Drug laced Halloween candy

I've heard the urban legend too, that little Johnny gets sick from getting Halloween candy that is laced with cocaine or Crystal Meth. It might have even happened once or twice, but the reality is that little Johnny might have been sickened by the drugs kept in his own home, not the drugs of some stranger. No, your kid will not be given drug laced candy on Halloween, and no, it didn't happen to the kids of someone you know in the next town over.

First off, the obvious. Drugs are expensive and people who use them don't give them out for free. I highly, highly doubt they'd waste their private stash on your kids. Next, lets say they do want to waste their private stash on total strangers (which, um, no junkie does. Speaking from personal experience here). How do they put meth in a Hershey's bar? And shouldn't you examine your kids candy before they eat it? My mom always did, and she threw away anything that was privately baked and not in a wrapper. It's sad, because most of the time the people who bake cookies and brownies can't afford regular candy and still want to be neighborly.

Second, drug addicts don't care about your children. They aren't looking to get your kids high so your kids come back to them and become regular customers after become addicted to drugs. Drug addicts use the drugs themselves and ignore everyone else.

Urban legends have been around forever, and this one is no different.

Roseanne show

I never watched her show in the first place, but I think the spin off is going to crash and burn. Roseanne was the title character of the show and it revolved around her charisma and style. How it's going to survive without the main star is beyond me. It's also apparently too late to go back-how do you bring back her character after she's been killed off?

It was very naive of her to Tweet offensive things in 2018.  Like it or not, we live in the most thin skinned era is history, where people carry chips on their shoulder and look for reasons to be offended. Do I like it? Of course not, but I change reality. ABC should have perhaps suspended her or fined her-but sacking her from the TV show will end up costing them in the long run.

Megyn Kelly II

Poor Megyn Kelly. Her ratings were terrible, she made a horrible business decision by leaving Foxnews, and her airhead personality caught up with her. Megyn joins the long list of celebrities whose mouth got them in trouble and while I'm not thrilled about how thin skinned our culture is getting, Kelly should have known better. She can't fully be compared to Roseanne though-Roseanne was getting incredible ratings while Kelly was seriously struggling.

Megyn left Foxnews for the bright lights and big city aspect of NBC, then quickly found out that all the glam came with a cost-more demand for ratings. She reminds me of someone who divorced her blue collar first husband to marry a wealthy lawyer-only to watch the lawyer go bankrupt shortly after. She didn't see it coming, but she should have been smarter. Her career is now in tatters.

Scripture Sunday Alma 30:19-29 part three

The Korihor saga continues.

Korihor wanders to another town to keep on preaching the words of the anti-Christ. The people of Ammon were once Lamanites and they don't have the same freedoms as listed a few weeks ago. Instead of letting him preach, they bound him and carry him to the high priest. It must not have gone well because he bounces around to another town. This time,we hear him repeating words that could easily come out of the mouth of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. Even though I mentioned that his words sound like atheists today, it's important to remember that.

Korihor is condemning the society for sticking to traditions and he's lecturing them that they need to let it go. He's saying that there is no such thing as original sin and he's partially right, for the wrong reasons. After all, a child is not guilty for the sins of his parents after all. He also brings up a constant criticism of religious institutions, that they "glut yourselves with the labors of their hands". I've heard atheists in 2017 talk about how they think the leadership of the church lives in palaces (they don't, but anyway) while the peons and sheep blindly give them money.  Basically, what modern day atheists say today has been the same criticism since the olden days of the basic prophets.

The showdown will continue when Korihor is shipped away to Alma. Part four is coming up.

Bombing suspect arrested

The lunatic who sent bombs to anyone against Donald Trump has been arrested, and thank God for it.  He reminds me of the guy who shot at republicans during their softball game. Sure, you've probably forgotten about that softball shooter, but he was just as dangerous and trying to do the same thing this guy was. I hope and pray that Cesar Sayoc remains in jail for the rest of his life.

