Tom D said:

Behind every movie, there is a novel, or story.
'The Song of Bernadette' is also a novel.

The novel 'Song of Bernadette' was not written by a Christian, but by a Jew. A Jew !!
A Jew who didn't believe in Jesus.

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True, but the novel was largely baed on her amazing life story.

An oldie from Michael W Smith


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Always in His Presence said:

• The Supreme Court has long recognized that non-citizens may be detained for immigration purposes under a different legal framework than criminal suspects.
• Civil detention for removal proceedings has been upheld when authorized by statute and carried out reasonably.

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"Different legal framework" is about as vague as it gets. And unless there was some monumental Supreme Court case that none of us are aware of, they still need a judicial warrant to enter a residence. The only exceptions are if they are in "hot pursuit" of a suspect, believe that someone is in danger, or if someone invites them in. Those rights can't be negated with a memo.

zeland2236 said:

Time is a two-sided coin, one side despised and wasted during life, the other priceless, and unattainable at the hour of death.

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As long as we are going to mix idioms. They say the difference between boys and men are the size of their toys, but when they die no one can take anything with them.

JacquelineDeane55 said:

When we moved down here to Alabama, we had no idea what the new climate would be like. As it turned out we can't plant in the summer time because its so hot no plants will grow. This surprised us.

Its zones 9a and 9b where we are at.

So we planted in the winter instead and our plants have been growing just fine! Go figure. We have actually received a bumper crop this past winter and have eaten nearly everything we have grown. I guess we have learned that being in a climate that gets as hot and humid as ours does, we have to always plant in the winter to avoid the really harsh heats that will kill all of our plants.

I mean, this has never happened to us anywhere we have lived. Its like we have to garden in reverse just to get anything. Does gardening in the winter sound strange to you? Because it does to me.

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The Alabama Extension Service might have some guides on planting times and such for various plants. When people say garden, I assume vegetable garden, since that's what we called them, but extension services sometimes cover ornamentals as well.

Sometimes, though, the extension service material misses it, or overlooks other issues. They used to say every farm was an agricultural experimental station, and keeping notes helps.

In general, in the South, winter is another growing season, just the crops change.

Anyone here familiar with the Advent Christian Church?

The denomination has its roots in the Millerite/Adventist movement, but, afaik, it seems like the only thing they have in common with the 7th Day Adventists is a belief in annihilationism.

I think this denomination is pretty close to my own views. Idk if I'll convert because I am on the fence about annihilationism. The denomination also seems indifferent to women's ordination, and I'm a complementarian.

What can you tell me about them?

ONE SATURDAY, many years ago, a friend of mine was visiting from out of town.

Looking for some prayerful encouragement—and probably a kick in the rear to get himself to confession—he confided painfully to me that he had fallen into a pattern of serious sexual sin, about which he was understandably distressed and embarrassed. (Let’s just say that the particular sins burdening him went beyond the solitary sort which many are prone to.)

During a frank conversation in which my friend was searingly honest with himself, I offered some heartfelt advice and encouragement that he go asap to the sacrament of confession (a.k.a. reconciliation). Agreeing to go, we wasted no time. Clambering into my car, we drove straight to a nearby parish so he could go to confession.

His discomfiture at having to confess these deeply embarrassing sins to another human being was palpable. He was miserable, but he knew he’d be even more miserable if he put off any longer the sacramental moment of reckoning.

Promising him my prayers for courage and trust in the Lord’s mercy, I knelt in a pew at the back of the church while my friend approached the confessional.

The red light above the confessional door indicated that a priest was waiting for penitents. Aside from my friend and me, the large church was completely empty.

Fifteen minutes passed.


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The House of Representatives will be voting next Wednesday on whether to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt over their refusal to testify about their relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, three people told Politico.

The Rules Committee will meet at 4 p.m. Monday to consider the resolutions for the floor.

Last week, the House Oversight Committee voted to advance the resolutions, with nine Democrats joining all Republicans in voting in favor after the Clintons announced they would defy a subpoena.

Epstein, a New York financier, was friends with the former president, who flew on his private plane.

If the House approves the contempt resolutions, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said the matter would be referred to the Department of Justice.

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This was the conversation I had in a daydream in 2016 between me and an angel that had an eagle's visage. If you read my other reads this one makes those make more sense. Although this wasn't the biggest event that happened that year, hence I got closer to God because of a rift that was experienced between the presumed date of April 5th and November 8th. Where a reciprocating interaction between the dates was met on opposite sides and primarily in November where I remembered the previous on November 11th.

