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TOMAS YOUNG: "In July of last year, I began to experience sharp pains in my abdomen. And I went to the VA, and they treated me like I was a second-class citizen, a junkie looking for pain medicines just to get high, even though I was genuinely in pain."

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Iraq, Soldier, War, Bush, Obama, Suicide, Democracy Now, Body of War' to 'Iraq, Soldier, War, Bush, Obama, Suicide, Democracy Now, Body of War, Tomas Young' - edited by brycewi19

OK so I went through this as well.
Both my kids are certified Geek.

I started with super heroes and Star Wars but my kids went through all the phases from Transformers, to Mutant Turtles, X-men, Batman, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and Buffy and every possible direction.

What I found is you can't force one over the other. Expose kids to everything Geek and let them decide. When you see them heading into a certain direction, just go with it. If they see you are interested in it, then they will be too. There is always something new and geek right around the corner.

Today's kids have a wider range than we did, there is just too much out there. my kids are knowledgeable on most Multi-verses but every time I turn around there's something new - and sometimes it's them introducing it to me (Ben10, Naruto etc.) All you can be expected to do is put it in front of them and be involved.

My kids (now 11 & 15) constantly surprise me. My daughter can correct any of her male peers on the geek of Marvel Comics, Buffy, Dr Who, Dragonlance and so much more. She reads 4-5 new books a week and gets straight As in school for the last 5 years straight.

My son has gone through all the multi-verses (and loves them all.) He wears a Tick T-shirt, loves Big Bang Theory and understand every side-joke. Now he is the one introducing me to stuff. Books in his room include E=Mc2 and the complete biography of Einstine. Loves video games and can beat most of them over a weekend.

Don't hold back, throw it all at them and don't hold back.


Stay away from the ol'time evils: Tomas the train, Dora, Babar, Caillou, Disney's Cars and all that stuff.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'hamburg, germany, lab3, Tomas Nowack, Knut Sodemann, professor kliq' to 'hamburg, germany, waterfront, lab3, Tomas Nowack, Knut Sodemann, professor kliq' - edited by calvados

Don't talk about how "spot on" something is if you have no idea about it. If you really want to know something about the church's history regarding blacks, study this web site: http://www.blacklds.org/history

The government of the United States also has a history of racism and discrimination toward black people, but current members of government aren't accused of being racist just because their organization has a history of racist members. Members of U.S. government are welcome to cite examples from the Civil Rights movement in discussions of civil liberties, although they are part of the very entity that opposed that movement in the past. I don't see this as hypocrisy. I see this as progression.

I do not seek to justify the racist statements made by leaders of the church, but to explain that neither Joseph Smith nor the doctrines of the church were racist in any way, and that the church has long since left behind those policies. There is here an important distinction between policy and doctrine.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was one of the first religions to baptize and ordain black people. Joseph Smith himself ordained Elijah Abel, a black man, who later became a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, a leadership position holding the High Priesthood, in 1936. Joseph Smith opposed slavery, but is often misunderstood on this subject. Like many religionists of his day, in 1936 he believed that slavery was a curse upon the seed of Canaan, but he did not use this as a justification for slavery. He stated that God would abolish slavery in his own time. In 1944, he ran for president on an anti-slavery platform. http://www.blacklds.org/Aprilma

In March 1842, Joseph Smith wrote the following in a letter on the subject of slavery, "I have just been perusing your correspondence with Doctor Dyer, on the subject of American slavery, and the students of the Quincy Mission Institute, and it makes my blood boil within me to reflect upon the injustice, cruelty, and oppression of the rulers of the people. When will these things cease to be, and the Constitution and the laws again bear rule? I fear for my beloved country mob violence, injustice and cruelty appear to be the darling attributes of Missouri, and no man taketh it to heart! O tempora! O mores! What think you should be done?"

