Ham-fisted Ham

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN said:

I'm noticing that. The sad thing is the president is worse, that the people, that he sending to horrible conditions.

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I’m fully aware, unfortunately.

Hans Blaster said:

Who are any of those people?

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My good sir. Elrond was there the day the strength of men failed.

ralliann said:

So too the Cartels. Groups involved terrorism are not confined to 9/11. How sad this is...

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But the authorization of military force is confined to 9/11. This use of military force may have been extrajudicial.

The stats for Seattle I gave are corroborated by an AI overview which takes the same stat from different sources.



AI Overview



+10

Seattle's total crime rate in a recent 2024 study was 5,782.7 per 100,000 residents, placing it fourth among the 30 largest U.S. cities, with a total crime number 172.9% higher than the national average. Property crime is higher than the national average, though violent crime rates were lower in the first half of 2025 and declined significantly in 2024 from previous years.

Specifics of Seattle's Crime Rate

• • Total Crime Rate (2024): 5,782.7 per 100,000 residents.
  • Violent Crime (2024): 775.1 per 100,000 residents.
  • Property Crime: Significantly higher than many smaller cities, though recent data shows a 17% decrease in 2024

Hentenza said:

Giving an apology never hurt anyone.

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It might very well hurt someone if it makes the wrong person appear to be responsible for the harm done.

thisguy777 said:

I am not questioning what she wants or doesn't want. the question is to what extent does the Christian female population like. I think its higher than what she thinks. because they don't want to look "sinful"

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Okay, well, wild guess time.

I expect that many Christian women enjoy sex, including foreplay.

I expect that many women who were raised in a conservative Christian home or church have been messed up by the wildly mixed messages we heard growing up, and have a lot to unlearn before we can relax and enjoy.

Don't slap her on the bum unless you've confirmed beforehand that she's into BDSM.

I'm still uncomfortable with the wording of the multiple-choice answers. For the last option, instead of "my body is fair game for him", how about something like "we enjoy each other's bodies when we're together". Something that indicates that she's an active participant too, that sex isn't just something that's done to her.

ozso said:

So what are the official seven out ten cities people are talking about in regard to Trump deploying the national guard?

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You’d have to ask them.

ralliann said:

I wonder. Should they have taken the ship is People, including Children were being trafficked? Or would they say ah, they are being taken to Venezuela.

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I don't know what that means.

The Liturgist said:

Are the laity in your parish opposed to holy water fonts? Because I have seen those in Lutheran churches. I would note the Orthodox usually don’t use fonts except for baptism, rather, laity receiving Holy Water receive it in a container and it is treated as a holy thing. This also avoids sanitary issues, since unlike the Eucharist, Holy Water can be contaminated.

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A former Pastor wanted to move the baptismal font to the rear of the Church, so parishoners could, if they chose to, remember their baptism with it. We got no traction on that whatsoever. Such was deemed too "catlick". LOL However, since that time, we have seen an ever increasing number of members, old and new alike, making the sign of the cross.

So much negative influence in North America from reformed evangelical and pietist Christians as well as Masonic and Orange lodges. German Lutherans and Catholics were in a minority in this part of Upper Canada, being a British Colony. Only in about the last 50 years have we began to see a return to the fulness of our Liturgical heritage.

So much easier in Europe, our Sister Church in Latvia and their new Archbishop:



Baby-steps as they say; someday.

Hans Blaster said:

I'm not claiming that you are sneaking it it. Rather it seems that you just quote it credulously. The problem may just be that you don't recognize the psuedohistory for what it is. I don't know.

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Probably, belief is a hard concept to express and in some ways its all it comes down to. But its the same for skeptics who 'believe' not as fact that there is only rational, scientific evidence for all this. I have gone through the metaphysics and epitemics.

Maybe its more my poor articulation. But either way in the end I am not promoting conspiracy and have clarified this.

Hans Blaster said:

Oh well.

It grows less fun with time.

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Yes it seems to lose steam and decend into opinions. Thats why the specific examples are possibly the only way to establish that there is some advanced knowledge in our past. Or maybe the overall view that our history shows a period of great works that seems to be early and a contradiction to the primitive to modern idea.