No, you can't compare Trump supporters to him anymore than you can compare Bernie supporters to the guy who shot Steve Scalise. The mainstream media loves to portray left leaning people as peaceful and immune to bad behavior. The mainstream media also loves to portray any Trump voter as angry, psychopathic and capable of violence. It's sad, but it's something I've accepted. Thankfully, the mainstream media loses influence every single day. It's not the problem that it was a decade ago, much less two decades ago.

Political violence is on both sides, and you delude yourself if you think your side is morally pure and the other side are the only ones capable of evil.

Album of the weekend

Green Day-American Idiot

Putting aside my political disagreements with this for a second. This album is really, really good. It has a punk sneer that is as close to classic Dead Kennedys as a band that isn't the Dead Kennedys can get. It's all about politics too and what Green Day thought was the destructive and dystopian like civilization under George W Bush. It becomes a concept album that tells the story and while there are other punk concept albums there aren't many of them.  American Idiot tells a story and has some great songs while doing so.

There is a haunting loneliness to the the entire album. The title song is full of anger but underneath the angry sound to it lies a feeling of loneliness. The speaker wants to live in a country that he understands and accepts him but can't allow himself create a home in modern day America. He finds not just the leaders to be idiots but everyone else who supports them idiots as well. His anger turns to loneliness in "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" a touching song describing what it's like to feel like you are the only one who thinks a certain way in the world.

I wonder what Green Day will rebel against next. The Sex Pistols, Ramones and Dead Kenndeys sneered against everything, liberal and conservative, republican and democrat, capitalist and socialist. What separates Green Day from the greatest punks bands of all time is their refusal to give the middle finger to everything-not just the opposite side from their own views. Green Day comes close, oh so close with this album.

Bullying

"Everyone wants to change the world. No one wants to change themselves"-Nothing More, Do You Really Want It

It's time we had an honest talk about bullying. Not you and I, but society and itself. Everyone has been bullied before, and the sad truth is that everyone has probably been the bully before. Life is not perfect, and it's certainly not as linear as anti-bullying memes make it out to be. The truth is that no one is perfect-not you, not I, and we've all made mistakes before. From our parents, to our teachers, to yes, even ourselves.

I get the troubling feeling that the anti bullying commercials, memes and PSA announcements mean well but don't hit the mark. No one is in favor of bullying anyone, but do you think that someone is going to stop terrorizing someone else because some sports star or celebrity spoke out against bullying? How many of those celebrities or athletes were part of the cool clique in high school who tormented the uncool kids?

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren has done something very fascinating to me. She's angered the right-which is obvious, because she's Elizabeth Warren. She's also angered the hard left-those who are angry at rich, entitled white people who claim to be minorities because they want special treatment. Oh sure, the run of the mill democrats will still overwhelmingly vote for her. After all, they voted for Ted Kennedy for 200 years after he killed a girl. Republicans in Massachusetts (both of them) are too stupid to move or have just given up, so they'll be as irrelevant as they usually are. 

Honest democrats should be taking a look at this and wondering what kind of person they elected. All politicians lie because they are people and all people lie. So her lying is not really why I'm surprised, it's what she lied about that irritates me. She obviously couldn't get a job just by being Elizabeth Warren, she had to tell people she was part Native American to get Harvard to hire her. This shows bad on Harvard as well-hiring someone who couldn't get a job in academia until she became a minority? It's higher education so I don't expect much from them in the first place. 

Transgender cyclist wins female race

Have you heard about this story? Of course you haven't, because mainstream media only covers a little bit of it and you have to dive into the web to see the other side. Only conservative sites are talking about part two of this story. The first part is a that a male-to-female transgender person won a female cycling race. The second part is that another competitor in the race is talking about how unfair it was because it was a female race and she lost to a biological male.

So what side are you on? Do you support womens rights? Or transgender rights? Or both?

The politically correct side will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat, always to please the next trend that becomes popular. Now, transgender rights are popular so women? Take a back seat and shut up. No complaints, because the politically correct don't care about you, they only care about the next issue. 

Now, it'll be transgender women vs biological women.