In January 1843, on the "situation of the negro," Joseph Smith said:

"They came into the world slaves mentally and physically. Change their situation with the whites, and they would be like them. They have souls, and are subjects of salvation. Go into Cincinnati or any city, and find an educated negro, who rides in his carriage, and you will see a man who has risen by the powers of his own mind to his exalted state of respectability. The slaves in Washington are more refined than many in high places, and the black boys will take the shine of many of those they brush and wait on." http://www.blacklds.org/quotes#boil

While Joseph Smith was acting as mayor, "a colored man named Anthony was arrested for selling liquor on Sunday, contrary to law. He pleased that the reason he had done so was that he might raise the money to purchase the liberty of a dear child held as a slave in a Southern State. He had been able to purchase the liberty of himself and his wife and now wished to bring his little child to their new home. Joseph said, ‘I am sorry, Anthony, but the law must be observed and we will have to impose a fine.’ The next day Brother Joseph presented Anthony with a fine horse, directing him to sell it, and use the money obtained for the purchase of the child."

"The horse was Joseph’s prized white stallion, and was worth about $500; a huge sum at the time. With the money from the sale, Anthony was able to purchase his child out of slavery."

Concerning the ban on blacks from the priesthood, it would appear that following Joseph Smith's martyrdom, certain members claimed that Smith believed that blacks were not entitled to the priesthood, although the overwhelming flood of evidence suggests that Joseph Smith was not racist, that he was anti-slavery, and that he believed that blacks were entitled to all of the same blessings of the church as other members.

An account of how the priesthood ban on blacks falsely came into being:

1879, Abraham Smoot (the owner of 2 slaves) and Zebedee Coltrin claim Joseph Smith instituted the Priesthood ban in the 1830s (L. John Nuttal diary, May 31, 1879, pg. 170, Special Collections, BYU). The Smoot affidavit, attested to by L. John Nuttall, appears to refer only to a policy concerning slaves, rather than to all Blacks, since it deals with the question of baptism and ordination of Blacks who had "masters". This affidavit says that Smoot, "W.W. Patten, Warren Parish and Tomas B. Marsh were laboring in the Southern States in 1835 and 1836. There were Negroes who made application for baptism. And the question arose with them whether Negroes were entitled to hold the Priesthood. And…it was decided they would not confer the Priesthood until they had consulted with the Prophet Joseph; and subsequently they communicated with him. His decision was they were not entitled to the Priesthood, nor yet to be baptized without the consent of their Masters. In after years when I became acquainted with Joseph myself in Far West, about the year 1838, I received from Brother Joseph substantially the same instructions. It was on my application to him, what should be done with the Negro in the South, as I was preaching to them. He said I could baptize them by consent of their masters, but not to confer the Priesthood upon them" (quoted in Wm. E. Berret, Historian, BYU VP of CES, The Church and the Negroid People).

But Coltrin says the ban was to be universally applied to all blacks. In L. John Nuttal’s Journal (pages 290-293) we find, "Saturday, May 31st, 1879, at the house of President Abraham O. Smoot, Provo City, Utah, Utah County, at 5 O’Clock p.m. President John Taylor, Elders Brigham Young, Abraham O. Smoot, Zebedee Coltrin and L. John Nuttall met. Coltrin: I have heard him [Joseph Smith] say in public that no person having the least particle of Negro blood can hold the Priesthood." According to Coltrin, "…Brother Joseph kind of dropped his head and rested it on his hand for a minute, and then said, ‘Brother Zebedee is right, for the spirit of the Lord saith the Negro has no right nor cannot hold the Priesthood.’… Brother Coltrin further said: ‘Brother (Elijah) Abel was ordained a Seventy because he had labored on the Temple…and when the Prophet Joseph learned of his lineage he was dropped from the Quorum, and another was put in his place. I was one of the 1st Seven Presidents of the Quorum of Seventy at the time he was dropped.’" Coltrin claims that Abel was dropped from the quorum of Seventy sometime before or during 1837 when Joseph Smith Jr. learned that Abel was Black. Apostle Joseph F. Smith successfully argues against this point on the grounds of Abel’s two additional certificates of ordination to the office of Seventy, one dated 1841 and the other from some time in the 1850s after Abel arrived in Salt Lake City. Coltrin’s memory is shown to be unreliable in at least two specifics: His claimed date (1834) for Joseph Smith’s announcing the alleged ban is impossible, since Coltrin himself ordained Abel a Seventy in 1836. Also, he incorrectly identifies which of the quorums of Seventy Abel was ordained to. Abel, on the other hand, claims that "the prophet Joseph told him he was entitled to the priesthood." President John Taylor, on the other hand, said that Abel’s ordination as a Seventy "was allowed to remain". The other element that makes Coltrin’s story suspect is the claim that Joseph didn’t know Abel was black. Anyone who has looked at a picture of Abel has easily identified him as a black man.