Hans Blaster said:

I really don't think it has anything to do with philosophy, metaphysics or epistemics, or any "worldview" thing. Certainly not a naturalist versus non-naturalist view.

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Why not. I have found that for the most part those who see alternative histories are those who support the naturalistic and material worldview of no God or gods or anything transcendent that invites something beyond as a factor to that in the orthodox material science.

When it comes to the final evidence unless it has to be empiricle and due to naturalistic causes which include the orthodox methods because they reflect the naturalistic processes. Which are used to defeat any alternative view as pseudoscience or conspiracy.

Which as seen as unreal and not reflecting the naturalistic processes. Its called Woo for the reason it is not grounded in material science. Whereas I think a Theist or someone open to transcedent ideas (not necessarily religious) will be more open to such alternative ideas.

Seems to speak of metaphysics and philosophy to me. The persons worldview on what they consider valid evidence is setting the epistemic criteria before the evidence is assessed.

Hans Blaster said:

I'm not sure I'm going to respond to much of what remains of this post. I am, however, going to go back to the first page and reply to a few bits you wrote in the earliest posts (particularly before I responded the first time) to try to show you what concerned me at the time and still, but do so more carefully.

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Ok.

Another painting that looks 3D

rambot said:

Help me understand why all nations should abide by international rules except the United States.


I'm just having trouble grasping that level of American Exceptionality. How come other countries with drug problems are obliged to abide by those agreements but the US is not.

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Because Merica! That's why. Just try to stop us. The world won't because they cant.

Valletta said:

DEVELOPING: MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be Deported to African Country of Eswatini | The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila

MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been informed that he will be deported to the African country of Eswatini.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

The U.S. has been quite accommodating to Mr. Garcia and I am so happy this matter has been settled. While I have been to Africa I have never been to Eswanti, they have a nice temperate climate there.

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Once again, the liberal left accomplished nothing. Despite their best attempts, the wife beating gangster is out of the country.

Trump is angry at the Smithsonian for making slavery look bad.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/us/politics/trump-smithsonian-slavery.html

Amo2 said:

Oh yea, the NY Times is where we can all get the unbiased truth.

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They quoted Trump. C'mon.
Don't see any of those. Must be like those cancer-causing windmills, um? But if I'm wrong, link to the evidence of people saying all Americans support slavery. What do you have?
(links presented, none of which say that all Americans support slavery)
So nothing?

Our fathers were not only Christains; they were, even in Maryland by a vast majority, elsehwere almost unanimously, Protestants. Now the Protestant reformation, considered in its largest influence on politics, was the awakening of the common people to freedom of mind.

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The Founders were mostly Christians, with some deists, Jewish believers, and some "free-thinkers." None of them wanted a system based on Christian, much less Protestant belief. I put more confidence in what the founders actually said, than what some later-day revisionist says they meant.

Because experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution....Because it will destroy that moderation and harmony which the forbearance of our laws to intermeddle with Religion has produced among its several sects. Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in Religious opinion. Time has at length revealed the true remedy. Every relaxation of narrow and rigorous policy, wherever it has been tried, has been found to assuage the disease. The American Theatre has exhibited proofs that equal and compleat liberty, if it does not wholly eradicate it, sufficiently destroys its malignant influence on the health and prosperity of the State.9 If with the salutary effects of this system under our own eyes, we begin to contract the bounds of Religious freedom, we know no name that will too severely reproach our folly...
James Madison, Against Religious Assessments

Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read, "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.
Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography

RocksInMyHead said:

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove by this whataboutism exercise. If he explicitly ordered the SEALs to kill him rather than capture him, then yes that could be considered murder. Pretty sure that's not what their orders were though.

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Nope. I think his order were ro take him dead or alive. Which is extremely endorsed.

Amo2 said:

It does not surprise me, that you cannot see the major deterring implications against slavery implied within the first couple of paragraphs of the document.

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People like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson couldn't see it either. And Jefferson wrote it.

