Swagnarok

(Alternative lyrics to Amazing Grace)Come fiery darts my way
The host of Heaven shall prevail
And rescue me that day
Before she left the womb
The sureties of my God shall keep
And raise her from the tomb

There is an increasing number of men who spend their entire adult lives holed up in their rooms. They spend all their time on the internet, sitting constantly, growing fat, never finding a mate (and increasingly unsuited for a mate), never accomplishing a dang thing, living in dark, filthy, cramped conditions. That does not sound like living to me.

Yet it's often too much trouble to climb our way out of the momentarily comfortable pits we've dug for ourselves. So we don't. And nobody's willing to help to the extent that is necessary.

I know it sounds super extreme, but just think about it for a second: What would you rather? Waste 9 months of your life or waste your entire life? I suspect you're older; if so, do you ever wish that things had turned out differently? That you had done certain things differently?

I do not want to waste my life. If there was this person who could ensure that I don't (or at least make that significantly less likely), I think I'd be much obliged to him or her.

It has nothing to do with the political ideology of the person in the camp. Young men on both the left and right, gay straight or whatever, are all perfectly capable of spending their lives as unmotivated slackers.

They often end up that way for lack of a father figure, something which is vital to the psychological development of men, as statistics on crime, high school dropout rates, etc. will tell you. The father figure, among other things, provides discipline. The coaches running the camp are capable of providing discipline.

The Haunting of Hill House is pretty good. I think some people have been overstating how scary it is, because it really isn't at all, save the end of episode five, which was pretty disturbing. Mainly it's just depressing. And none of it really makes sense (six episodes in). They seem like they could be a real family, the way that they interact with each other and the way that they look. My favorite character is probably Luke.

Unmotivated people who're on the path to becoming complete losers should be put into 9-month rehabilitation camps to mold them into responsible citizens. 9 months is to break unhealthy habits and install healthy habits, to give them a "fresh start". It should be an exhaustive curriculum that instills both physical and mental discipline, so that they can make the absolute most of their God-given potential after their release. They have one life to live and it is a tragedy that anybody should waste theirs. Everybody should be able to croak one day having no final regrets.

If the state won't do this, then there ought to be a vigilante organization devoted to this endeavor. It'd be run like half army boot camp and half university. The ultimate charity. Intense daily exercise, little sitting down time (outside of the classrooms and studying), no porn, no jacking off, no video games, no TV, no drugs or alcohol, only nutritious meals, much intellectually stimulating reading material and religious texts made available.

It's probably too early in the life cycle of this site for something like this. Nobody here has yet left the kind of impression on me that I could cast an honest vote one way or another. So I therefore abstain.

Stephen Breyer will likely be the next Supreme Court Justice to go. Trump will likely replace him with Gregory Katsas, who will then be confirmed by the Senate amid great controversy over his history of working for the Trump White House, which would in all likelihood be the reason that Trump chose him in the first place.

What the media likes to dub the "far right" is often better described simply as "right wing". They like to assign the label of "extreme" to groups that are not actually extreme.

The whole point of the prequel trilogy was that, in the aftermath of the smash hit that was the Original (1977-1983), people wanted more. So the Prequel was designed as supplementary material. It does this brilliantly, comparable to what the Mormon Canon was to the Bible. But the Sequel Trilogy is something else: it's a bunch of shameless Hollywood industrialists wanting to make a quick buck off the nostalgia of neckbearded Millennial fanboys and middle aged moms. It adds nothing, since Star Wars was already a complete story: the new storyline had to be dang good to justify it being added to the timeline, and it failed, because it had no substance befitting a living canon. It's the exact same kind of abomination that was Pokemon Go.

Good Gott no, the new Trilogy is so incredibly generic and uncreative that it's almost enough to make my eyes bleed. You can criticize how kiddish the prequels were, but they were neither bland nor unimaginative.

Acosta is a notorious heckler, and Trump should've thrown him out long before he did.

People who are mentally incapacitated to the extent that you describe (discounting higher IQ people who are simply lazy) are not necessarily, or even usually, autistic.

