controlled company discussing how he had to build a stage for a company announcement, only to find out that the announcement was that workers had been fired.
Titled "Stage," the ad proved remarkably provocative in Ohio in particular, where scars from years of jobs being shipped overseas still linger. According to a Priorities USA memo, announcing the campaign, it will be one of several spots focusing on Romney's private equity record.
"New ads to be released in coming days featuring stories of people who represent the thousands of middle class workers who lost their jobs, their pensions and their health benefits after Romney and his firm broke promises and bankrupted companies," the memo reads.
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Aren't those the weirdest looking things you've seen in your life?
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They are lovely, too.
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Jackie ... thank you for posting that article. I hadn't seen it before and it was excellent. Hard truths and no easy fixes ... so true.
((Linda and daughter)) hope the memorial service will help you both in dealing with her father's death.
And blue has found us some designer pumpkin decor ... very nice!
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Er.....pretty close to it! What is that white, vaguely pumpkin-shaped thing trying to ooze away?
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Athena, thanks for the link. I tried, really, to read some of it, but it just makes me SO sick. All this "think positive" crap, and eat your yogurt and you'll be healthy - have learned to just ignore it. Don't think anything we say or do can change it, just commercial, trying to make enough money to keep paying themselves. Have you LOOKED at the salaries most of the "senior" people in these breast cancer non-profits make? Highest seems to be about 14% of budget. Enough with the "education" and "awareness" - but don' think anything will change.
Linda, I wish you a healing day - West Nile is terrifying, I've lost a close friend recently. Can't wrap my mind around the fact a silly mosquito, but there we are. Doesn't stop the pain we feel at the loss. Your's is so, so, so much closer, and I hope your daughter and you can give each other strength to get thru the day.
Bren - thank you for posting the gorgeous picture. You must be squeaky excited about your upcoming trip.
Blue, I love, love, love your pumpkins - except, and this is very personal, that floppy white one in the middle on your stove, I swear, looks like my, well, stomach when I'm sitting down. TMI? Well, it does. I'd heard of chemobelly, but adding 6 yers of an AI to it, well, as Anne knows - Pilates is the only hope. Too bad I'm so lazy..
Elizabeth Warren lead in polls increasing, her "opponent" keeps shooting himself in the foot, arm, legs - latest is he's accused people in her ads as being "actors" and not victims of company she fought to help. How do so many dumb people get elected? Seems to be part of the "theory" of the political party he's a part of - just say whatever you want, lie, and then "apologize" and say it again.
GO ELIZABETH!
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I think it looks like a Dali pumpkin.
Bren ... "Heed not the sharp tongues of others. For they lack sauce and know thee not." (FSM 2: 12)
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Linda - so sorry for your loss.
Blue - great pumpkins!
Bren - beautiful picture
Athena, thanks for the link
And Sun - Yeah for Elizabeth Warren.
Going off line again until tomorrow at least. Have a great evening all!
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Hi Gals,
Tim's got the Alabama game on ... but I wasn't that interested in it tonight. Although Roll Tide Roll has fond memories for me of a dear friend who passed from Stage IV and was a monster of a fan. She was a neat gal who used to post on here ... and I think of Amy often.
Rabbit .. I'm not familiar with the FSM Bible .. but I sure do appreciate the verse. I think I'll become an FSM believer, since I'm not having much luck with any other religion at the moment.
Blue .. Nothing shokks me anymore. And certainly not having something I've written be misinterpreted. I lived among the Mormons for three years and have many Mormon friends, as well as FLDS friends (polygamists). I'm very familiar with their religion ... and they are quite free to believe as they choose. But do not expect me to believe that serving a mission for the LDS church as a recruiting technique is the same as serving in the military.
Enjoyful .. I'll be with you in spirit next Friday a.m. I know the coming up surgery is scary ... but we'll all be with you.