From the Council meeting minutes of 4 June 1879 (Bennion papers as quoted in Neither White nor Black, Bush and Maas, Signature Books, pg. 101, note 29.)

Five days after Coltrin related his account: "Brother Joseph F. Smith said he thought brother Coltrin’s memory was incorrect as to Brother Abel being dropped from the quorum of the Seventies, to which he belonged, as brother Abel had in his possession, (which also he had shown brother J. F. S.) his certificate as a Seventy, given to him in 1841, and signed by Elder Joseph Young,Sen., and A.P. Rockwood, and a still a later one given in this city. Brother Abel’s account of the persons who washed and anointed him in the Kirtland Temple also disagreed with the statement of Brother Coltrin, whilst he stated that brother Coltrin ordained him a Seventy. Brother Abel also states that the Prophet Joseph told him that he was entitled to the priesthood."

Because this policy was never explained, many members of the church sought to explain the ban, and they turned out to be very misguided.

President David O. Mckay said in 1954 that “There is no doctrine in this church and there never was a doctrine in this church to the effect that the Negroes are under any kind of a divine curse. There is no doctrine in the church of any kind pertaining to the Negro...it is a practice, not a doctrine, and the doctrine some day will be changed."

In 1988, Elder Dallin Oaks, the man originally quoted in this rant, said "It is not the pattern of the Lord to give reasons...some people put reasons to [the ban], and they turned out to be spectacularly wrong. There is a lesson in that...I'm referring to reasons given by general authorities and elaborated on by others. The whole set of reasons seemed to be uneccessary risk-taking...The reasons turn out to be man-made to a great extent."

In 1981, Elder Bruce R Mckonkie said, "Forget everything I have said, or what … Brigham Young … or whomsoever has said … that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world."

I admire anyone who got through all of that. The same kind of misunderstandings occur on the topic of Native Americans.

I think that the church's past of racism is shameful and sad, but I feel strongly that it has no bearing on the current state of affairs. Many individual members of the church may be racist, but it is not a racist church.

I dunno about you, but I have a good job that I'd like to keep. I could not afford to spend time in jail. California has an "At Will" policy and can legally terminate your employment due to incarceration. I know this from experience and it holds up in a court of law. Look up California employment laws. I'm not a lawyer, but one of my bosses used to be one and my mother works in a law office. Inefficacy might not be something that would stop determined minds who have dedicated their lives towards such pursuits, but when the majority of people are mostly spending their days being employed and enjoying (or just frantically keeping up) the fruits of their labor, despite their opinions (and especially if they have a family to support), are faced with moral dilemmas above the evil of government.

If you've ever read anything by Milan Kundera, you might be familiar with The Unbearable Lightness of Being in which the protagonist, a Czech surgeon named Tomas, is forced by the Soviets to either renounce a loosely anti-Communist article he wrote or step down as surgeon. He steps down and becomes a window washer. He is approached by his estranged son and a man who was impressed by the article, requesting his signature on a petition to free political prisoners. Tomas, remembering his wife's smiling face, declines to sign for fear of what the secret police might do.

