BaldProphet

BaldProphet, 2 days ago

I think the proper terminology would be "apostate", but you are correct. There is no hatred of any kind in legitimate Christian beliefs. It is the political far-right who improperly conflate their strongly held bigotry with their Christian affiliation.

BaldProphet, 2 days ago

Will humanity even exist then?

BaldProphet, 2 days ago

The problem is convincing other people to switch as well. There's no point in me using Matrix if all of the people I want to communicate with only want to use Discord.

BaldProphet, 2 days ago

I'm not sure it's correct to call Discord spyware, but it certainly has privacy implications. https://nerdbot.com/2023/02/24/using-discord-consider-these-security-and-privacy-factors/

BaldProphet, 1 day ago

Completely false, but we're used to it. Have a wonderful Christmas season! Regards, Kbin's resident Latter-day Saint.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

That's what voting against Trump looks like.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

I don't see how the assassination of a former president and current candidate would do anything good for the country. It might be a value add for our adversaries because it would certainly be destabilizing.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

The Fediverse is heavily far left-leaning. The far left is anti-Israel, and thus so are most Fediverse users.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Oh, I see. My guess is poor moderation.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

A lot of the anti-genocide rhetoric is pro-Intitada and in favor of genocide against Israeli Jews.

BaldProphet, 2 days ago

https://paw.princeton.edu/article/pro-palestine-students-stage-walkout-israel-supporters-stand-0

BaldProphet, 2 days ago

https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/more-anti-israel-chants-of-from-the-river-to-the-sea-on-unh-campus/article_a11a7465-1661-5148-aad9-e2b96936b140.html

"From the river to the sea" is rooted in a genocidal desire to eject all Israeli Jews from the land of Palestine. Only tortured, tiresome, bad faith arguments can explain away the origins of this chant.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

I don't think it's appropriate to put a "but" after "people should feel safe in prison". It implies that there are people who do not deserve safety while incarcerated.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Rates were rising for low-income people who would never have been able to avail themselves of these incentives partially as a result of some of the incentives. Requiring utilities to buy the electricity at the same rate they sell it at, rather than the commercial rate, was never going to be sustainable in the long-run without causing massive cost increases for those who can afford them the least.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Unfortunately, the Associated Press returns to grind this tired axe. It claims that the bishop couldn't testify against the abuser because the Church wouldn't allow him, but in reality the Church has no such influence over bishops, which are volunteers. The real reason the bishop couldn't testify was because of a state law requiring the accused to release the bishop from clergy-pentitent privilege first, which the accused refused to do. So blame the abuser and the law, not the Church.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Sure thing. The article could have been about the state law that requires this confidentiality, but instead it tries (and fails) to make the Church appear to be a protector of child abusers. The truth is that a state law is the protector in this instance.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Did you even read the article? You're talking about an entirely different situation in a different state.

BaldProphet, 1 day ago

The Church had nothing to do with Bishop Miller's decision to not testify against John Goodrich. Idaho's Clergy-Penitent privilege law did.

This isn't an instance of someone not reporting abuse. The abuse was already reported, and charges were filed against Goodrich. Because Goodrich's confession to Bishop Miller was protected by clergy-penitent privilege, it wouldn't be admissible in court without the accused giving permission for it to be shared. Which, obviously, he was unwilling to do.

BaldProphet, 1 day ago

That's not really true, but it is the narrative that the Associated Press is attempting to spin with this article. However, this is all irrelevant to the actual topic which is being discussed. You can find the link to the Associated Press article being discussed at the top of the page.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Re-read the report. Bishop Miller would have testified if the law permitted him to do so. The problem is the abuser had to give permission first, which he obviously wasn't willing to do.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Your view is extremist and bigoted, but you're entitled to it. Assuming you're a United States citizen, your logic makes everyone evil because there are laws that have the effect of protecting people who commit heinous acts, including about half the Bill of Rights. Labeling religious people evil because there are laws that protect them is bigotry.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Although framed as if religion (and a certain one in particular) were a central part of this case, the perpetrator abused his own daughter. Being at one point a bishop in the Church offered no additional power or opportunities that being a parent didn't already afford him. The problem is the state of Idaho has a clergy-penitent privilege law. If that law didn't exist, there would have been no problem with a Latter-day Saint bishop testifying against the abuser.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

It's worth pointing out that the only person actually protected here is the accused. The clergy-penitent privilege law doesn't actually protect the Church at all in this case.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

@Jonny stated that all religious people are evil because clergy-penitent privilege laws exist. I'm not arguing against mandatory reporting laws here (although I have reservations because of the First Amendment implications). Making a blanket statement that religious people are evil is bigotry.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

The law protects penitents. That is its purpose. It protects them from having their private confessions revealed by trusted clergy members.

