@Quboid

Regarding Russels Teapot, I feel it is an invalid argument because a teapot orbiting mars has no explanatory value. To ask whether the Universe was intelligently caused is a rational question, and Russels Teapot provides no answer to it; it explains precisely nothing. The idea of God however has explanatory value, and does provide an answer to the question. This is (one of)the difference(s) between the idea of God and the teapot.

Let me ask you this..do you understand what the scripture says about faith? I think we can both agree that we should have no expectation of arriving in New York by following the directions to Los Angeles. In the same way we should have no expectation of coming to know Jesus personally outside of the directions given in scripture. I want to tell you that the directions you are following will never lead you to know Jesus, so please allow me to open up the scripture to you:

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God

Faith is a gift from God. You will never come to believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) by your own effort, because you cannot generate the faith to believe it. The question then becomes, how do you receive the gift of faith?

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God.

The word of God gives you the ability to hear Jesus, and through hearing believe:

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Jesus is knocking at your door all the time, but you do not hear Him. The word of God will give you that ability, but what should you read?

John 20:31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The gospel of John is written specifically so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. You may have read it before as a former Christian, but you may not have realized that without the Spirit of God you cannot grasp it:

1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Therefore you must ask for help, which will take a ration of humility. Since you are an honest skeptic who will investigate, and you do not know whether God answers prayers, here is a possible clue to knowledge:

Pray to God:

I do not know if you are there or not, or whether Jesus is your Son, but if you are there I want to know the truth. Please help me understand the scripture I am about to read and show me what is true. If you will do this, I promise to follow the truth where ever it leads.

Then read through the gospel of John, and read it slowly and carefully, coming to an understanding of what is being said before you move on. Before each reading, simply ask God to help you understand it. If you will do this you will discover that Jesus is the Christ and come to know Him personally. God bless.

Hmm:
Green = Boston Celtics
Purple = Los Angeles/L.A. Lakers

I think it's intimidating to consider doing this without use of unsustainable modern farming and gardening practices that rely on petroleum input. The soil needs to be restored periodically somehow via laying fallow, having the right animals in there at the right time, etc. It's not good to keep going and buying soil additives every year. Also, the water in Los Angeles is by definition, I think, unsustainable. I still think this is great and I might check out their next event since I live in the area. Maybe they have already thought of all this!

Tags for this video have been changed from 'bill, burr, los angeles, face lift, tuck, fake, 52' to 'bill burr, los angeles, face lift, tuck, fake, 52' - edited by xxovercastxx

Not much has changed since the Sharks and the Jets... Ya think in 40 years there's gonna be Pro football teams like the Los Angeles Crips and the New York Bloods??

I would typically agree with you except it is generally shown to be wide open, well cleared, quite a thoroughfare. I imagine the pilot is familiar with the roads. I know which major roads I could land on up here for example without any type of wire crossings. Every plane landing on road event up here I read about ends up with fine people and fine aircraft. I'm not saying land on a road in downtown or Los Angeles. I'm saying look at the big ass road under the aircraft with no cars and no apparent hi tension wire crossings.

You might expect that a local pilot be familiar with major roads, like highway 89/91 pictured in the video. Take a look around on 89/91 and see if you think it looks safe:
http://goo.gl/maps/bL3Rq
That's the first major road seen in the video.

I think that's five lanes? I saw two cars on the entire stretch in the video. (Not the easiest to pick them out.)

From air:
http://goo.gl/maps/V0FaF

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Women, LA, Los Angeles' to 'Women, LA, Los Angeles, dj lubel' - edited by xxovercastxx

I moved from Los Angeles to Colorado Springs a few years ago. I remember having soccer practice at 6 am and thinking, "man, it's so cold out here, I can see my breath.", now it's like, "man, it's, it's...i..i-i-..i-it...OH GOD I'M GOING TO DIE. OPEN THE DOOR!"

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Los Angeles, Comedy, Agent, Industry, Hate, California, Suzi Barrett' to 'Los Angeles, Comedy, Agent, Industry, Hate, Fucking, Shit, California, Suzi Barrett' - edited by Ornthoron

So *dead it! ""KDOC: The Best New Year's E..." This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by KDOC-TV Los Angeles..."

Some of the highlights:
• At one point, the show interviews one of Hugh Hefner‘s ex-girlfriends holding a Carl’s Jr. cheeseburger because the burger chain sponsored this hot steaming pile of disaster.

• Macy Gray (remember her?!?!?!) dropped by to give what seems like a completely stoned performance of that song that won her a Grammy 12 friggin’ years ago.

• On multiple occasions, Kennedy and/or the show’s producers ask on a hot mic whether the show is currently live (hint: it was) while liberally peppering in some profanity for the sake of it. The first few seconds of one return from commercial break began with Kennedy on-stage looking around confusedly while off-camera voices asked “Where’s my stage manager?” and declared: “Don’t fucking give me shit.”