People should be denied the right to have a family on account of something that they had zero choice over and which in many cases does not drastically impair their ability to live a successful, happy life?

While I cannot know everything that transpired under the metaphorical iceberg during the time of the events aforementioned, I suspect that you're definitely overplaying your role in such. If I recall correctly, by the time that I joined DDO you'd already been permabanned. You sporadically created new accounts for various purposes, sometimes to troll and other times to debate. But airmax's policy, as far as I know, was to close any that you made once such came to his attention. I doubt you would've had any sort of clout with him (not to that extent, anyways), seeing as how his objective was to do away with you for good.

Having joined in October 2013, I can attest that I was never banned. Not even once. If I had two accounts open then he'd close one, but that was it.  If you know my history, as you say, then you can attest to how amazing that is, going by how most sites are moderated. He did get irritated with me at times, but I do not recall him ever having said anything to me that, in my opinion, crossed a line. He has always conducted himself professionally to the extent that I have been able to observe. I don't know how he's treated you, but I can attest to my own experiences, of which I am recalling to the best of my ability. I value honesty, be it intellectual or otherwise.

As for Imabench (he's active here so I might not be able to voice everything fully), I can't deny that I did plenty to exacerbate the situation. If I recall, I was sort of the one who started it: first I made a thread putting him "on trial" and then I made an Alt that pretty much parodied him (or his username, at least). Before he did squat to me. Our last flare-up was two and a half years ago, but before that the only person besides airmax who I recall ever helping me deal with him was ESocialBookworm.

I don't know to what extent you are socially "awkward", but it's painfully obvious to everyone here that you have a difficult time getting along with people in general, so I would say that you and I are not far removed.

No. That's where you're wrong. Laissez-Faire helps super awkward users who need time to adjust. Under a more strict framework, they might quickly end up doing something that the mods find disagreeable and then vamoosh they're banned. I would not still be on DDO if not for the tremendous amount of patience (or apathy) that airmax showed me, and by extension I would not be here today.

There are others like me. With enough time 95℅ of bad nuts will turn straight.

And let me just add this: sites like this require a core of long-term dedicated users. Since nobody stays active on a website forever, you must be adding to this core with a regular infusion of fresh blood, and that'll be much harder to accomplish if you're not willing to give people a chance.

Yeah, don't get me wrong I'm definitely for a more relaxed moderation style but so far as this was a referendum on Bsh there was no way I was gonna vote the other way around.

It's probably due to some kind of glitch. While that's happening, I might as well go check and see if my previous accounts there are now open.

So it would follow that sin, rather than merely an act or way of living that incurs the wrath of an angry God, does itself destroy man and keep him from God. Sin would be something that we needed to be rescued from, rather than forgiven of.

The issue I'd have with this is the fact that Christ did not immediately liberate all humans from sin, but only those who turned to Him, which would seem more consistent with forgiveness, the policy being that He would only forgive those who acknowledged their wrongdoing and petitioned before a Holy God for mercy.

I would say that it's both: we needed to be both forgiven and rescued, because things that we choose also have the consequence of ensnaring us. Because we are ensnared, it's not enough that we seek forgiveness, because by nature we'll just go back to whatever we were like before. We need to be rescued from sin so that we're able to act in a manner that makes it possible to receive forgiveness.

(Note: I posted this before seeing your response to my first post.)

Love conquers death? What does that even mean? Is death (the breakdown of order and expenditure of finite energy stores in the Universe, on the microcosmic level of the breakdown of the human body to the point of total non-operability) a cosmic force that was introduced as a result of man's fall? Is that the big problem? And not the sinful nature of man (which in my opinion was simply exemplified by, rather than caused by, the Fall)? But if sin was the cause of death, then wouldn't the continued existence of sin mean a continuation of death as a natural consequence of such?

A better way of putting it would be "love conquered sin" imo.

Yes.

Let off of Bsh, how about. He's made a good faith effort to satisfy the needs of this Site.

