Gay make out in the media

So, my sister asked this question: What kind of behavior is appropriate and useful when you are faced with behavior in the media you believe is immoral?

First, we must acknowledge that there are a large number of people who are more liberal in this issue, and consider your and my position on homosexuality to be barbaric, ignorant, and akin to the racism of the early 1900's. Considering the distance between the two positions, it is easy for offense, misunderstanding and dismissal to limit the value of any interaction between the two. An extreme reaction to a television program causes a few different problems when there are people who disagree with you.

1. It reinforces the idea that people who think homosexuality is immoral are ignorant, and have come to their position hastily, without good judgement.
2. Your reaction implies that no one should be ok with what they are seeing, so even those who agree with your premise, but see no harm in viewing the program are told that they are wrong.
   
3. Discussion of the topic is discouraged by such extreme reactions, so no common ground can be found.
   

What is important to realize is that rational, moral people can come to different conclusions when they have different basic principles. Our basic principles include a belief in God, and in scripture, including scripture outlawing homosexual relations. They also include belief that the purpose of family is to provide safe places for children to grow, learn and develop faith. From there, you determine that the practice of homosexuality is damaging to both individuals and societies. However, starting from a different set of principles, people can come to a different conclusion. So instead of assuming everyone shares your conclusions, or even discussing your conclusions, we should discuss our principles.

Finally, I think that Dad's most recent article has something to offer to the discussion.

When I was a kid, the rules for the Sabbath day made perfect sense. You couldn’t attend sporting events, but you watch them on television. You couldn’t go furniture shopping, but you could go with the Priests Quorum Advisor to buy doughnuts between Priesthood and Sunday School. Today the rules seem less logical. You can play catch in the back yard with your brother, but you can’t play catch in the front yard with your friend. You can stop and help a stranger who has run out of gas, but if you run out of gas, you have to walk home.

Church standards change because our understanding of the underlying principles changes and grows, and because the world in which we live requires different standards. We in the church expect those out of the church to respect the standards we have set for ourselves. Sometimes inside the church, we forget to respect that my standards are not the standards. When the media shows two girls making out, it may offend your senses. It definitely is not the lifestyle our church approves of. And yet, it is a lifestyle, and it is an important debate going on in our country right now. Should we ban any public display of affection between homosexual couples? Should we ban the media from discussing the issue? Should we remove ourselves from the public debate? I think it's conceivable to come to the conclusion that it's ok to view a program with that kind of content. I think it's also conceivable to come to the opposite conclusion, but both are personal decisions, and should be respected.

29

I am now 29. I often don't remember my age. When I do, I think I'm old. Short list of my accomplishments:

1979: I was born, and despite being 2 weeks late, I did it rather well.
1980: I probably started walking, maybe saying a few words.
1981: I wore some awesome clothes this year. My mom has pictures and is proud of my wardrobe to this day.
1982: This is the fateful year that I lost the extra 6 inches I was supposed to grow to my older brother. (It's true, my doctor at the time even said so)
1983: I learned to say shalom at a presbyterian preschool.
1984: I learned newspeak.
1985: I attended kindergarten, where I got many half-stars(for incomplete homework), for even then, I had a difficult time scheduling myself. Should I play in the sandbox, or color my worksheet? I think I'll just go on the swings.
1986: I set records for most walks on my t-ball team.
1987: I played first baseman for a team coached by Spenser for hire.
1988: I witnessed Kirk Gibson's home run, and my dad is first mistaken for Orel Herscheiser.
1989: I was Puck in a school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
1990: I contributed to the unity of my elementary school class by bringing a small football to school, and organizing touch football in the mornings before school started.
1991: A trip to Yosemite with my 6th grade class leads to scintillating observation: Yosemite falls sounds a lot like: "Yo, somebody falls!"
1992: In my final baseball season, My on-base percentage of .473 is forever memorialized, after my last at bat is a suicide squeeze, scoring a run.
To be continued...

Restaurants

So, going out to eat is kind of a production around here. It takes at least a half hour to choose a restaurant, and there aren't any that are withing a 10 minute drive, so we always end up going pretty far. We tend not to like the big chain restaurants. Or maybe it's just that they don't interest us, since their food is generally fine, it's just a regular experience. We enjoy going places that aren't well known, or are the more authentic ethnic foods. Here's a list of some of the most recent ones:

• Johnny Carino's Italian Restaurant: The salad was really good, and they had toasted garlic for dipping the bread in. Melinda had the bowtie festival, which had a great bacony taste. We loved it. The waitress suggested an apple tart dessert, and it was perfect. It's near Costco, 106th south in Sandy, UT
• Sam Hawk: This Korean restaurant has been one of our favorites for a long time. If you're ordering chicken, try the chicken fusion kalbi, but their other meats are more interesting. Also consider the stone bowl bibimpop.
  
• Sushi Express: The best sushi we've found in Utah. Really good, and pretty cheap too. The nigiri sushi is extra fresh, and the Las Vegas roll is a nice spicy, crunchy surprise. The sushi chef is from Japan. Like, really, from Japan.
  
• Belgian Waffle and Omelet Inn: This place had great waffles. We were especially impressed by the fruit toppings, which weren't the oversugared, preservative laden pie filling-type you'd get at IHOP. There's also a little punk vibe going on, with the server's tatoos and piercings and being right across from the high school.
  
