Oompa Loompa said:

While what you say is true, it still does not change the fact that equality does not just mean feminists women should just pick and choose what they want to be equal. They want equal pay, but they dont want equal working conditions. They want all the male privileges, but also they want to keep the female privileges.

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Sounds like a win-win to me. You should try it.

Oompa Loompa said:

Strongly, I am not seeing any woman's rights activists protesting for child support reform.

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I do… But as a reminder, if you feel the court unfairly shortchanged your kids the support they deserve, you’re welcome (and allowed) to pay more than the court designates.

essentialsaltes said:

Trump admin redacts entire Empire Wind study​

The administration blacked out 27 pages of findings in a document the Interior secretary cited when he ordered a work stoppage on the offshore wind project.

Transparency!

The Trump administration has repeatedly refused to release the NOAA study Burgum cited in April as justification for halting Empire Wind I, which had all of its permits. Construction later restarted after President Donald Trump said he made a deal to boost natural gas pipeline capacity in New York.

The Interior Department, in response to a formal request by POLITICO’s E&E News for the study under the federal Freedom of Information Act, sent a copy of the report that was almost entirely blacked out with redactions. In all, 27 full pages were redacted.

Daniel Bettinger, a co-founder of TurbineHub, a data company for renewable energy investors and developers, also sought the NOAA records and received the same blacked-out version.

He said in an interview that he wanted details of the report to help his clients gain insight into the workings of the government’s permitting offices.

“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do and what needs to be there is a transparency and ability to gauge predictability for these projects to be underwritten,” Bettinger said. “When we bring in these kind of non-transparent and unclear decisions and certain reports that are redacted, it just brings a lot of doubt into the total U.S. energy market.”

It should be pretty clear, you need to make a 'deal' with President Trump, and then you get your permit. What could be simpler?

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Here’s that document you requested via FOIA, psych!

EDIT:
“If the permitting for the project had actually been rushed or had any issues with it, as the Trump administration has claimed, then why would the administration hide every single word from the 27 pages of findings in the report?” asked Matt Walker, who advocates for renewable power at the NRDC, an environmental group. “It makes one seriously question if there were truly any legal or factual issues with the project review that would have justified the stop work order.”

Always in His Presence said:

Working Class Ditching Dem Party In Droves As Some Say It’s ‘Fighting For Everybody Else’ Besides Americans​

August 12, 2025

Many working-class Americans who previously voted Democratic are expressing skepticism about the party being able to regain their vote in future elections, the New York Times (NYT) reported Tuesday.​

​

Several working-class interviewees told the NYT that they struggled with their decisions to vote for former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The report comes as Democrats attempt to persuade voters to embrace their ideas ahead of the upcoming midterms and 2028 White House election.​

​

“I think I’m done with the Democrats,” Desmond Smith, a black man who voted for Biden in 2020, told the NYT. Smith told the outlet that he voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.​

​

When asked how the Democratic Party could win his vote back, Smith told the NYT that Democrats need to “fight for Americans instead of fighting for everybody else.”​

​

“It seemed like they [Democrats] were more concerned with [diversity, equity and inclusion] DEI and LGBTQ issues and really just things that didn’t pertain to me or concern me at all,” Kendall Wood, a truck driver from Virginia, told the NYT. Wood told the NYT that he voted for Trump in 2024 after backing Biden in 2020.​

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That's not news, it's been the elephant in the Democrat's living room for decades.

Always in His Presence said:

​

Question - what are they doing to bring back their supporters?

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Nothing so far, and that's not news either.

Yttrium said:

I put that out there because you complain about women not registering for selective service (even though they're not allowed to) while seemingly ignoring the fact that many women are already in the military. Obviously not all women are just trying to avoid military service.

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While what you say is true, it still does not change the fact that equality does not just mean feminists women should just pick and choose what they want to be equal. They want equal pay, but they dont want equal working conditions. They want all the male privileges, but also they want to keep the female privileges. Strongly, I am not seeing any woman's rights activists protesting for child support reform.

linux.poet said:

I have always considered the latter, perhaps biased by my innate hatred of the U.S. public school system, to be a "pattern of this world" that other Christians are to avoid conforming to.

However, perhaps given that the latter is interested in keeping Christians alive, along with everyone else, perhaps there is some alignment here. Thoughts?

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Many have tried to make it align. The so called separation of church and state though as handed down from the judicial branch over time has limited the role of religion in schools and in government. In some ways this is OK, because you would not want the state to compel any religion that some would believe as false. On the other hand the state has promoted the "religion of no religion," in many cases.
Some do think through on public policies and try to make it as Christian as possible. Others simply use Christianity to try to influence Christisnas with very little actual attempt the change it.
The Trump administration deserves some credit for certain areas. More alignment with Israel, and more real anti-abortion concerns than previous administrations. However, some of Trump's Christian partners have some issues in other things they are trying to accomplish. The rush to cut taxes on the most wealthy at the expense of the poor are one problematic policy as was alluded to by yarddog in the previous reply.

