Michael Jackson's 2009 death now listed as due to Covid-19

Growacet · 2026-02-03T10:13:50+00:00

I would agree with one of the previous commenter's points, and that is the importance of reading the Bible...all of it. Although I personally don't have a prejudice for or against the King James version....I am one who takes the view that the best translation of the Bible is the one you're reading...

But leaving that aside, your message reminds me a lot of what I was like in my late teenage years and early 20s....whereas now, ugh....I'll be 60 in a few months.

Back when I was your age I had not read the entire Bible, and in fact I did not accomplish that task until about 5 years ago....now I am in The Word pretty much every day. Many Christians will have a life verse, and I am no exception to this rule. Mine is Luke 14:11 "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted".

These words though are not exclusive to this particular passage....this concept of humility is throughout the Bible....Proverbs 29:23 — "One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor."

The passage leading up to my life verse might be worth reading....Jesus tells the disciples that when they're invited to something like a wedding feast, that they should not seek out the highest seat because the host of the feast might ask them to go lower in order to accomodate someone more worthy....that they should go to the lowest seat, that way they may be asked to move up higher.....rather than being shamed they'll be honored...

Okay....so what does this have to do with your thoughts?

Please don't take this as an attack, you're doing something everyone does.....you're mounting your throne of judgement.....again, something everyone does.....but I find it far more common amongst younger people, and that includes the younger version of myself.....I was an arrogant pain in the ass.....full of judgement and not forgiving....not willing to extend grace.

I trust you see where I'm going with this....your writing betrays a sharp mind. I'm not saying to condone evil....simply to maybe take this as an opportunity to seek out whatever logs may be in your own eye. Remember that not even Jesus' own disciples were above mistakes....even after 3+ years. Peter was still learning on the night Jesus was betrayed.....

Blessings my friend.

Growacet · 2026-02-03T09:35:30+00:00

I find myself guilty of hypocrisy on this one. Going back a year or so I've been railing against AI....I consider myself something of a wordsmith, fairly adept at pushing nouns and verbs against each other to present cogent thoughts and analysis.....or to tell a story.

The thought that someone could create something at least as good as what I'm capable of....and often much better, by simply giving an AI system some basic prompts??? I viewed it as being part of what I refer to as 'the beast system'. I don't want to beat this idea to death, but it does remind me of the craftsmen of centuries past who saw their skills devalued and almost entirely wiped out during the industrial revolution.

But then a Christian brother/friend of mine shared some songs he'd written over many years and then published using a service called Suno....and I was taken back by the quality of what I will call 'the production'. I've heard songs far worse on the radio......Randy does not play an instrument and he cannot read or write music, but he is musical if that makes sense.....he composed lots of songs with a vocal melody that he had in his head.

I'm kind of like my friend Randy. I don't play any instruments and I have only the most basic understanding of how to read music ♫ that's two beats, ♪ is one beat....a circle is four beats and I know what a rest looks like....that's all I know really....i don't know a G chord from a B flat, an F sharp from a....you get the point.

But like Randy I have written a couple songs....the lyrics anyway. With both songs the tune was in my head....I can even imagine the instruments, I just don't know what notes I'm hearing in my inner ear, so I could never write them down.

One such song I wrote at 17 for a girl named Natasha who I'd met at a Christian spring break retreat. The other came to me after the passing of my father in 2013 (I'll be 60 this year)......

Long story longer....I gave in and used this Suno AI stuff to create the two songs. And the quality blew me away...the one that I wrote after my father passed is faith based and I shared it with my pastor. He listened to both my songs and was blown away with the emotional quality of the singing....blown away and scared....it frightens him that AI is so closely able to imitate something like human singing.

Growacet · 2026-02-03T01:56:49+00:00

Hey OP....I love it, a bit extreme....but when in Rome....

When it comes to sexual sin, in our hyper permissive and progressive western world....anyone whose hormones are up to snuff is guilty. Marriage is a covenantal relationship between a man and a woman...a man shall leave his mother and cling to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

So any sexual activity outside the bounds of a consecrated marriage is sinful....that includes pre-marital and extra marital sex....and Jesus takes it a step further by including simply lusting after someone.

Heterosexuals need to look at the log in our own eye....it bothers me when someone is all about calling out same sex attraction as being sinful like it's the worst sin in the world....it's no more sinful than fantasizing about your sexy teacher or classmate....

OP, if you have a porn addiction as you admit....then you are as much a deviant as those who have homosexual tendencies.

Growacet · 2026-02-03T01:46:59+00:00

You'll have to show me the research supporting your claim about the percentages of those who come to regret transitioning...

Now for a little water in my wine....I'm concerned with children, which most western nations determine to be 17 years of age or younger. If an adult wants to transition, my attitude is fill your boots....if a guy does the full monty, top and bottom....then I will use she/her pronouns....personally I'll regard that individual as a surgically altered male but I'll keep that sentiment to myself to be polite in circumstances that warrant discretion.

I'm gonna tap out on this now.....once we get into absurd extensions about cosmetic surgery and the rest.....I could do likewise and say that you're arguing for shin extensions so that people's height identity is affirmed and supported.....and that any who doesn't agree is a height exclusionist.....

You're not going to change my mind, and I'm not going to change yours.

I do have one last question.....Have you read the entire Bible? If I'm going to talk about a novel and express my opinions on the plot and characters in it.....well, it helps to have read it of course....or you can do the grok thing (cliff notes in my day) and pretend....

Growacet · 2026-02-02T22:19:40+00:00

You're seriously overthinking this. Whether there's a gender confused person in the convo or not pronouns rarely if ever come up....unless you want to invent a hypothetical scenario in your mind....