As the days go by, he can't remember why he didn't sign, but when justifying to himself why he didn't, he recalls Czech history: 1618, in defiance of their emperor, the Czechs threw several high officials out the window of a castle in Prague, leading in part to the Thirty Years War. A war of which resulted in the death of 1/3 of the population of Czechoslovakia. More than 300 years later, at the 1938 Munich Conference, it was decided that Czechoslovakia would be given up to appease the Nazis. Here, the Czech leaders showed caution in not opposing, leading in part to World War II.

"Einmal ist Keinmal," says the author. Or, "What happens once might well have not happened at all." Meaning, we cannot ever know if caution or courage are the correct choices in situations. And, because I'd rather not spend time interpreting what I know of this philosophy into words, will quote Wikipedia: (Which is pretty accurate in this case.)

"By this logic life is ultimately insignificant; in an ultimate sense, no single decision matters. Since decisions do not matter, they are light — that is, they don't cause us suffering. Yet simultaneously, the insignificance of our decisions — our lives, our being — causes us great suffering. Hence the phenomenon Kundera terms the unbearable lightness of being: because life occurs only once and never returns, no one's actions have any universal significance. This idea is deemed unbearable because as humans we want our lives to mean something, for their importance to extend beyond just our immediate surroundings."

Some of us know this, or rather, believe this through experience, informing our actions or lack thereof. Yes, life can be unbearably light; and, through a combination of survival, providing for our families, understanding that courageous action can lead to catastrophe and that we have no way of knowing the whole truth in any given situation, do not go out disobeying the government to demonstrate.

Most of us wanna do the right thing, but sometimes the right thing isn't easily determined. I'll tell you what, though: if it came down to it, like Han Solo, I'd most assuredly fly back and shoot Darth Vader. (I'm going off on a tangent unrelated to my lack of conviction towards CD.) But in California, it is currently a time of peace and, despite having friends and relatives who are currently, faithfully blowing shit up (Semper fidelis), I am focused on being monetarily sound (and philosophically open) -- I really need more vespene gas.

Hey, you ain't really you and you ain't really down
Plus I'm tired of seeing you fucking for they face of ground
'Cause when I sit back and think back of how you found me
It make me react react my fucking yammy
Now I don't cock, though my mnd is in the sewer
I just kick back six pack and then I do 'er
But she gets stuck on crowing like a cat
'Cause the toes got sucked on she don't know how to act
Back in the days I am 237, used to rumble Kevin
Backing hoes was like heaven
Eleven, years later I tried to hide
And hoped they pass me by like I'm the pharycyde
Just let me puff and lounge with my niggas
Don't have no time to fake funk with triggers
Don't believe in kids with that puts cat say
Fuck around with Fasion get your whole shit bit
Spend crazy years with the blues pay dues
Before I met the Psycho is in the junk yard juice
But now the crew combined and we can't be stopped
Going around the globe to collect the props

I get stoned everyday I gots nothing else to do
I'm getting drunk with my niggas `til the night is thru
And when the night is thru, I won't have a fucking clue
Of what tomorrow will bring so I pay ten [true]
Yo life's kind of funny if you don't make money
Then your days ain't fuckin sunny
Excuse me for my language
But I'm trying to get my last thing together
And bought the crib to be in my damn bids so neve

Acted like I deserve to have it
I whipped I stabbed it I whipped I grabbed it you silly
Rabbit, I'm coming at your door
Tracks behind the stacks better yo I'm brought showa
I'm showa, unlike others wanna pop u
Use a pistol drop dogging that shit you need to stop
'Cause when I approach and you can't back up
What you said [Toma]
Fly you fucking head like that

Real niggas do real things and that's a fact
And real niggas could lick their hoes in niggas backs
And your life's down like a heavy price to pay
For some bullshit that you ain't even had to say
But don't sweat that, 'cause I'm 'ma let you keep your head
If I wanted to kill, you're already be dead
I gotta a lot of things to do, a lot of money to make
I got no time for you and all the moves you fake
Taking care of business yeah without a doubt
And I'm 'ma make a million dollars kid before I'm out
Yeah I gotta give a shout to my peeps in Corona
Going hand to hand gettin' loot on the corner
Life is full of stress and to rest my brain
So I puff the buddha bless and destroy the pain
I gotta a lot of things to do, a lot of money to make
I got no time for you and all the moves you fake

I don't know how FOX reacted to this, but I know CNN had a pundit talking about how this country was founded on christian principles and while we have freedom of religion it cannot be denied that the nation was founded on Christianity.