So I'm in pretty good company.

Hopefully, no one here. But into the 1990s, one prominent YEC was saying that it was God's doing, as some races were by nature, slaves.

Amo2 said:

Never heard such.

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Institute for Creation Research co-founder Henry Morris

Amo2 said:

Please do provide these statements.

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Often the Hamites, especially the Negroes, have become actual personal servants or even slaves to the others. Possessed of a genetic character concerned mainly with mundane matters, they were eventually displaced by the intellectual and philosophical acumen of the Japhethites and the religious zeal of the Semites....Neither Negroes nor any other Hamitic people were intended to be forcibly subjugated on the basis of this Noah declaration. The prophecy would be inevitably fulfilled because of the innate natures of the three genetic stocks, not by virtue of any artificial constraints imposed by man.
Henry Morris The Beginning of the World 1997

I should make it clear that many, maybe most YECs today have rejected the racist foundations of YEC. Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, has condemned racism, although he has never specifically condemned the racist views of other founders like Morris and Tinkle. YEC today is not intrinsically racist.

Amo2 said:

we may take a close look at the connections between the theory of Evolution and support for or of racist tendencies.

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You'd be hard put to find a racist scientist who accepts evolutionary theory today, since the theory shows that there are no biological human races. On the other hand, we see people like Morris blathering about the supposed genetic spiritual and intellectual inferiority of black people. Again, most YECs have rejected the racism of early creationists.

Posting from Nashville, Tennessee. We've been here two weeks and will be going to Florida next week. Unfortunately the weather forecast is for rain the whole time we will be down there.
I've managed to get in touch with a couple of CF old timers who live close by. They no longer post here but were among the early Orthodox Christians involved here. "Oblio" is over in Georgia and "Iacobus", now Fr James, is over in North Carolina. We had the pleasure of hosting both of them when we lived in Thessaloniki, Greece, when they each made the trip to Mt Athos.
@The Liturgist are you still likely to be in the vicinity? I just looked back through the thread and saw your message again. I can't promise being able to meet up, seeing as every moment we get to spend with our granddaughter is precious, and priority, since it will likely be years before we get another opportunity to spend so much time together.

When it comes to serving the Lord will see through the text how the Lord deal with us and mold us to righteousness. This is why it is alway good to give praise to the Lord and be thankful always. Because the Lord try us he correct us and he chastening those whom he love for correction. Sometimes there will be temptation before us and we will have to stand on the word of God to make it through.

Let go to Hebrew 12: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. 5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, Nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 13 and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

So let’s understand that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Notice it says let us run with patience the race that is set before us, because this is until the lord comes or until the end of our lives. We have to make sure we are walking this walk as Jesus show us who did no sins. So there will be times when we get off track brothers and sisters.

Let’s go to Luke 4: 1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. 5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

In this case the Holy Ghost is referring to the word of God and the spirit is angel. Now the Lord gave Satan a bargaining chip to entice you with. It is up to you to reject it. He can’t make you sin but he can entice you by offering you what you lust for. But notice what Jesus says It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. The kingdoms of the world are in Satan’s power to deliver to whom he will. He wants to be worshipped as God. Aways keep that in mind.

But let’s go to James 1: 12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

So stay strong in the Lord when enduring temptation because there is a crown if life at the end. But for those who are tempted and is drawn away of his or her own lust, it bringeth forth sin and sin bringeth forth death.

The bible says, we must not only be a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word also (James 1:21-22). DON'T FOOL YOURSELF! If we really have faith in Jesus our actions will prove it. If Jesus is our Lord then we will obey him. Even a child will obey a parent, by getting good grades in school, for the reward of a new bicycle. The child cannot earn money for the bicycle, but instead must act upon their faith to receive the free gift. We must do the same to receive eternal life. "FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD” (James 2:20).

A man asked Jesus this very question, "...What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?", and Jesus replied, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. (Matthew 19:16-19).

Is it a horseshoe when lots of black commentators are heaping praise on Nick Fuentes, or is that just unexpected agreement among people who are deep down the same? And were we wrong to not expect it?