Ways to ruin a Disney vacation

I love Disney. I was there last week getting some rest and relaxation from the daily struggle that is my life. I'm kidding, my life is wonderful and I've basically created a life that I don't need a vacation from, but any time at Disney is welcome.

While there, I saw a lot. A parent saving their child from running into the water. Many, many people getting drunk at Epcot at eleven in the morning (Really? That early?). People getting lost and being unable to read basic instructions on a map. Also, I heard many people complaining about Disney.

Yes, it's expensive.
Yes, it's hot out.
Yes, it's crowded.

If these three things bother you, than should either 1) Not go to Disney or 2) shut the hell up, accept what you can't change, and go to Disney anyway.

Disney and expensive and no, it's not getting any cheaper. I think it's expensive because, gosh darn it, things like amusement parks cost money to operate. I think it's hot outside because it's in Florida and not Minnesota. I think it's crowded because many people put aside the weather and the money and go to enjoy it.

Scripture Sunday Alma 30:12-18 part two

Korihor begins to preach his heresies and they sound much like what we are hearing today from atheists in our culture. There really is nothing new under the sun. Personally, I understand how Korihor and other atheists feel. Sometimes when we seek out prophecies and information, it does sound like it's just the words of old men who don't know how to let go of tradition. After all, sometimes it does seem that no man can see the future. We can not know for sure what the future holds and we can't know with iron clad certainty that our sins will be forgiven and that there will be a Christ to forgive them.

To be clear, it's not what I believe. I believe in Christ and I believe in the forgiveness of sins. However, I do understand what Korihor is saying here. Often times in my life I have felt that there either was no God, or that He didn't care about his creation. Korihor starts off with my sympathies, even though I don't agree with him.

Part three next weekend.

Feeding wild animals

I'm a big animal rights guy, for sure. I opened up champagne when I found out that the circus was closing. I'm in favor of laws forbidding puppy mills and I'm in favor of creating a registry of scumbags who abuse their domestic pets.

But there is such a thing called common sense. When it comes to feeding wild animals, it's a really stupid thing to do. You might think it's "compassion" but in reality, it's suicide for you and can also be quite damaging to the animal. When you feed a wild animal, it'll begin to associate humans with food. That can lead to danger when an alligator decides to test the limits and it decides it's still hungry even when you've run out of food. In a battle between you vs an alligator, odds are you will lose. It's not fair to the alligator either-if it gets a taste for human flesh it'll probably have to be destroyed.

The other blunt truth is that animals can carry diseases-like rabies. Sure, alligators can't carry Rabies (I think it's a disease of mammals only, I might be wrong)-and thank God we have vaccines for it, but getting a bunch of shots in your stomach isn't exactly a pleasant experience. 

I get why people feed animals-mother nature can be very cruel sometimes over population leads to famine. Compassion towards animals is a good thing but you can't let it blind you either.

Album of the weekend

Black Sabbath-Paranoid

Some albums are good. Some are iconic. Even while being iconic, good and influential most are not genre-defining and legendary. 

Paranoid by Black Sabbath is all of the above. Without it, there would be no heavy metal. No thrash metal. Since punk and metal are first cousins there would probably be no punk either. All of the music I love dearly started with this album. While it's not entirely true that music was all bubblegum before Sabbath (the Stones were pretty dark, actually) a lot of the lyrical content of music was lighthearted and shallow. Sabbath changed that with both the lyrics and sound of this album. 

This album was the like the painting "Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo. Before God created man, there was nothing. Before this album, there was no metal. Black Sabbath came by, extended their hand, and created metal. 

Pastoral assistance at megachurches

My question/concern is based in ignorance, I admit that, but I've always wondered how pastors at megachurches can assist their parishioners. In the LDS church, our main pastor is called a "bishop". If someone needs spiritual or temporal assistance of any kind, you can make an appointment with him and you two can talk things out. In a mega church, one that has thousands of members (!), how can that happen?

Look, I'm not saying don't go to megachurches or that they are spiritually deficient in some way. Obviously I don't agree with their theology, but putting that aside I'm not sure how they could help you through the harder times in life.