Would you guys please keep my friend Brenda in your thoughts on Monday. She has a brain MRI scheduled at Baptist in Winston. The oncologist she saw last week at Chapel Hill believes the lesion he saw on the first MRI to be cancer and a spread of her mets to the brain. I'm so worried and scared.
Hugs,
Bren
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(((Linda and daughter))) I'm so sorry.
Bren, nice pic. I bet you're so excited to be soon seeing them.
Blue, those are some seriously strange gourds.
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Sun - I am not bothered about the salaries but about the fact that Komen has lost touch with the basic truth that it is dealing with a deadly disease and that no amount of girly passive whining or smiles is going to make a difference -and that alliances with big corporations and so much power mean that they benefit from the status quo - not from a cure.
If there were a magic cure today, Komen would stand to lose. It would lose power, status. Thank God, pink kitsch would be history too.
So pay someone many millions - if that person leads a credible aggressive organization that is willing to take on the biomedical research industry and government to find new ways to research cancer I am all for it. Not just some pinkwashers who call for more mammograms.
I have the benefit of some perspective because of my comorbidity. It, too, has a relatively high mortality rate. There is no cure. It is mostly inherited but there are treatments and prevention strategies that may positively affect the course of the illness in a person. And while some die, others are disabled and others lead happy, full lives, the advocates are real in their language. They don't tip toe, they call a spade a spade, generally, there are no colors, banners or celebrations but there are serious, hard working advocacy efforts at the patient, researcher and activist level. The literature connected to the co-morbidity treats me like a thinking adult - it discusses risks and benefits in a realistic world.
Then all of a sudden I get breast cancer and I am treated like a little girl in the literature. It's either "poor you, pity party, victim, etc..." Or "let's pink it all and it will go away."
I am not a poor whining helpless victim who needs to be told a rosy story so I won't start crying. I'm an adult with a serious illness and I want to be treated as an adult with a serious illness. Komen doesn't do that. Someone on the stage IV thread just mentioned that Nancy Brinker still thinks her sister would have survived if a mammogram had caught her tumor. So she still apparently believes in the two fallacies. A) Mammograms save lives. Most serious, wel done stuides show that isn't so in the aggregate.
Early detection saves lives/leads to a cure. Not so.One thing BC and my comorbidity taught me to do: stop whining unless it's serious. :-) So if you get mugged and they spare your life, don't make a federal case. It could have been much worse.
End of rant.
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Enjoyful, heck if I know. Gonna use it as a barret on my carved one come Halloween. hehehehehe!
Brenda is always in my prayers and thoughts and heart, Bren.
Just finished watching Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer (or something to that effect). hahahaahahaah. Ray and I had quite a few analogies going. pmsl!
Time for some tea!
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Blue, what is that lovely old piece of furnishing in the last picture? It looks like a small coal burning oven -gorgeous.
Off to watch re-runs of Project Runway!
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WR, as a student of theology, I need a copy of the FSM Bible. Can you help me out here?
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hqahahaahahahahahahahah!
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Off to bed! Methinks old age is creeping up on me.
Nighty night!
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Blue, doncha know you just committed sacrilege? But despite that I'll LOL!
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Thanks, Blue!
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Chaplain, don't forget about the lolcat bible as well:
http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
Boreded Ceiling Cat makinkgz Urf n stuffs
1 Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.
2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.
3 At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.
4 An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin.
5 An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!!1 -
That was E's signature at one time - the best!
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Sorry Chaplain but no can do. The Book of FSM is like Romney/Ryan's budget plan*. I can assure you it exists. I can assure you it is correct and perfect. But I cannot show it to you. Just trust in FSM and life will be wonderful and all your problems will be magically solved immediately.
* or, in other words ... I just pulled it out of my arse cause it sounded good
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HL,
Thanz bes to the Cat. I wils gets and seez what it is lik.
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Cat paztor - what is teh drink tonite?
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Dis kitteh wants drinks and noms! Margs and fish tacos?
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Teh fish iz gud fur kittehs! So iz teh margs. Kittehs need many snakz.
L
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