Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

I'm in the Wilk finishing my term paper pending further arrivals. It's quite pleasant; you should all come.

True scientists never talk about a “consensus” in a favorable way. Nonsense. Every experiment is duplicated in various laboratories around the world. Yes. Why? So that we can build consensus. Scientists are supposed to be skeptics. But they do want to figure out how things work, and they want a...

I don't think it's fair to call capitalism "celestial," because I highly doubt I'm going to be paying anybody to do anything for me in the celestial kingdom. Why would I? There are no time limitations and I can do anything I care to do myself, or in cooperation with others, as suits my ple...

By special request:

INTJ

Economic Left/Right: -1.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.82

Hanging out down there by Anomalous...

<facetiously>

It's a good thing tomorrow isn't Fast Sunday. I think a lot of people here in Provo had their testimonies shaken tonight.

</facetiously>

Thanks for your clarification. President McKay was talking about a system of government which uses force to "save" us. That's the way I see it. Taxation can be used as a method of force to compel us to give to the poor and needy. I believe that is a violation of agency, just as President M...

I've gone to great lengths to explain why I don't think taxation can be a violation of agency, which you claimed it was. Your response is a two-line assertation about the end-case of socialism leads to us being "mere puppets in the hands of a dictator"? FWIW, I served my mission in Russia,...

dzhonatan, I believe you are missing my point. I'll have to think about how I can explain it better for you. Perhaps you could explain to me exactly how Satan's plan would destroy the agency of man. Certainly. From Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: David O. McKay, Chapter 22: Agency and Re...

Waldorf and Sauron correctly, I believe, argue that agency is not affected by laws. Since this seems to be a sticking point, I think it's worthwhile to define what we mean by agency. Agency is the ability and privilege God gives us to choose and to act for ourselves. It seems clear to me that "...

(Greetings all, I've been lurking around for a while but never found a particularly good reason to post until now)... and that reason is this: I absolutely detest the suggestion that taxation, except perhaps in a most extreme sense which we do not begin to approach (as no democratic government of wh...