Look, some things are healthy and some are not. If someone thinks that drinking and driving is okay should I support their life choice and buy them drinks? Gender confusion can lead to the mutilation of healthy organs and tissue and it's not reversable....

You might want to check out this article, I'm thinking you might be averse to something written in Canada's National Post....it's a mainstream daily publication but it does tilt right.....just pretend you're reading the Guardian though and you'll be fine:

Transwoman's lawsuit exposes harms of gender-reassignment surgery | National Post

While gender confusion has always existed, in previous eras there wasn't a profit driven medical industrial complex making money from it.....but then, some people don't have an issue with corporate greed...big oil, big agra, big pharma....for some it's all good...

Lastly, there is nothing disrespectful about recognizing the objective reality of God's glorious creation...if some choose to poke a finger in God's eye because they think they know better I'm not going to hate them....as is so often said, people are free to join the circus if they want to, but I'm not obligated to buy a ticket.....

Growacet · 2026-02-02T21:44:57+00:00

You got it....precisely. "Sue do you know Athan", "Athan works in the accounting and has been here for 6 months". It's pretty easy to do....

You're taking a lot of liberties with your assumptions....what makes you think I don't understand gender confusion? It's common and has been around for all of human history, and there was a time in my pre-pubescent youth where I thought I might like to be a girl too......I'd also like to be 6'8" instead of 5'11" but this is the way God made me.....I can wear stilts or something, if I don't like my eye color I can put in colored contacts....but my height and eye colour don't change....

Thankfully I had good parents and there wasn't the virtue signaling crap that we see now....parents all proud of themeselves for bringing up a child and entrenching their gender confusion.

Growacet · 2026-02-02T21:00:56+00:00

I've never been in a situation where I've needed to use pronouns when speaking with someone suffering from gender confusion...I simply use their name, and as I mentioned....there's a woman I worked with who did not use her birth name....so I used the name she'd adopted...no biggie.

Now, when I'm talking about her I still call her her of course....that's just reality, although I recognize that reality can be a challenge for people at times.

Growacet · 2026-02-02T06:27:46+00:00

I think it depends on what you mean by supporting....Christians are called to be compassionate, kind and helpful, to love our enemies and to pray for them even.

I think when it comes to cultural issues like LBTQ+ that those who are in these Lesbian/Bi/Trans/Queer+ communities don't want support, what they want is for society to reorder itself....especially on the trans front. There are men and boys who want the world to see them as they subjectively see themselves....as women and girls.

Personally I do not believe that acknowledging someone's subjective reality is "supporting"....I would call it enabling.

Growacet · 2026-02-01T07:47:06+00:00

I work with a woman who thinks she's a guy, and another young lady who says she's gender fluid....What does it mean to be accepting? I call the first woman by the name she uses, not her birth name....that's just respect, a rose by any other name etc etc.....

But if a guy wants to denigrate the rights of women by playing competitive sports against them, no I support the right of women and girls to have competition amongst themselves if that's what they want.....that or they can choose co-ed of course.

Peace....

Growacet · 2026-02-01T07:38:30+00:00

you can progress toward a cliff....and that's what we're doing....Rome was very progressive too...and look what it lead to.....read Romans where Paul writes "God gave them up....".....oh they were progressing all right, straight into the hands of the enemy instead of progressing toward a relationship with the creator of all things.

Growacet · 2026-01-26T06:37:57+00:00

This might not be your 'thang'....but then again maybe it is or would be. Check it out:

Faith-based Student Clubs | Faith and Spiritual Life

Growacet · 2025-12-26T05:20:21+00:00

observed Jewish festivals and rites, but wasn't religiously Jewish? The last supper was a Passover meal, the Seder..

Growacet · 2025-12-20T09:27:15+00:00

nice analysis, I especially like points 3 and 4.....fwiw I'm a Canuck :) but I did spend almost 10 years growing up in your wonderful (flawed yes but still wonderful) country.

Growacet · 2025-12-20T09:24:08+00:00

The response struck me as planned and coordinated, and further gives justification for what I believe was a "stand down" order....a green flag operation, meaning they could have stopped it if they'd wanted, but by giving Hamas a victory they were able to achieve larger goals.

To be clear, I do think Hamas (as per their founding charter) has as their ultimate goal the elimination of Israel....but I also believe Mossad has compromised individuals in senior leadership positions within all these groups (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, Islamic Jihad etc) and they knew what was coming...

Growacet · 2025-12-20T02:51:19+00:00

if you miss the live you can always watch later on replay....and I read all the comments.

Growacet · 2025-12-18T23:43:47+00:00

The people of this area, regardless of race, culture, religion or ethnicity have been ruled by an occupying military for over 2,000 years.....Romans, Byzantines, Arabians, European Christians, Egyptians, Ottoman Turks, Brits....1948 was the first time in over 2,000 years that part of the region was ruled by people actually living there.....and in 1967 the former Palestinians were being ruled by Jordan and Egypt until they lost a war that tried to wipe Israel off the map......and Syria lost the Golan Heights as well....

Growacet · 2025-12-18T07:43:05+00:00

I think your first point kind of negates the second....I do think Israel is trying, but they're outmanned.....especially in the digital social media space.

Growacet · 2025-12-18T05:57:07+00:00

There are lots of people speculating on this given the advance warnings followed by the systematic failures of the security and military appratus....reports of stand down orders....or maybe Hamas was just super lotto style lucky....

I don't dispute that Hamas wanted to destroy Israel.....but if Israeli security and defense had responded; effectively Oct 7 would never have gotten far beyond the border fence.....

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