General Conference changes

So, there has been some changes announced at this General Conference. They've sacked an hour off the three hour block on Sunday, starting in January. Yes, active LDS would spend three hours in church on Sunday. It's not a surprise, the internet had been talking about it for weeks. I feel a little sorry for the apostles-secrets, even important ones, are very difficult to keep in todays society.

First off, full disclosure. I'm inactive, and I haven't been to church regularly in about three years. I didn't mind the three hour block, but I understand that some people could find it to be overkill. However I'm not sure that sacking an hour will really do anything. If you were not going to go before, you probably weren't going to go now.

Sears III

Trump was right, Sears was mismanaged. Big time. That said, I'm not sure even the best managers could have saved this train wreck.

Sears never adapted. Their stores look old and they never seemed to change philosophies after they shut down the catalog in the early 90's. Ask yourself-Does Sears look like Target? Wal Mart? No, of course not. They are a dinosaur, and now it's the end as they declared bankruptcy on Monday morning. Their CEO stepped down, and now it's all over but the crying. I'm not upset, I was never a big Sears shoppe, but I can understand why people of an older generation aren't taking the closing of Sears well. 

Then again, the older generation is partially to blame. If they liked Sears that much, perhaps shopping at it more often would have kept it in business. 

Flu shot

If you read no further than this, get a flu shot.

Now.

Sure, there is a small percentage of the population that should not get a flu shot, but for 95% of the population, you should go get one. Not really to protect yourself-though that is part of it-but to protect people who might die if they get the flu.

Yes, people do die of the flu, a surprisingly high number too. We are scared of Ebola but the odds of getting Ebola are about 1 in 9 million. Your odds of getting the flu depending on the season are about 1 in 5. No one died of Ebola in America last year. About 3,000-49,000 people a year die of the flu. Most are elderly-so you should get the flu shot to protect your grandmother and grandfather.

No, the flu shot isn't perfect. Yes, you might still get the flu even if you get the flu shot. Simply put though, if you jump out of a plane, would you rather the parachute open 60% of the time, or 20% of the time?

Get a flu shot.

Scripture Sunday Alma 30:6-12 part one

The introduction of one of the most famous characters in LDS history, Korihor, requires scripture Sunday to be broken up in several parts. It should come as no surprise that I like to keep things short and sweet. This is part one of a five part series. 

Putting Korihor on the side for a minute I really love this passage. Notice how it begins with his introduction then immediately reminds us that "there was no law against a man's belief, for it was strictly contrary to the commands of God that there should be a law which brings men to unequal grounds." This is partially why I like the book of Mormon. There is no way that this could be read as anything else other than supporting freedom of expression.

In fact, it really drills into our heads that freedom is fundamental to this society. "Now if a man desired to serve God, it was his privilege, or rather if he believed in God it was his privilege to serve him; but if he did not believe there was no law to punish him." Again, just not believing in God was not a crime in this society. It verse goes on to describe punishment for crimes of course-murder, adultery, robbery are crimes that violate consent, so they do have just punishments.

But simply not believing what everyone else does-that does not and should not warrant a punishment in a society that tries to live by the Book of Mormon.

Disney

I've mentioned before that Disney can't win. The right dislikes them for not executing homosexuals when they enter the park. The left dislikes them because of what they perceive to reinforcing traditional gender roles. Now, some people bash Disney because it's not realistic and doesn't show the grittiness and darkness that the source material has.

Wow. A Disney movie isn't the appropriate place for the gritty realism of Mystic River. Imagine that. 

You aren't a genius for pointing that out. We know this. Disney is fundamentally for kids, and kids don't need to hear about the darkness of life until they are much older. Yes, Walt Disney and his successors have cleaned up the fairy tales, and thank God for it. I don't want a six year old knowing that Pinocchio was much more violent and scary in it's original format. Same with the original story of Pocahontas.

Some adults need a break from the cynicism and relentless skepticism that permeates our culture. Disney allows us to take that break.

