My Life

 It's been over a decade, about 14 years, since I last attended church (at least regularly, I've gone for special events for family members who invited me). So I've forgotten a lot of the things I learned, the stories that we'd discuss, aside from the most common or popular ones. One story I do remember takes place in the book of Alma, the largest book within the Book of Mormon. I share this story not because I believe it actually happened but because I see a parallel with what's currently happening now in our society and the events laid out in the Book of Mormon. There were two main peoples, the Nephites and the Lamanites. At this point in time the Nephites were ruled by judges rather than kings. My best understanding of the government is that it was some sort of republic. The book continually refers to popular votes ("the voice of the people"). And apparently there are judges. I imagine it might be similar to the way we have tiered judges in our federal ...

 ICE is an agency I have long had a problem with. I do not see why we demonize immigrants and feel some strange need to expel them from our country. However, under the current administration the organization has gone from being distasteful to being downright pure, unadulterated evil. https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/03/us/chicago-apartment-ice-raid ICE raided an apartment building in Chicago yesterday. They detained every single resident of the building. This includes US citizens. They say they're going after the most violent. They say they're going after the criminals and the undocumented immigrants. That is a lie, pure and simple. They are not targeting criminals. They are not targeting undocumented immigrants. They're not even targeting immigrants. They're arresting and detaining citizens. They're indiscriminately arresting people, detaining them in facilities that they're not even admitting are detainment centers--to deny access to members of Congress, who do hav...