During President Obama's first term the CIA, the latest in a very long series of failures by an organization that is often lionized in pop culture, it has been revealed that the agency had scores of its agents compromised in places like Iran, China (where thirty agents were subsequently murdered by the regime), and North Korea. The breach started in Iran, which used fricking Google to track down covert CIA websites used for communications, and then they helped China do the same, and then began aggressively exposing agents in other countries as well.

You can read about it here:

That would be nice, but I definitely don't want to get my hopes up. Most likely the Dems will take the House and the GOP will retain control of the Senate, while maybe picking up a seat or two in the process. A fairly mundane affair, which would still serve as a rebuke of the Left's apocalyptic narrative about Trump.

I think you fail to give humans enough credit: we're usually complex enough that there is no one source for *all* of our problems. It could be said that all your major problems could be solved by addressing one root cause, but on some level there's still gonna be something, however negligible.

I'd like to talk with you a little while. Please PM me.

If an American refers to himself as a nationalist, the most straightforward meaning is that he's an American nationalist. No reason to automatically assume he means white nationalism.

That makes no sense. If democrats are bad and republicans are good, why would that particular piece of propaganda encourage the viewer NOT to vote?

"I'm 1/64th-1/1000th Native American so suck on that Trump!"

-Elizabeth Warren

Homework is necessary to ensure that students understand the core concepts covered by the class before the exams. The only alternative is that the homework be done in class, in which case either the school day would be longer or there'd be less time for lectures, in which case the school year would end with students having learned less.

I don't.

The biggest event of the year that nobody's talking about.

In response the War in Donbass and the annexation of the Crimea, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has asked the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (the highest authority in Eastern Orthodoxy) for autocephalous status.

This request was granted. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is now recognized as being independent of the Moscow Patriarchate. In response, the Russian Orthodox Church has severed ties with Constantinople.

That is, Russia has excommunicated itself from the global Eastern Orthodox community (though it's possible that this situation could be resolved soon). There are two ways of looking at this:

1. This is a good thing for the West. Russia's just suffered a majority propaganda loss; the Eastern Orthodox populations of Georgia, Serbia, Belarus, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, and so on might have in the past seen Russia as the protector of Orthodoxy. However, now that Russia is cut off from such, this might spur them to keep away from Russia and find new partners.

2. This is a bad thing for the West. Moscow is trying to assert its dominance over Constantinople and thus over all of Eastern Orthodoxy, something that it last tried with limited success from 1448-1589. Should he succeed, the gains for Putin would be massive.

At the clear risk of sounding xenophobic, I think it's kind of disturbing that we have a First Lady who speaks with a Slavic, Russia-ish accent. Melania has conducted herself pretty well, but let's be honest: Trump imported a mail-order bride from an exotic country. It sets a very bad example for America.

Plurality=/=majority

For example, let's say it boiled down to something like this:

Fox News (Right)-30℅ of share

CNN (Center Left)-28℅ of share

Yahoo (Left)-22℅ of share

MSNBC (Left)-11℅ of share

Washington Post (Left)-9℅ of share

That'd be a 70℅ share for the overall Left, though Fox News being the biggest channel might still be true, simply because among conservatives there was a lesser degree of dispersion among various outlets.

They're not the same. PM me if you want to hear more about this.

Let's be clear: nobody accepts or rejects God simply because of "logic". Logic is a justification, but there are always other reasons. There are things people want, things that trump rationality. Maybe it's a desire to be unique, or to feel yourself superior. Maybe it's the opposite: maybe you're more afraid than you are proud. Afraid of hell, or simply of dying. You can always find some way to justify believing if that's what you want. And those justifications can't be dismissed entirely, so...

Because in the end, not believing gives you nothing. Absolutely nothing. It gives you temporary relief but nothing in the long term. That's why hardcore atheism will never triumph over the masses.

I mainly use "Marxist" as a term of abuse, same way as many Trump supporters are labeled as "Nazis" even though they're nowhere even remotely close to Nazism, and how white nationalists are inaccurately labeled white supremacists quite frequently, even though there is actually a big difference.

Also, I use Marxism as synonymous with far-left politics. Traditionally this has taken the form of economic left-wing politics, but in modern times it takes the form of far-left identity politics, which the "mainstream" press definitely ascribes to.