The angel was trying to pull me from my 15 year insurrection "Prodigy" that I was in at the time.

On Monday, New York Magazine published an article, "The Superhuman President," which feels like an attempt to get back at Republicans who pointed out Joe Biden was asleep and declining rapidly for four years, but it's actually fairly entertaining.


We've all heard members of the Donald Trump administration swear that the president never sleeps, and given how much he's gotten done in just a short year, that's pretty believable.

For the rest of the administration, however, that's not the case, particularly for Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Keep in mind that the president is 79, and Rubio is only 54 — young enough to be his son — but it seems like the hardest working man in the Trump administration just can't keep up with his boss. It's so bad that when they're both flying on Air Force One, Rubio says he hides from Trump, hoping he won't catch him taking naps during trips overseas.

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d taylor said:

More people know of Bob Ross and his work than Rembrandt.​

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Dracula

Oompa Loompa said:

I am just shocked as to how so many liberals are commenting as if they had never been held accountable for their actions in their lives.

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Not every story deserves such a reaction.

In this week's roundup of abortion-related news, a pregnant students’ rights act stalls in the Senate while the Texas attorney general is suing a mail-order abortion provider.

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

Pregnant students’ rights act stalls in Senate​

A bill that would ensure pregnant college students are informed of their rights failed to pass in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

The bill stalled after passing in the U.S. House of Representatives last week. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act would require colleges to provide information to mothers about on-campus resources that exist to help them carry their babies to term and care for their babies after birth as well as other accommodations.

In addition, the bill would give students information on how to file a discrimination complaint based on pregnancy if needed.

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Servus said:

So you are wondering if Jesus was an Aquarius or whichever? If so there's a general consensus that Jesus was actually born in the Spring. So perhaps Taurus. I know that much because I'm a Taurus. My birthday often falls near to or even on Easter.

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So does mine.

But we're talking the horoscope of the Greeks. What was the astrology of the ancient Zoroastrians?

War story: Back in the early 90s, Indian Prime Minister Rao in India was a hawkish right-winger. He was regularly testing ballistic missiles, which was easy enough to keep under surveillance. Often they would make visible preparations for a launch and stage the launch as soon as prepared. But sometimes they would prepare and wait days or weeks before actually launching. It was one of those things we in the military intelligence community from DC to Hawaii pondered and debated. Why?

Then one of my guys, a bright Army staff sergeant, read in an Indian magazine that Rao was an intent believer in astrology. But not Greek astrology, Indian astrology. My staff sergeant spent his own money to go to an Indian astrologer and get a work-up for Rao. It was kind of a whim on his part, but he compared the history of past missile launches to Rao's chart.

And they matched. The launches always occurred on Rao's "favorable" days.

He wanted to publish a report about it immediately, but I told him to wait. "It's not high on the national interest level at the moment. Let's wait until they prepare for the next launch and there is national interest. Then you'll check the horoscope and predict the date of the launch. That's when we'll publish your report."

The admiral actually came into our office and sat on the staff sergeant's desk to hear all about his analysis.

The evolutionary smoking gun that allegedly refutes evangelical objections to macro-evolution:

We live in a very different culture today than we did back in the 80’s. So much more is tolerated and accepted now that years ago the church would speak out against.

It’s important to remember that we are called to be a light in the darkness. To come out from among the rest. To stand up for the Lord when it’s more convenient to stay silent.

Jesus never said that following him would be easy. He said that we would face trials. The great people of Faith Mentioned in Hebrews 11 paid the ultimate price for standing up for the Lord.

They also understood that they were only aliens and strangers passing through and their citizenship was really in Heaven. Paul who used to persecute Christians and was present during the stoning of Stephen, ended up in jail for his devotion to the Lord.

The book of Acts teaches us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. We have the power of prayer, the word of God, Righteousness-

We are assured that we will succeed if we move out in the name of the Lord and walk in his spirit.

We should be the ones who are out there calling for peace in the midst of chaos. We should be the ones who are pointing people to the Lord. We should be reminding each other that our redemption is drawing closer.

We are not called to act recklessly in faith but righteous. We can’t accomplish anything the same way that we see people trying to accomplish anything.