Which is nothing less then a shovel of bullshit that these people (the conservative movement) have pushed on themselves so much they now believe it. Many of the most renown Founding Fathers were considerably AGAINST fundamental and organized religions.Several, like John Adams, Tomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington either weren't religious or religion simply did not pertain to their work as our Founding Fathers, like Tomas Jefferson who famously quoted;

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."

So Obama is absolutely correct. We are NOT a christian nation, nor a Jewish Nation, no any other nation of a particular religion. We are a nation of citizens with their own beliefs and rights.

I know the fundamentals in this country would like nothing better than to make this country a Christian nation, to make Christianity the state religion. But to even suggest the founding fathers would have been behind that is beyond asinine.


Last, Winstonefield, I don't think that the majority are arguing that those who work in the government should be atheist and only atheist. But simply as the above quote states, that religion should be between them and their particular god and should have no place in their work.

The seperation of church and state isn't in the constitution as it was written, but the Supreme Court has knocked down any case that comes up against that in every single case that has come before them. Frankly, the simple fact that nobody can obtain a higher office in this country (particularly that as president) without vehemotly announcing their CHRISTIAN faith. The founding fathers should be rolling over in their grave that such unannounced stipulations are indeed fact. With evidense all around us, with the continued perpetuation that Obama is a Muslam (which was perpetuated by the fundamental conservative movement to prevent him from obtaining votes in the election,) being the most recent.

On a personal level I am not against religion. I am religious myself. What I think is wrong, and what I think many of our founding fathers thought was wrong, was fundamental, organized religion. Religion should be between a man (or woman) and their personal faith. It should start there and end there.


Off topic, someone needs to upload last nights The Daily Show bit where John Stewart showed how bat-shit crazy conservatives (particularly on FOX) have become after 10 weeks out of power. Funny as hell.

So, i was going to go on a rant about how this video is flawed, but i will break it down into bit sized chunks.

Coheed and Cambria suck.

Their music is simple.

The kit they play might as well be a rock band kit for the size of it, all four pieces wow.

The guy has played drums before.

This is a lousy excuse for an interview.

and

Lets see him pull off something by a drummer like Neil Pert, Mike Portnoy, or Tomas Haake. Put this guy behind a drumkit, say, even a six piece, or an eight like I play, or a 12, and see him fall apart like a little baby.

interesting.

for me, live broadcasts are both DOOMED and THE FUTURE. i cannot decide.

But really, I prefer to receive entertainment when I actually have the time, rather than when someone else wants to throw it at me.

but... the chatroom thing and interaction is SO much better than prerecorded. we have a little indie radio show and even if ONE person sends ONE text message while we are broadcasting, it is INFINTELY COOL! "yeah, big ups to tomas on the SMS, this one's for you...." so coool. Maybe we can hook up a studio webcam to these services?

i think "podcasts" are the worst things... they are just dead radio. no pictures, no audience, just a fucking tape of a fake radio show that happened more than 24 hours ago. Crap.

i think most popular are "Eglė" for a girl (meaning pine, pronounced like "ugly" haha) and "Jonas" for a boy.

ones we like:
boy: matas, tomas, giedrius, nidas (tomas mann had a house in Nida, if that means something to you!)
girl: Delija, Agnė

but if you wanna go really stylish, go russian
http://www.weddingvendors.com/baby-names/origin/russian/

i love this one:
Aloyoshenka
Russian · Male
meaning:
Defends mankind.

lol!


In reply to this comment by maatc:
Will give that a thought!
What are the most popular names in Lithuania?

In reply to this comment by MINK:
all german girls should be called "Helga" and all boys should be called "Hans".

I know this because i learnt german from a book.