Christianity though has never really had a consensus on immigration, public debts, or even the type of economic system that is best. Some theologians write about various policy matters but few are proficient in how to make policy reforms that can align with the bible in actual practice. I think this will expand as more Christians take their faith and begin to study and understand the fields (most social sciences) that can help them get a fields such as economics, politics, education, criminal justice and all other areas that sorely need help.

Americans too need to look at how political parties, corruption, conflict of interests, and large corporate interests control government to some extent and the detriment to most everyday Americans. America is not immune from this, though it is far from the worst.

Hvizsgyak said:

That science is giving answers to questions that happened billions of years ago or millions of light years away - absolutely ridiculous. You could probably give good educated guesses but lets admit it, you weren't there to see it firsthand.

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Let's ask a simple question did hydrogen exist 2.4 billion years ago?
Using my cheap amateur telescope and a diffraction grating the answer is yes.

3C-273 is a quasar 2.4 billion light years away which means the photons reaching my telescope from 3C-273 as it appeared 2.4 billion years ago.
The hydrogen spectral lines are clearly visible as peaks including a small oxygen peak.

The JWST valued at around $10,000,000,000 compared to $3000 for my setup can image objects in a far greater detail and at considerably greater distances.
It has revealed that galaxies evolved rapidly only a few million years after the Big Bang far faster than theoretical models predicted.

So it is not absolutely ridiculous to think it is all guesswork as we are using physical evidence as it happened billions of years ago.

Oompa Loompa said:

Yes. It does. Here is an idea. What if women started showing equality to men? How many women would be okay with their husband choosing to stay home while the wife works and provides?

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That has happened a number of times over my 45 years of marriage. It depended on who could get a better job at any given time. Of course, when my wife was the breadwinner I took over the housekeeping and childcare duties. When we both worked we shared them, because none of that is branded "mans" work or "woman's" work.

Hentenza said:

That’s fine. I’m still going to post the truth. Call it planting seeds.

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Just make sure they are not planted on moon rocks

Oompa Loompa said:

I will vote for that. Many other countries do it. I believe even Switzerland does it.

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I put that out there because you complain about women not registering for selective service (even though they're not allowed to) while seemingly ignoring the fact that many women are already in the military. Obviously not all women are just trying to avoid military service.

seeking.IAM said:

It does not apply to all denominations. I came over from the UMC and needed to be confirmed, not received.

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Thanks for the info!

Philip_B said:

That is the general idea. There is a sense of it being a tradition which can reasonably demonstrate the Historic Episcopate.

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Thanks for the response!

9Rock9 said:

I'm a Provisionist and an ex-Calvinist. I had some doubts about Calvinism for awhile, particularly with regards to the problem of evil and limited atonement.

While I am sure Calvinists don't actually teach that God is the author of evil, I personally couldn't reconcile it with my own understanding of Calvinism, and saying that God is the author of evil just seems the logical conclusion of Calvinsim. After all, if God preordains everything, then does that mean he preordained evil?

I was a four point Calvinist because I thought it was obvious from Scriptures that God died for the sins of the whole world and does not with to see anyone damned for eternity.

What really started to dissuade me from Calvinism was the idea of corporate election. I used to believe in unconditional election, because I thought the alternative meant that God chose people based on foreseen faith, and therefore makes God dependent on man's will.

Corporate election, on the other hand, means that God has elected a people to be his. While the Church is made up of individuals, election is not understood as being primarily of individuals, but as part of being a member of the Church. Christ is the elect individual, and all who are in him become a part of the elect. It's supposedly closer to the 1st Century Jewish view than Calvinism is in that the Jewish people weren't as individualistic as modern western Christians.

Once I changed my mind about election, the rest of Calvinism unraveled for me.

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And in. Eph 1:4. says Just as CHOSE // ELECTION , us f or Himself. in Him BEFORE // PRO. , the overthrow of the world

for us to be holy and without blemish. before Him in love ,

dan p

Always in His Presence said:

A "beat cop" is a police office who walks or drives a daily beat - a certain area of the city.

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They are doing that. National Guard troops are being put out on the streets to patrol specific areas and "show the flag," so to speak. From one of the articles I linked earlier:

The idea is that residents and tourists would awake Thursday morning to the sight of military presence, according to a person familiar with the effort.

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But again, whether or not they're truly "beat cops" is irrelevant to the point I was making. Soldiers are being used as an element of law enforcement. That is authoritarian.

Always in His Presence said:

The National Guard does none of that, they are a backup, or reinforcement to aid the Police because

• According to the DC Police Union, MPD is operating with fewer than 3,200 sworn officers, marking its lowest staffing level in 50 years.
• MPD is approximately 500 officers short of its 4,000-officer allotment.
• Officers are stretched thin, logging nearly 2 million overtime hours last year—four times the average—which has led to exhaustion and reduced effectiveness.
• A recent study found a shortage of 65 detectives, with 52 needed in the Criminal Investigations Section.