It's the same sort of law as client-attorney privilege or doctor-patient privilege. You're barking up the wrong tree (and your veiled claim of Americentrism is hilariously off-base here).

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Wrong. The Bishop cannot divulge the contents of the confession without permission from the penitent.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Incorrect. The law protects the penitent by requiring their consent before the clergy member can divulge the contents of a private confession.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

You should probably brush up on your reading comprehension before engaging in debates online. You should also educate yourself on context before arguing about laws and their implications in a country with as different political paradigms from your own as the United States has. For example, there is no meaningful "freedom of speech" in the UK, while here it is largely held sacred on both sides of the political spectrum.

The law in question applies only to people in the US state of Idaho. It does not apply to people in California, Canada, or the UK. It applies to anyone, whether religious or not, who make confessions to members of the clergy in Idaho. It is assumed that one would only make such a confession because one is religious, but I suppose that isn't necessarily always the case. However, saying that all people who are protected by this law are evil is saying that all people who confess to their clergy are evil. Which is a small-minded, ignorant, bigoted thing to say.

Note again that the law really only exists to protect penitents, not the members of the clergy.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

The last half of your response is bigoted, but I appreciate the words of logic about the issue at hand. I'm not aware of any situations where a bishop has been censured for reporting crimes that they became aware of through a confession, and from my own service in the Church I find such a thing unlikely.

So really, the risk to Bishop Miller in this case has very little, if anything to do with the Church and everything to do with the fact that it would be illegal for him to testify against John Goodrich, and even if he did, his testimony would be inadmissible.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Reason failed you, and so you resorted to more bigotry and ad hominem attacks?

Sure, bud.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Making blanket statements about an entire group being brainwashed certainly qualifies as a form of bigotry.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

Irrelevant. That's not what happened. No child abuse could have continued to occur because the confession was made over a decade later. This isn't a case of protecting a child who is currently being abused. It's about prosecuting a past instance of abuse.

Like I said, reading comprehension. It's like peoples brains melt when they see the word "Mormon" and they forget how to read.

BaldProphet, 3 days ago

These laws exist in nearly every state. Even California has a similar law, and you could hardly say that the Church has a significant influence on politics there.

BaldProphet, 2 days ago

These laws are mostly from the early 19th century. It wasn't necessary for religious interests to lobby back then because religion was ubiquitous at the time. And even if the laws were more recent, there is nothing inherently immoral or unethical about lobbying for legislation.

BaldProphet, 2 days ago

That is not what I'm saying. I have no qualms with mandatory reporting when it comes to child abuse. I am simply explaining the law in Idaho, which states that a clergy members must have permission from a penitent in order to divulge the contents of a confession. I'm not saying it should be that way, I'm saying it is that way. That's how it works right now, and that's why Bishop Miller could not testify against John Goodrich.

Also, this is not a case of "I molested a child last week." This is a case of "I molested a child a decade ago." I'm not saying it's less bad, I'm just saying it's different. The urgency of removing a child from that situation doesn't exist when the victim is no longer a child and no longer a subject of abuse.

BaldProphet, 2 days ago

Still not the same thing. We're not talking about a 14 year old still living in the same environment as their abuser, we're talking about a 31 year old not living in the same environment as their abuser.

BaldProphet, 1 day ago

With that logic, we would have to have a "guilty until proven innocent" judicial system with vigilante justice against people accused of child abuse because our whole system is designed to be (relatively) fair to people accused of committing crimes.

BaldProphet, 1 day ago

The problem is these protections are designed to protect all of us, no matter what crimes we are accused of committing. They include the right to no incriminate yourself (5th Amendment), the right to due process of law (5th and 14th Amendments), and protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Calling me a bad-faith troll and accusing me of raping children doesn't advance your argument, champ.

BaldProphet, 6 days ago

The one I work at.

BaldProphet, 7 days ago

It's really great if you want some level of Windows + Linux. It is not a replacement for a full desktop Linux install, however.

BaldProphet, 7 days ago

I have a little air pump I got at PetSmart and it's quieter than any HOB filter I've ever used.

That said, you might consider an internal filter. They work pretty well in small tanks and are silent because they're submerged (although if you wait too long to clean them they'll get noisy).

BaldProphet, 6 days ago

https://a.co/d/bOk9VP6

It has a small block of filter sponge at the bottom and it pulls water through that and out the port at the top. Has little suction cups to stick it to the glass, fully submerged. It's quieter than a HOB because there is no above the surface water trickling.

BaldProphet, 4 days ago

I've mostly used them in 10-gallon tanks, it's true. I'm mostly replacing them with sponge filters, though, because these things needs to be cleaned more often than I like. They do a good job for what they are, though.

BaldProphet, 7 days ago

The movie was great, they really dropped the ball after it.