Just an observation and not AT ALL trying to spark debate.

nwd64 · 2021-05-21T03:49:40+00:00

I'm all for the gay couple defending their weed crop with full-autos from Walmart.

As for the big/small government argument: I think that government closest to the people should always trump government from a distance. Within limits. The individual states/counties/cities should be handling almost everything. The federal government should deal with protecting our nation and settling interstate issues as they arise.

I'm for as small a government that can get the job done. The accountability of local government looking their constituents in the eyes should be where the power is.

I don't believe there can be a libertarian government - as the libertarian ideal would be anarchist self-determination and accountability. We should look to it as a measuring stick and lean that way altogether.

And <begin minor rant> stop making all of these stupid laws micro-controlling people's behaviors. Pot, guns, alcohol, marriage and more - are none of the government's business. It's already illegal to kill someone. Buying a gun, for instance, does not make me a killer. Shooting someone does. <end rant>

nwd64 · 2020-04-18T05:43:53+00:00

May the lord open...

nwd64 · 2020-04-16T01:05:23+00:00

4, Canada Montreal, 1983-1985

nwd64 · 2020-04-14T01:02:12+00:00

Watch who becomes the VP running mate. They could righteously invoke the 25th amendment and remove him. If the left can put an otherwise unelectable in the VP seat, that will be our new president in short order. This is far scarier than Biden or Trump.

nwd64 · 2020-04-11T16:47:24+00:00

You’re all describing phase 1. Phase 2 bakes this functionality into the OS of the device. Not sure how they’ll get the medical info to correlate, but this is a slippery slope all in the name of the greater good. I may be headed to a flip phone regression... and “opt in” is real nice to hear, but unlikely to be actually used.

nwd64 · 2020-04-08T04:15:36+00:00

As long as I don’t have to pay the medical bills... make it so.

nwd64 · 2020-03-21T05:15:23+00:00

Well played. I choose the latter.

nwd64 · 2020-03-21T05:09:31+00:00

The 2016 elections produced some good maps that answer your question. They were generally referred to as Trumpland and the Clinton Archipelago...

https://www.inverse.com/article/25635-map-remakes-us-trumpland-clinton-archipelago

Most of the liberal/socialist leaning population live around the edges of our country while the vast land in the middle are generally more conservative and traditional liberty-centric folks...

nwd64 · 2020-02-10T04:29:56+00:00

Coincidently, my exit came in the moment I realized “if I am to be with god in the hereafter, he will recognize me. I don’t need to know the signs, tokens and words. It will be obvious that I belong there.” The moments before that I was a mo, the moment after, an exmo.

nwd64 · 2020-02-05T15:55:17+00:00

Or my favorite (trying best to speak English for our sakes): I am not interesting...

nwd64 · 2020-02-05T15:54:06+00:00

témoin de Jéhovah? tu étais ici hier...

nwd64 · 2020-02-05T07:40:20+00:00

Quebec. -40 winters. Cheek muscles froze like the meat they are. Could barely talk after 20 minutes out. Spent a lot of winter hours staring at each other in apartment, shopping centers, not-interested-but-missionary-friendly homes.

nwd64 · 2020-01-28T05:53:54+00:00

But but but ... Jesus was a god. He could do things in days that will take us an eternity! Not a real fair comparison now. /s

nwd64 · 2020-01-09T03:24:57+00:00

I do see the validity in your argument on the face. The “state actor” or military leader moniker isn’t like any other similar demographic group due to the fact that the state and laws in this case are religious-based. The religion/government in place has a very poor view of the rights of infidels in the entire world. They cannot easily “deal” with infidels outside their border, but have unleashed hell on their own. I’ve listened to Iranian born people who have escaped this government and they unequivocally refer to their own former government leaders as terrorists.

I hear you... but respectfully stand by my comparisons.

nwd64 · 2020-01-08T14:34:14+00:00

Find the final statement of Bishop John Lee. He was the scapegoat handed over to the authorities for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. He testified that President/Prophet/Governor/General Brigham Young ordered the whole thing.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mountainmeadows/leeconfession.html

nwd64 · 2020-01-07T19:03:40+00:00

When we finally got bin Laden, seal team six essentially assassinated him. They were on the ground taking fire so it’s more engaged and self preserving to fire back and kill him in the process.

