Oh No.

Project Vote Smart

This is an amazing site that gives you access to pretty much everything you need to know about your politicians. Voting records being the most important thing, but also bios, ratings, "scores" according to different interest groups, etc. Try it out.

8

So, I kind of missed the boat on posting about the whole proposition 8 issue. While I am surprised that the LDS church spoke out so strongly, I am shocked at how many of the members went belly-up over the whole issue.

And now, some words from prophets of the Lord:

Harold B. Lee:

“You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord Himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory’ (D&C 21:6).” (THBL, 526)

Joseph F. Smith:

“The fact of the matter is, when a man says you may direct me spiritually, but not temporally, he lies in the presence of God–that is, if he has got intelligence enough to know what he is talking about. If he has not intelligence enough to know, then he only makes a mistake. But if he has intelligence enough, he knows that the spiritual and the temporal are one, indivisible and inseparable, and that you cannot direct a man spiritually without you direct him temporally as well. The spiritual and the temporal are blended in men. No man can act upon the promptings of the Spirit but it will affect him spiritually and temporally. It is true, we are dual beings, and the body and the spirit make the soul of man; but while that is so, whatever will affect you temporally will affect you more or less spiritually, and whatever will affect you spiritually will affect you temporally. So that this splitting of hairs, this dividing of very small things, is not manly, is not brave, is not honorable, is not intelligent, but is ignorance and foolishness in the sight of the Lord. I am in this Church to be directed body and spirit to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven, and I shall not stop short of that whether it affects me temporally or spiritually.” (CD, 5:125)

Russell M. Nelson:

“From time to time, I hear people speculate on the question, ‘When does the prophet speak as a prophet, and when does he speak otherwise?’ This query seems curious to me, as if one were presumptuous enough to sit in judgment on a prophet. In my close associations with President Kimball, spanning two decades and the spectrum from suffering to sublimity, I have never asked that question. The only question I have asked has been, ‘How can I be more like him?’” (Spencer J. Condie, Russell M. Nelson: Father, Surgeon, Apostle, 176)

So True

Interesting Article

I have been slacking on this blog.

Here is an article I found on my friend Ben Crowder's blog. It is called Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps. Very eye opening.

But, just to be safe, you'd better read the criticism of this article here.

This and that

Read this and read that.

Mike is the bomb. What more need I say?

What about the needy?

Republicans, Libertarians, and Constitutionalists (I semi-affiliate with all three) are often called heartless, self-serving, and a number of other unkind things. They are accused of not caring about the poor. I find this a bit insulting. I do care about the needy. I just think there is a better way to care for them than stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Furthermore, charity forced by the government always backfires.

Ezra T. Benson wrote, "Most other countries in the world have attempted to use the power of government to meet this need. Yet, in every case, the improvement has been marginal at best and has resulted in the long run creating more misery, more poverty, and certainly less freedom than when government first stepped in."

Henry Grady Weaver wrote, "Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind-in-the-mass through some pet formula of their own... The harm done by ordinary criminals, murderers, gangsters, and thieves is negligible in comparison with the agony inflicted upon human beings by the professional "do-gooders," who attempt to set themselves up as gods on earth and who would ruthlessly force their views on all others with the abiding assurance that the end justifies the means."
I second both of these quotes. That is all.