Look at how many times we have expected politicians to make changes and it rarely happens the way we expect. Perhaps the change we are needing only comes from the Lord.

Didn’t Jesus say that what is impossible with men is possible with God?

Scripture teaches us that if Jesus Christ be lifted up, He will draw all people to himself.

It seems like so much time is wasted on things that don’t matter. And, not enough time spent on the one thing that does matter.

Jesus… Jesus!

d taylor said:

​

It is kitsch​

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Why AI Art Tends to Be Kitsch Rather than Fine Art

Desk trauma said:

The Murtaugh ruling took place in 89 so...

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Yep

Firstlightdawn said:

None of this is God's Justice. This just shows what a mess man makes out of the system. One of the biggest complaints in the prison system is the lack of Justice. God does not want to punish people. He wants to redeem and restore them. Of course, there is restitution for the victim. Still, the offender is entitled to Justice with God.

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I agreed with your post #21.

Disturbing photos released in the Epstein files appear to show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor crouching on all fours over a female lying on the floor.

In the three photographs, a man believed to be Andrew can be seen leaning over the woman who is sprawled face up with their arms spread out.

He is staring directly at the camera in one picture, while in another he has placed his left hand on the female's stomach.

The man, thought to be the former Duke of York, is barefoot and is wearing jeans and a white polo shirt, along with a silver watch.

Another person can be seen in the photographs, sitting in a leopard-print chair with their feet up on a table.

Like much of the material released in the Epstein files, it is unclear when or where the images were taken and no further context is given. Last month, a photo of Andrew lying on the laps of five women at Sandringham was released in another batch of files.

More than three million more documents were published last night by the US Department of Justice. Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said there have been 'extensive redactions' to the documents.

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Could computer programs ever come to truly think and understand? Can artificial intelligence (AI) possess a “mind” the way humans do and, by extension, ever be described as a “person” with a soul?

If you ask some of the leading creators and proponents of AI products, at least some of them would answer “Yes” to these questions— a “Yes” that, if true, would raise other far-reaching and potentially dangerous ideas: Should AI programs be given rights? Should they be considered as equal in dignity to humans, or even obeyed as our superiors?!

For Michael Augros, a philosopher and professor at Thomas Aquinas College, the answer to the question “Can AI truly think and understand?” — and, by extension, “Does AI have a soul?” — is a resounding “No.”

But Augros doesn’t simply answer in the negative and leave it at that — he shows his work in the form of a new 10-part, multi-hour podcast series entitled The Mind and the Machine, produced by the college. In the podcast, episodes of which are being released serially, Augros explains in detail what it means, philosophically, to “think and understand” — and why he believes AI will never be capable of doing so.

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The Liturgist said:

To be clear, if one does forgive, at any time, they will be forgiven, it is not the case that on one occasion praying without fully having forgiven anyone would result in damnation, for forgiving people requires a struggle against the passions which can take a bit of time, and God is infinitely loving and will provide us with sufficient grace so that our forgiveness is not lost over such a mishap. For this reason we should also not cease to pray for the souls of the departed.

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A Cautionary Parable.
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.
Matthew 18:21-
32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him,
‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.

35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you,
from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

The sees of Nashville and Tulsa are among those that are flourishing — in cities where Catholics are a distinct minority.

The Register’s ongoing “Catholic Hubs” series has sought to highlight places where Catholicism seems to be on the upswing, rather than on the decline — places where efforts to promote and live out the Catholic faith really seem to be working. But it’s difficult to describe such places without recourse to buzzwords, like “vibrant,” “thriving” or “flourishing.”

Whatever the adjective, it’s clear that the Dioceses of Nashville and Tulsa are among those Catholic places worth highlighting. In an analysis published last year in Catholic World Report (CWR), Nashville and Tulsa tied for first place among the nation’s most “fruitful” dioceses.

The CWR analysis examined every U.S. diocese to determine which ones have the most seminarians, infant baptisms, Catholic weddings, and adult Catholic converts relative to the existing Catholic population. Weighing all of these factors together produced a unified “fruitfulness” score for each diocese — with “fruitful” defined as places with a “bright future” when it comes to Catholicism, in contrast with the barren fig tree in Christ’s parable (Luke 13:6-9).

Notably, Nashville turned out to have the most infant baptisms per capita of any diocese, while Tulsa had the second-most baptisms and the second-most weddings of any diocese.

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