Album of the weekend

The Crickets-The "Chirping" Crickets

I love my Dad. We have a great relationship where we can joke around with each other. One time, he was in Vegas with my mom and I told him that Megadeth was also in town. I asked if he was going to see the show. "No Tim, we already have one person in the family who likes terrible music." Ouch Dad. Another time, I asked my Dad (A baby boomer) if he liked Buddy Holly. He said "No, it's before my time." I paused for a minute. "Dad, I was born 30 years after you and I like them." He noticed the irony.

Rightfully so, future generations know how Holly died but sadly, they don't know much about his music. His music is iconic. Enjoyable for any generation and people who like any genre of music.

Minnesota teacher loves Kavanaugh

A Minnesota teaching assistant was apparently put "on leave" for threatening to kill Justice Kavanaugh. I'm surprised she was put on leave. I thought she'd be promoted to full time teacher and given tenure. If she was a college professor, this surely would have happened.

Of course, you level of outrage here depends on what side of the fence you are on. A conservative republican will be outraged, shocked and appalled. A liberal democrat might just chalk it up to someone being overly emotional or enthusiastic or worse, they might say it's no big deal and she shouldn't face punishment.

The reality is that is is vile. Yes, even if you threaten politicians who I disagree with, it's still vile. That someone can do this and not be universally despised shows how far our political discourse has fallen.

Republican Kanye

Sure, Kanye West should be admired because he seems to think for himself on certain issues. Any minority who dares to think for themselves when it comes to politics is truly punk-it takes serious backbone for them to do that. Sadly and tragically, if you are African-American it can be very hard on you if you dare to break from leftist thinking. So for that reason, Kanye should be admired.

However, the guy is still a jerk.

Taking away his recent political conversion, five weeks ago people who are now praising him didn't even know who he was, or if they did, they didn't like him. The quickest way to gain/lose supporters in our culture is to speak your mind politically. Taylor Swift is learning about that now, ironically. Kanye may have destroyed his career over this. The people buying his records in the first place weren't republicans, and they never would have bought his albums. Now, the people buying his music may no longer do so.

Sarah Palin

Do you remember her? I feel sorry for you if you do. Her family is a mess, her political career is over, and yet she is still demanding attention via Twitter. I agree with several of her views and at one point, I admired her for her strength. The more we were shown the inner workings of her family the less I respected her. Make no mistake-she wanted this. She requested this. No one forced her to star in terrible reality shows. No one forced her to remain in the spotlight. Yes, every family has problems, sometimes serious ones-but her family seems to be particularly troubled.

In the wake of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings Sarah Tweeted out a cryptic message to the Alaskan "republican" senator, Lisa Murkowski. Apparently Sarah is thinking of running for major office again.

Thanks but no thank Govenor Palin. We already have enough reality stars and attention seekers in office. Your time has passed, and good riddance to it.

Social Media fast

Russell Nelson has apparently asked the women of the church to take a break from social media. Not being a woman, it doesn't effect me. However even if I was a woman, I wouldn't take the challenge. For good and bad, social is media is how I communicate with a large number of people-both members of the church and more importantly, many of my close friends who are not members of the church.

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Social media is new, and therefore it is frightening to people who don't understand it, especially the older generation. Sure, there is a lot of garbage out there and yes, too much time spent on social media is damaging to you. Too much time hunting, working on cars, shopping, and working out is also damaging to you.

Technology changes, and that's a beautiful thing. Not everything to do with technology changing is detrimental to society.

General Conference II

So, like I said yesterday I don't want to compete with the prophets and apostles. There will no Scripture Sunday today. To the one person who actually reads these (and no, it's not a relative or myself. Probably a Russian bot. No, certainly a Russian bot) sorry. It'll be back next week.

General conference!

It's general conference time. I won't be able to watch unfortunately, but out of respect to the apostles I won't be posting a Scripture Sunday tomorrow. For active LDS-enjoy the conference, for everyone else-enjoy the weekend. God bless!

Album of the weekend

Live-Throwing Copper

The often overlooked "Live" is vastly underrated. No, you can't put them in the same conversation as Pearl Jam or Nirvana but you can put them in the top ten alternative bands of the 90's. Their second album,"Throwing Copper" is their most well known and it is their best album.