Unequivocally NO - they are not beat police and the city is understaffed by 500 officers. In a city of 680,000 - that is a big number.

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If MPD being understaffed is the root cause of the issue, why did Congress - with Trump's support - cut DC's budget by $1 billion? Why are no measures to solve the issue being discussed? Unless the goal is to permanently use federal agents and the military to police the city? Which would, again, be authoritarian.

Oompa Loompa said:

Every time you ever asked a man to help you with a task because you couldn't do it on your own and you knew a man could do it more easily, you pulled the "but I am a girl" card.

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So every time I made dinner, cleaned the house, did something for a child, found an item in the that was right there but they didn’t bother looking for before asking me for help, or otherwise relying on me to do something they can do if they just put out a little more effort, is that pulling the “but I’m a boy!” card?

Oompa Loompa said:

In spite of modern feminism making so much strides in "equality," why is just about every blue collar hard labor job dominated by men? Where are all these feminists replacing roofs? Where are all these feminists at the oil rigs? Where are all these feminists at the auto repair shop? Where are all these feminist at the construction sites?

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I see them there… One half of the team who replaced my water heater were women. I can’t help that you don’t see them. We’ve established that you live in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood with people regularly thumping on each other for no reason. I suspect most women avoid a neighborhood like that.

Because there are industries dominated by women and not men, does that mean don’t actually want equality, are throwing away their god-given authority, and thus ineligible for rights?

Oompa Loompa said:

I will tell you where, they pulled the "I am just a girl" card and went to the office in spite the fact that many of those jobs are higher paying. But they will still cry about the gender wage gap.

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No, women cry about the gender wage gap because the person in the desk next to them doing the same job gets paid more if they have a penis. Or the woman on the roof gets paid less than the guy on the roof next to her. Or on the construction sites next to her get paid more. They don’t cry that other unrelated industries get paid more than they do. That doesn’t even make sense.

AV1611VET said:

As long as you see legitimate footprints, I have no problem with that.

But when there are so many missing steps, and those steps are assumed to have been there at one time; well ...

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That is only a claim you can make despite everyone telling you that is not the case.

pgp_protector said:

sigh.
That's this. (from 2013)

BRRISON: A Planetary Science Balloon Mission - NASA

It doesn’t always take a spaceship to do planetary science. Sometimes you just need a balloon, gondola and some high tech cameras. This fall, NASA

www.nasa.gov

And was only up for about 13 hours.

BRRISON - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Many crashed satellites have been sited with balloon still attached, please explain.

Valletta said:

“This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions,” the letter, sent to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch, says.

White House begins reviewing Smithsonian exhibits ahead of 250th anniversary

The review will include an assessment of the Smithsonian's online content, internal curatorial processes, exhibition planning, narrative standards and an evaluation of its materials and collections.

justthenews.com

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Official whitewashing is better, somehow?

RileyG said:

First of all, I have a deep love for The Book of Common Prayer and have no desire to convert. I use it to supplement my prayer life.

If someone has already been confirmed by a bishop in another denomination (Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox etc) it's my understanding Anglicans/Episcopalians won't confirm them again, but receive them into the Church via reception.

Does this apply to ALL denominations that have a rite or sacrament of confirmation? Such as UCC, Methodists, Presbyterians, Reformed etc

Peace

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That is the general idea. There is a sense of it being a tradition which can reasonably demonstrate the Historic Episcopate.

AV1611VET said:

Well ... unless you want to take it by faith that it happened.

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Only if you don't accept that events in the past left evidence.

They’re just out there somewhere stating evil is good and good evil. Make no sense to take the enemy into your shirt so he won’t kill you.

Yttrium said:

How about an alternative, Oompa? In order to vote, you have to serve in the active-duty military for at least four years. Registering for the selective service is nothing, since the draft isn't being used these days. Let's all be like Starship Troopers. Service is citizenship. If you haven't served, no more vote for you. Why isn't that your standard instead of something pointless? Works for me. I'd still be voting.

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I will vote for that. Many other countries do it. I believe even Switzerland does it.

Tropical Wilds said:

Have I pulled that card…? Or are you dealing in stereotypes again?

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Every time you ever asked a man to help you with a task because you couldn't do it on your own and you knew a man could do it more easily, you pulled the "but I am a girl" card. In spite of modern feminism making so much strides in "equality," why is just about every blue collar hard labor job dominated by men? Where are all these feminists replacing roofs? Where are all these feminists at the oil rigs? Where are all these feminists at the auto repair shop? Where are all these feminist at the construction sites? I will tell you where, they pulled the "I am just a girl" card and went to the office in spite the fact that many of those jobs are higher paying. But they will still cry about the gender wage gap.

Oompa Loompa said:

Yes. It does. Here is an idea. What if women started showing equality to men? How many women would be okay with their husband choosing to stay home while the wife works and provides?

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I don’t have all women on my speed dial, but I suspect the answer would be the same as it is when they discuss the woman stays home while the husband work… Some would support it, some wouldn’t.