Happy New Year 2013!!

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Happy New Year!! May 2013 be a "barking" good year!!

I wanted to come up with some wishes I have for the New Year! Some may be serious, some facetious, and some may piss you off. But these are *my* wishes, if you have any of your own, please leave them in the comments!

May I have a year without Kardashians. 
And any other reality "star" thank you very much. Remember when being a celebrity required some background? You were on tv or the movies. You were a singer. You were an athlete. Now you just have to make an ass of yourself on reality programming. Speaking of which...

May I have a year with much less reality tv. 
Have you noticed just how much of this crap is on tv? I miss the days of sitcoms, dramas, sci-fi, soaps, etc. Even if the show was dreadful, at least it may have been entertaining. One of my pet peeves is this show:
Locked Up Abroad I'll tell you why. The set-up is this. Person goes abroad. Person gets locked up in foreign prison. Person is tormented. Person gets 15 minutes of fame by doing program. But... 9 times out of 10, person was smuggling drugs. Into places like Turkey? Are you mad?
Others I dislike are the ones where they may be hurt or injured doing something clearly dangerous. Aren't we just encouraging these idiots by giving them a show.

May I have a year where the news is actually news. 
Here's where I'm going with this. Who gets knocked off the island on Survivor -- that is clearly *not* news! Who Kim Kardashian is dating -- not news! 

May I have a year where I do not have to hear an argument whether a rape is "legitimate" or not. Do I really have to explain this?

May I have a year where less Americans deny science. 
All science. Any science. Scientists follow something called the scientific method. (You should have studied this in school.) They have something called peer review. That means that their calculations and studies are backed up and studied and critically reviewed nine ways to Sunday. You can Google any scientist. You can request the papers. Please. The earth is *not* 6000 years old. We are experiencing climate change. Your religious beliefs should not be mutually exclusive from this.

May I have a year where I do not have to hear about firemen, paramedics, or other rescue personnel dying or being badly injured because someone did something stupid. 

Anyone remember this? In 2002, a Blackhawk helicopter flown by the USAF reserve crashed on Mount Hood trying to rescue some climbers. Mt Hood claims its share of climbers and rescuers. But what really irritates me is when a storm is known to coming in, it's the middle of winter, etc, and they still go climbing. And expect to be rescued!! 

Years and years ago, in my home town of Kennewick in eastern Washington State, some idiot was lighting fires up in the Horse Heaven Hills and started a fire. One of the volunteer firemen died when his vehicle rolled on him on the hill. If you're stupid and kill yourself, that's one thing, but why take the best of humanity with you?

May I have a year with less hip hop, rap, and dubstep.
Please. May I have something that makes me hum or sing along. Something that makes my toe tap. Something with rhythm and a melody!

May my dogs have a healthy and happy year!

May there be less right wing nut jobs in 2013.

May Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter become unemployed or at the very least voice less and irrelevant.

May every person that states that they are a follower of Christ learn to follow in his footsteps.
I usually hate to go on about religion. I don't like talking about it much. And many Christians really irritate me. Christ would not approve of using his message to discriminate and persecute minorities, women, and those that are different. He would not approve of using violence to achieve your ends. Remember, what he said, the second commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself". Most of the Christians I see don't do this. In fact, many of the Christians I see in the news are just one step removed from some of these Islamic sects. 

May we stop all this fracking and drilling for oil in places like the Arctic. 
It disturbs me to see my fellow citizens putting a potential job or boost in the economy ahead of things like clean air and clean drinking water. 

May I see some sanity in the gun owners and gun rights crowd.
People say "oh, you're a liberal, you want to take my gun away." No, I want to see some common sense. Gun deaths have become a public health crisis. No other country would have let it get this far. Even Australia took care of it. So many people that defend their right say I'm being emotional. But it seems to me to be the opposite. Gun owners that rush out after every gun death or Democratic Presidential election to buy more guns when I'm sure they already have plenty. Gun owners who say their 2nd Amendment rights are sacrosanct, but are never bothered when people's other civil rights are violated. When free speech is suppressed, where were they? When people were being tortured and held without legal representation where were they? When people were threatening the right of e they of a woman to make decisions about her own body where were they?

May I see less attacks on great institutions like PBS and NPR.

May I see less cat videos and more dog videos.