• The control room couldn’t seem to figure out how to press the right buttons and so interviews were cut off mid-sentence, camera shots sometimes never changed, random Carl’s Jr. ads ran during the middle of broadcast, and a video of Jamie Kennedy at a comedy club took about 10 seconds to load.

• One random woman in the crowd figured out how to read teleprompter behind co-host Stu Stone and mimicked his read for an entire two minutes. Sheer brilliance.

• Some guy dropped a big ol’ “motherfucker” live on-air.

• Oh hey, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (remember THEM?!?!?!?!) must’ve time-traveled from the 1990s to perform a few songs, seemingly missing the memo about “not cursing on air,” because… umm… they cursed. A lot.

• Kennedy channels the 2003 film that made him relevant for 10 whole minutes — Malibu’s Most Wanted — and tries his best at hitting on a drunk black woman: “You should go white, because it’ll keep your vagina very tight.”

• The show ends with a spontaneous fight on-stage behind the hosts… and then silence as the credits roll. Perfection.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/kdoc-los-angeles-had-the-most-spectacularly-disastrous-new-years-special-in-the-history-of-television/

There was a bill recently passed into law (in California), that states all porn actors must wear condoms. Only one state, but it's a start.

Measure B, sponsored by the group AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles County

Well Sluice, here is the problem. The catholic church teaches you that to follow God, you must do it through their church. In other words, they have made themselves the mediator between God and man. They have also supplanted the truth in the word of God with their traditions. They actually put the Pope, the traditions of the church, and the scripture on an equal level. So, to be a Catholic you must follow all of their traditions, agree with everything the pope says, do all of the sacraments, go to confession, etc etc etc. The issue is that none of this has anything to do salvation. You cannot come to know God by doing any of these things. So while you may have been talking to God, that doesn't mean you knew Him. To know God you have to be born again. This is what Jesus says about those seeking Him through traditions:

Mark 7:7

They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'

It's like this. If you needed to get to Los Angeles, and you took a plane to New York, would you expect to arrive at Los Angeles? Of course not. Trying to know God through Catholicism is like trying to reach Los Angeles by flying to New York. There are some Catholics, who, having read the bible and understood it, may have come to know God, but this would be in spite of their religion, not because of it.

Now, you bring up the question of why do some ministers fall away? Well, anyone can go to seminary and get a degree and call themselves a pastor. That isn't what makes someone a Pastor. Pastors are not educated, they are called.

Yes, some people may come to know God and still fall away. Look at what Jesus said:

Rev 3:14 "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.'

Rev 3:15 "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!

Rev 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

He promised the church in Laodicea that He would eject lukewarm believers from the faith. For those who know God and continually willfully sin, He says this:

Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Basically, those who come to God but don't really want to serve Him and they refuse to change, He lets them fall back into unbelief. If they ever turn around and want to come back, He will take them back again.

Right now, if you truly wanted to know God, He would reveal Himself to you. Pride may be the only thing that is getting in the way. He is knocking on your door right now; that's why we're having this conversation. It's up to you to answer it.

I saw the discussion of Oswald, but I don't think that's what the increasingly fuzzy memory was about. In large part because Oswald -was- created by one of Disney's employees. I suppose it's possible that I completely inverted the issue over the course of a few years, but I hope not. Call it ego if you will, but I like to believe I keep at least the general idea correct.
>> ^Sagemind:

You may be thinking of "Oswald the Rabbit"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_the_Lucky_Rabbit
Mickey Mouse was created early in 1928 on a train ride from New York to Los Angeles as Walt was returning with his wife from a business meeting at which he lost the copyright of his cartoon, Oswald the Rabbit. Walt spent the train ride thinking up a little mouse in red velvet pants and named him “Mortimer,” but by the time the ride was over, had changed his name to “Mickey.”
Oswald was also a knockoff of many cartoon characters of the time, most notably Felix the Cat.
An intersting discussion on the subject.:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/did-walt-steal-the-idea-of-micke
y.78437/
>> ^Stormsinger:
>> ^Sarzy:
>> ^Stormsinger:
Disney's biggest selling features, like Mickey Mouse and the Lion King, were clearly stolen from other artist's work.

You're definitely right about The Lion King, but what was Mickey Mouse stolen from? The only character I can think of is Oswald, but that was a Disney creation as well.
(and I think Star Wars should be just fine at Disney -- it's hard to argue that they've done anything but a bang-up job with Marvel's cinematic output, and presumably they'll put the same thought and care into future Star Wars films)

You may be right...there was a toy that some claim Mortimer/Mickey was copied from, but that's not what I was remembering. Sadly, I cannot find any reference to what I thought I remembered, so I'll have to drop Mickey as an example.
However, few of Disney's big films were original stories, he had a penchant for taking public domain IP and using it (The Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Anderson for example)...then, as we all know, buying politicians to make sure that his own copyrights would never expire. Still a form of theft, but not quite as severe.
Bottom line, it's not a company I care to patronize...but Star Wars is not a property I care about either, so it's a fairly moot point to me.