From roughly the same place as preferences such as long hair, tomboy cut, blonde, brunette, tall, short, etc. A lot of guys are attracted to Asian women, just based on how they look, and that has little to do with cultural or social factors.

If you're generally not attracted to the physical traits of most members of a certain group, then that's simply a matter of preference. However, if you were to find a member of that group who was attractive to you and you still would not date them on some kind of racial "principle", then yes, it is, and it's wrong.

That being said, accompanying racial differences is often a difference in background that might in some circumstances justify keeping your distance.

I would like to eat raisins to boost my health, but they have 20g of sugar per little packet, so...

Today we have this lovely article by The Guardian on Nikki Haley:

Happy harsh transition of Neolithic populations to the modern era day.

Hi. Have you ever seen this video?

This kind of extreme, over-the-top kind of reaction to the fairly routine confirmation of one man, highly qualified, a conservative replacing a conservative, whose otherwise spotless reputation is questioned only by a series of wholly uncorroborated allegations, to a Court of nine people, is exactly why the majority of Americans will reject your party in November.

Your people have spent this entire confirmation process lying, screaming, b!tching, threatening, and thoroughly discrediting themselves and their movement through their actions. In the process, they've taken the good names of actual sexual assault survivors and dragged them through the mud in some half-baked attempt to destroy Kavanaugh's life and derail his political career. The good people of this country have been watching closely, and they won't forget when they head to the polls.

Actions have consequences. Behaving like toddlers for the whole world to see has consequences. And one day a righteous God will make you answer for what you've done.

#BeersForBrett

In an eloquent and lengthy speech, Sen. Susan Collins has (as of several minutes ago) lain out her reasons for why she will be voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Combined with Jeff Flake, who has also stated his willingness to vote for the SCOTUS nominee, this raises the vote tally to 50-50, which would, with Vice-President Pence's tie-breaking vote, be enough. Shortly afterwards, Sen. Joe Manchin also announced his intentions to vote for Kavanaugh's nomination, raising the vote tally to 51-49.

That is, unless there is a new development in between now and the date of confirmation (probably Saturday), or unless there's something big going on behind the scenes that I'm not aware of, Justice Kavanaugh WILL BE SUCCESSFULLY CONFIRMED, filling Justice Kennedy's now vacant seat.

This is shaping out to be a defining moment in the MeToo movement. If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, we as a nation will have placed a ceiling on how damaging unproven allegations of sexual assault are to the careers of high-ranking male government bureaucrats and politicians. This is a limit that we need to have in place, especially since these allegations appear to be extremely lopsided, with the vast majority of these "scandals" only hitting conservatives and Republicans.

That is, the Overton Window will be fixed for possibly decades to come, in regards to this one issue. It'll be a major victory for the GOP and the moderate wing of the Democratic Party (though the appointment of a conservative to the Supreme Court will be damaging to them, though again Kavanaugh would merely be replacing a conservative seat on the Court). It'll make it less likely that radical firebrands like Ocasio-Cortez will dominate the future of the party, which will slow the ongoing polarization of our nation.

If Kavanaugh should lose, then it will be construed as a victory for MeToo, though not a huge one as, in all likelihood, Kavanaugh would only fail to pass by a slim margin, like 49-51 or maybe 48-52. In this case, Republicans will still have a chance of curbing a nationwide pivot to the sharp left by means of winning (or not losing badly) the midterms, holding on to enough seats that Trump cannot be impeached. Should the Blue Wave be averted entirely, that would be a harsh rebuke to those naysayers who've been telling us for close to two years now that the Trump presidency has been a complete unmitigated disaster. That is, the fact that Trump might be effectively given a public mandate to complete his first term, after all that has happened, would in itself mark a shift of the Overton Window to the right for the foreseeable future.

...And so it seems that both Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are pro-abortion. Dang it.

Two of three GOP holdouts, Susan Collins and Jeff Flake, have expressed satisfaction with the scope and quality of the 7th FBI investigation into Kavanaugh. It's been suggested that the final confirmation vote might come as early as this Saturday.