May I not hear another end of the world scenario for at least a year.

May I have some excellent books in my future. 

May President Obama and the government stop using drones in the Middle East. 
 It's not helping!

May we have a more sane Israel policy.
Here's my thing. Our Israel policy is based on the Book of Revelation. Therefore, it is a violation of the separation of church and state. How do I figure that? Israel is allowed to do whatever it wants. After all, Christ will not come until the Temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem right?? That's why we don't care when the Israelis continually violate basic human rights. After all, if *any* other country did what they're doing, the UN Security Council would be called together to discuss sanctions.

So why do they get away with it? Well, one, because we feel guilty for not protecting the Jews better from Hitler. Two, because the ev aevangelical lobby, wants to speed up the Second Coming. WhicWhich brings me to...

May Ma


May the evangelicals just chill...
I am so sick and tired of people talking about these are the end times. (And it's not just the evangelicals, I hear this all the time in my church.) People have been harping on this my whole life. I don't doubt that Jesus will come again. But, here's my view: God has a plan. You need to be ready. But it will happen when it happens. I've always thought that God would be pretty pissed if someone tried to speed things up. Also, it's the journey that counts.  

Can I have a little romance this year? 

Maybe even a little travel? Especially by train! I'd love to take a train trip!

  Finally may I have a year with less contention, more discovery, and more laughter!    

    
       
      

Advent Day 7 - December 7

Moroni 7: 28

For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens.

Yes, I am still making my way through the Advent. Yes, I am quite behind. But I have made a promise to myself to do a blog posting for each of them. (Hopefully, before Christmas.)

For he hath answered the ends of the law...

Christ came to fulfill the law of Moses. Many Christians forget this. He came to answer for our "crimes" or sins. So he "answered" the law by giving his life for us. This was a great and terrible sacrifice He made for us. 

He claimeth all those who have faith in him...

This is a great promise and, though we have responsibilities, there is little He asks in return. Just faith. Not just faith that He lived. Not just faith in His sacrifice. But faith that He will deliver. Faith in things unseen. 

...and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing...

This seems to be one of those chicken-and-egg things to me. Do I have faith in him because I "cleave unto every good thing" or do I "cleave unto every good thing" because I have faith in him. Funny, huh? I'm an opinionated sort of person and sometimes I have opinions that clash with statements from those in authority in or out of the church.  And I usually come back to my test. Is what I am being asked to do or believe in "a good thing"? 

Doing "the good thing" isn't just a way to get back to Heavenly Father. In the end, we want to go back to Heavenly Father because he is "a good thing".

...he advocateth the cause of the children of men...

According to Merriam-Websters on-line dictionary an advocate is:

1. one that pleads the cause of another
2. one that defends or maintains a cause of proposal 
3. one that supports or promotes the interests of another.

I think that Christ would pretty much fit the bill for any of those, but the one that is most pertinent is the first one. Christ pleads our cause - salvation - to Heavenly Father for us. And, as such, our retainer - such as it is - is faith in Him and staying true to our covenants. A small price to pay, really, considering the price He paid.

...and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens.

That is our goal. To dwell eternally in the heavens with our elder brother and our Heavenly Father.

I testify that I have faith in Jesus Christ. That I know that he died for my sins. He died for all of our sins. And by following him, and emulating him, we can return to our Heavenly Father in heaven.

Amen.

Advent Day 6 - December 6

Mark 16:5 

And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.

"He is Risen"

Much more of an Easter message than than of Advent. I love the fact that the first to get the message of Christ's resurrection would be the women. What's more, it is the women that come up early that morning to attend to their teacher after his death. The men are absent. The women are putting their grief aside to do that which is right by their teacher. Because of this they are given the message first. They are the first witnesses to his resurrection.

Being a witness is a vital thing. There are witnesses to his birth in the Manger. And who witnessed his birth? The great and mighty men of the world? No. The witnesses were livestock and the shepherds. Shepherds - common men. Again, when he committed his miracles, they were among the common and the poor. 

Even in our own Church, the Prophet Joseph Smith had witnesses. And they were not the great and mighty men of the world either. They were hardworking average men. 

Back to the ladies. It is highly significant that it was women that saw him first. Women were not even allowed to testify at this time. Yet, Christ came to them first. What a great message.