• Lollicup: They have great boba drinks(tapioca balls in a smoothie). Try the taro snow.
• Bombay House: Great indian food, worth trying. Make sure that you get some Naan to go with your order.
• Bambara: This was the most expensive place we went(it's more like 50$). They had a sensational breakfast, and the atmosphere was great. For fancy dining, we really recommend it. Their pancakes have crack in them, and the eggs benedict was awesome.
  

For now, that's our list, but there's more places in our queue.

Why Democrats should stay in Iraq

I'm in the process of watching a movie. Before I tell you about the movie, I'll tell you that:

1. I'm a republican.
2. I think it was a good idea to invade Iraq
3. I acknowledge that Iraq is in a bad state, and we did them no favors by invading.

I'm watching "No End in Sight", and it's educating me about how what I believe was a good idea, became a tremendous mistake. I hoped that the United States could go and invade, rather bloodlessly(which did happen), and the help the Iraqi people build a democracy and then enjoy the freedom and education they could then provide for themselves. I'd like to think that I didn't believe(As many in the administration apparently believed) that it would be a quick in and out type of deal. I think I thought of it more in terms of what the United States did for Japan. I thought that we would be there for a few years, maybe even a decade or two, but that at the end, Iraq would be a modern nation, able to secure itself, and not wishing harm upon its neighbors. Instead, we are in Iraq, and we have been unable to get to the point where they don't wish to harm each other, and us. We haven't helped them build an economy, and their democracy is unwilling to serve at least a third of it's people. Democrats think we should leave, and as soon as possible, within a year or two. I think we should do better, and I think we can do better. I think that idiots have run the occupation, and that they put us in a bad situation that we are slowly digging out of. And we are digging out. Things are better now, but we still haven't done what we promised. I acknowledge that Iraqis say they want us to leave, but I claim(with little proof) that they want us to leave because of the idiocy that went on before, and have little faith in us to do better. I think we can do better, with a different president, a different administration, and a congress that doesn't call for us to quit every couple months. I don't even care if that different president is Republican or not, just so long as he is a good adminstrator, who will find smart, experienced people, and give them the money and authority they need. The only Democrat I know who isn't outright claiming that they will abandon Iraq is Hillary Clinton, so if that's what it takes, I would vote for her. At least I know that President Clinton(former) was good at choosing his subordinates, and I can hope that Hillary will do as well.

Dreams

I had strange dreams. I dreamt that stake conference was run by a baptist version of Pres. Hinckley, and that there was an athletic competition with old friends from junior high afterwards. The stake conference had cool effects like trees that grew out of the stage and then fell apart, but they were only illusions. I dreamt that the stage was so steep that it seemed to be straight over our heads, and people could fall off the stage right on our heads. The competition consisted of sprints, and tennis matches. Melinda was somehow an experienced tennis player who had decided to let her skills get rusty, and was forced to play an old nemesis. I ran into old friends who I had played pranks on before, only to get into a rabbit poo flinging fight.

Sunday, bloody Sunday

I taught a lesson today about Family Responsibilities. It went well. I thought the class was very willing to participate, so it made the teaching easier.

I am enjoying my restful Sunday. I was able to go to priesthood, and I wasn't exhausted as soon as church got out. Nursery was fun sometimes, but very tiring.

I finished Lost and Found. I am not sure if I would recommend it to anyone, but it was an interesting read. It's not the style, plot or premise that puts me off, but rather the content. It deals with various secrets and the shame the holders of the secrets feel. In the end, all secrets come out, and then it's all better. Of course it's a bit more complicated. What bothers me is that half, or more than half the secrets were about homosexuality. It criticizes the christian "ex-gay" movement as a hoax, which I'm willing to believe is true, but I think I would have liked a more balanced/nuanced treatment of the subject. I guess it bothered me that homosexuality got so much treatment in the book, when it is such a small population. It seems like half the characters in the book were gay or lesbian. I think that is true in general. In the media, gay and lesbian issues have a presence entirely out of proportion with the size of the demographic.

Today

I found out from Melinda that titling all my posts "Today" is really annoying, so I guess I'll stop doing that, tomorrow.

I think I kind of want to write a google gadget that would allow me to put a post window on my google homepage. There was one already written, but it worked before google took over blogger, and changed the api's(Knowing Google, it's probably better, because no matter how much you fear their power, you must respect their technical prowess). I'm not sure it's worth my while though...

I think I want to spend some time working on my budget program. I think it needs some analysis tools. The other thing is an import tool for Rick's data. Last time I looked at Rick's data, it didn't have enough info about the account it came from, in fact the data was a bit incomplete for my purposes.

I just finished a book called Fool's Errand. First, I'll say I liked it. It is a kind of small-scale adventure story, focused intensely on the main character, told in first person. The technical aspects of the magic "framework" in the world are both original enough, mystical enough, and not weak enough to be satisfying and intriguing. I won't say it's unique, but it is not hackneyed or cliche. The book's world felt like it had a sense of history and depth, and the author never stooped to just plain explanations or flashbacks, but instead history was always tainted by the the character's experiences and emotional attachments. Characters are well developed enough for connections to matter(no "Dungeons & Dragons" the movie moments).

I have some extra time on my hands today, because I finished the new features early. It's relaxing. It makes it easier to spend time with Melinda at night, because I don't feel stress of things undone(since everything is done).