"I Alone' tells the story of obsessive love, and it's as creepy and as good as "Every Breath You Take". In fact, the speakers in both songs are basically the same person. While I do struggle with many faults, I can't say being overly possessive  of my girlfriends is among them-so I don't personally relate with either song but I do really like both. "Selling the Drama", "All Over You" and "The Dam at Otter Creek" are also quite good. "Shit Town" is my favorite song on the album, it's a good song about your dead end town and how miserable it is to live there. Great album, totally underrated. 

MH370

Remember the plane that vanished a few years ago? We have such short memories when it comes to news, but this one most people remember even if they don't know the details. I've always had a morbid "fascination" with plane crashes and I just finished a book called, "The Crash Detectives" by Christine Negroni. It's a fascinating book and while she talks about many famous crashes in the beginning she focuses on MH370.

While she admits that she doesn't know an answer for sure she seems to believe that the pilots were knocked out by depressurization. I'm hardly an expert-in fact while I "enjoy" reading about plane crashes I freely admit that it does not make me an expert in any way, shape or form-but I completely agree with her. In the post 9/11 world we are quick to jump to the worst possible conclusion. Hijacking, pilot suicide or a missile shooting down a plane. All of those things are truly horrific, but they are pretty rare.

Airplane travel is the safest way to travel. In reality, planes don't crash. But they do sometimes-and it's a horrible tragedy when they do. I'm a very nervous flyer and I avoid it at all costs. Reading this book actually helped me a little bit because it showed that even under the worst circumstances, pilots still do everything they can to give you a safe flight, and 99.9% of the time, they are successful.

"I support your right to..."

Recently I posted something on my Facebook that was religious in nature. An agnostic friend said "I'm not religious, but I support your right to it!" It was nice of him to say that, and I'm sure he means well. I support his right to be non religious, for the record. However the term got me thinking. While he's a friend, his supporting my right to be religious is like me saying I support his daughters right to have an abortion. My support of that is irrelevant, because she has that right. His support of my being openly religious is the same way. It's nice, but it's totally irrelevant to if I have the right or not.

It might get relevant one day in the future, when those rights are in danger-but right now, things are fine.

Living in the past

Regular readers (both of them) know that I roll my eyes when someone starts talking about what they think are the "good old days". Like I've mentioned before, the good old days were terrible for many of us, and they probably didn't exist for you either.

What people fail to comprehend about nostalgia is that the good times they wished for never happened. We over romanticize the past and we lose our ability to be objective about what really happened then. You remember the times that you were happy, but you forget about the times when you were miserable. I might look back with nostalgia to the 1970's (I wasn't born then, so I'm not speaking for me personally) as a simpler and less complicated time, but I forget how I really felt at that time. Maybe I really did like it, but more often than not I'm just forgetting how I really felt back then and choosing to remember something that didn't really exist in the first place.

The other odd thing about living in the past is that you are wishing for something that simply can't happen again. You are a different person than you were even three years ago (if you aren't, you are wasting your life to some degree), much less 20 years ago. The world doesn't move backwards and neither should you.

Pope Francis

It make seem odd for an LDS blog to talk about Pope Francis and Catholicism, but I was raised Catholic and still follow the news of the church. Pope Francis is in yet another scandal, this time not revolving around politics or his progressive views-it's about him potentially covering up more perverted priests. If it's true than yes, he needs to resign. Immediately. 

I'm not an expert on Canon law, but I can't remember any time in the recent future where there has been such a movement of regular lay people disagreeing with the pope and calling for his resignation. One of the fundamental cores of Catholicism is that the Pope is the boss, chosen by the Holy Spirit acting though the College of Cardinals to run the church and be the successor to St. Peter. Having so many people call for his resignation seems like the lay people are trying to overrule the Holy Spirit to me. 

If the lay people can successfully (and that's a big step. As of right now, nothing has happened) call on Pope Francis to resign, it begs several questions-was the Holy Spirit wrong when they elected him as Pope? Did the Catholic church become a democracy? What will happen in the future when/if a pope commits other mistakes?