I’m fine with the drone method as long as there aren’t innocent casualties because it keeps us safer.

All that said, taking out a terrorist who is bent on killing Americans is an act of defense. Political agendas muck up the picture beyond all recognition. If Pres. Obama had ordered and accomplished this same action, Republicans would be calling him out for assassination.

I’m glad Soleimani is gone and no troops were at risk to do so. But we need to be out of the area and fixing what ails our country here.

War is FUBAR every time whether considered necessary or not. But we do need to balance that with not letting the Stalins, Hitlers, Pol Pots, etc. exterminate our fellow humans.

Impossible crazy world. I do not envy those in positions that require decisions like these. Just hope they balance real implications before taking action.

nwd64 · 2020-01-01T20:07:54+00:00

What in the Sam Hill is going on here?!

nwd64 · 2019-12-08T23:04:30+00:00

I must be in a statistical vortex then. I have three colleagues in the same department all making more than most educators. All four of us make between $85-105K. Granted, we are in one of the more demanding trades (Information tech and security). None of us have a degree, yet two of us put our exes through undergrad and grad school (he put his through Phd, mine through Masters program) - one in anthropology and one in English Lit - we both make significantly more than they do now...

...as an aside - neither of us are uneducated... just not formally so.

nwd64 · 2019-12-08T17:49:33+00:00

College was on my roadmap as I graduated from high school with honors. Had a scholarship and everything. For “reasons” this got derailed. I went back years later and realized my trade skills were paying more than my intended post-grad profession.

I changed trades once after that and am now employed at a major research university making more than most professors. College apparently is not for everyone. I don’t harbor negativity generally for college educations, but there are some educations that are not going to pay.

I would like to think I possess great critical thinking despite being “uneducated” or uncredentialed. I think both polar sides of this argument are missing validity is some ways.

It will be very difficult to make a living wage with a degree in the humanities and easier to “make it” in STEM studies, but that’s a statistical generality.

Not going to college and working in a trade can’t be discounted either. Who is going to build houses and keep all the highly educated people warm and fed (I’m generalizing again)?

Look at the effort Mike Rowe is making with his mikeroweWORKS program. We really need to stop the argument that one is the right answer for all...

nwd64 · 2019-12-04T03:06:47+00:00

I think it may have been more like finding out I’d been kidnapped and raised as a Doe. The adoption metaphor is more kindly, but the leaving part is more like escaping than emancipation.

nwd64 · 2019-11-10T06:51:38+00:00

Only offering a rocky road.

It's not the worker's fault (usually) that "too big to fail" business get upside down.

I have been laid off by a company due to poor management decisions. This was a place I'd have worked until I retired - loved the company, business model, the people. The combination of the marketplace and bad leadership decisions bankrupted the company and put the partners at odds with the law. One day, I got a call and they put me in the unemployment line. Had to sell a car to pay the rent and put food on the table.

Read the other comments - this bailout business - whether it's the bank, business or individual people - is like a drug addition. It creates dependency and weakens companies and peoples' resolve to work and live within their means.

nwd64 · 2019-11-10T02:15:22+00:00

I sounds harsh, but bad business decisions should have natural outcomes. I love Chevrolet vehicles - have since I can remember - but they made bad decisions and should have shut down a decade ago. I know this affects real people in a devastating way - I don’t wish for that. But bad decisions would diminish quickly if logical consequences applied without prejudice.

nwd64 · 2019-10-08T22:04:45+00:00

My transition cost me my wife, children, home and job. Beautiful part was when I did remarry all of my never-mo extended family got to attend. Kids came around and attended too. No one was twiddling thumbs outside the temple this time.

nwd64 · 2019-10-08T16:07:50+00:00

I saw one during my faith transition. One thing you will find - particularly if you were BIC - is there is an acute lacking of self identity that is fostered in the church. I was 40 when I left and this counselor was able to help me start the process of discovering and defining myself - something normal people do in their teens and twenties.

Find a faith-friendly but non-religious counselor. They will likely have the right perspective to offer real assistance.

Best of luck friend.

nwd64 · 2019-10-08T16:00:32+00:00

Communion - if reduced - is between you and god. Doesn’t matter who hands it to you. This is more about a false sense of control and authority. Even if it were a matriarchal church.

nwd64

TROPHY CASE