d0tc0m

False flag attacks are nothing new. The American government has deployed a few against their own citizens — and those are just the declassified ones we know about. So no, it’s not totally out of the question that a rival nation would do the same thing to maneuver themselves into a better position, both economically and in terms of military, on a global scale. But crashing the American economic complex would be a bold strategy, and likely disastrous for China in the long run. It would essentially spell their own ruin. Still not impossible, just a little more improbable. A more likely scenario is that this was a joint effort by many of the large economic and military powers — America included — to continue feeding the war machine, which ensures the global elite get to stay the global elite.

No.

Preach.

I mean yeah, the absence of logic seems painfully obvious, but I guess it isn’t.

I don't know how you somehow drew a conclusion that I think big-city school districts are doing a "good job" or providing an ample level of instruction. Because I am on the opposite end of the spectrum. My rant about standardized test scores as any sort of practical measurement highlights issues with big-city districts, and specifically inner-city schools. I work in education and am a strong advocate against standardized tests of any kind both at the state and national levels, and anytime someone references "test scores" as a meaningful way to analyze a student's intelligence/education level, it makes my blood boil instantly. These tests are nothing but a money-grab disservice to the students, the teachers and the schools that incentivize benchmark "goals" while pigeon-holing students based on results without addressing the shortfalls and actually equipping the students with the tools to become lifelong learners and productive members of society. And excellent reference to handicapped/special needs individuals with your short-bus comment, BillyClyde. Top shelf.

And then what? What do those standardized test scores tell you? What do you do with that data? How do you address that data? Are you equipped to analyze that data? Do those scores tell you much about the student? Do they dive into the students' home life? Structure in place outside of school? Stressors both inside and outside of school? Extracurricular involvement? Social and familial responsibilities? Level of instruction received at school? Level of one-on-one instruction at school? Amount of autonomy given over their own education? Do they expose the type of effective instruction the student is responsive to? Can you look at test scores and see instructional growth or just some snapshots? Do those test scores show how poorly technology integration and blended learning are infused into our inner city schools? Do they demonstrate why literacy rates are lower at inner city schools, or are they simply money-grabbing tools that highlight an issue that's been known for generations while not offering any sort of empirical evidence/data that can be utilized towards a practical solution? The fact that we still use standardized tests in this country as any sort of instructional piece is astounding. So move your lazy-@$$ take along somewhere else.

Agree. There's a breakdown in logic there.

And for what it's worth, I thought the band jokes were funny, but I do agree with MavChamp. HS football is better with the bands in the stands!

Lol I gotcha, I thought you were responding to TrueBlue's response, and not the little poop emoji. My bad!

Lol I mean I think trueblue was just giving it right back to you

Well yes, the virus is small enough to pass through the mask, if you were literally just shooting a virus from your mouth/nose. But the virus cannot travel on its own without a medium. It needs something to transport it. This particular corona virus travels via water droplets from our breath. The masks are quite effective at limiting the spread of those droplets, thus slowing/lowering the viruses chances of becoming airborne and being inhaled/incubated by a new host.

Galatians 5:6 — "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love." James 2:16-18 — "If one of you tells him, 'Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,' but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? So too, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead. From where I sit, if my faith in this current climate is going to be expressed through love, one of the ways I could practically do that is through my taking serious a global pandemic, and doing my part to not spread a sickness that could literally be the death of someone, who perhaps is not a believer. Wearing a mask, then, could be a signal of faith and not of fear or charade participation.

Then I will leave it alone and settle on a few things we share: 1) Faith in the Lord! 2) Zero trust in the government Lol we can always come back to these should things ever start to veer south in a conversation! And you can make fun of me for wearing a mask, and I won't take any offense to it!

Again, I'm coming back to the idea that you and I are probably more in agreement about things than either of us thinks/sees in this conversation. The only slight clarification I would make in your above statement is with the agenda. I believe the government, both sides, absolutely has an agenda, and it is to win, essentially. I don't think any of the health professionals I know, and I've cited them on here in a previous topic, have an agenda at all. When we've talked about this virus and the spread, etc., it's never been preceded by/followed by or gone hand-in-hand with a political conversation.

What was it that I said that makes you think that I view the spiritual realm as fantasy? I understand full well what the Bible says about Satan, and about this world, and about faith in God, and about faith without action. And when I'm sick, I go to the doctor. And yet, I still pray for God's healing in my life, no matter what the ailment. And when my amazing wife of a decade battles severe postpartum depression, TWICE, I take her to get treatment and deal with fellow Christians, believers who I love and respect, who tell me I'm wrong, and just need to pray harder and she just needs to pull herself out of it and "have faith." I take her to get treatment, because it's a medical issue and can be treated medically. And I trust that God has sovereignty over that treatment. And I pray for her spiritual protection during such a compromised time, because I know Satan doesn't play by rules or have sympathy on a new mom. My point is, you can detrimentally over-spiritualize non-spiritual issues, and by doing so be stepping all over the faith which you are proclaiming.

But you can separate from your faith and go to the doctor when you're sick, right?

I didn't forget anything. It was your statements that led to my questions regarding your beliefs on medicine/health professionals in the context of faith in God, and your responses are contradictory and non-sensical at best. I guess I don't see how this is a grand design to collapse the world, when many health professionals — a lot of them being Christians themselves — are saying the opposite, and instead reiterating that if we want to save the economy, if we want to slow the spread of this and get things back to normal, there are simple, practical things we can do. And you're invoking Satan and somehow equating wearing a mask with not trusting in God. Your arguments in this conversation, unfortunately, have, by and large, been all over the place. You're punching underwater without really answering anything.

Well, we share in our spiritual beliefs, too. I'm a deacon at a church here in Springfield, MO. And I only mention that to show our common ground in this conversation. I will say, though, some of your statements are more bordering on nihilism than faith, but if that was just my perception then I truly do apologize. I'm genuinely curious, though, and I mean no disrespect or sarcasm in this ... Have you ever gone to the doctor when you were sick? If you have a headache, do you take Tylenol, or if you have some inflammation, do you/would you take ibuprofen? If you had poor vision, like I do, would you go see an eye doctor? If you, God forbid, had cancer, or had kidney failure, or some catastrophic thing that could be treated, would you get treatment? I really do ask those questions in sincerity, and there are shades of grey to the answers to some of them. My point being, though, trusting in medicine, or trusting in health professionals, does not equate a lack of trust in God. Wearing a mask is no more neglecting the faith than is taking an Advil for some pain, or some Zyrtec or Benadryl for allergies. I believe God created us and endowed us with intelligence, as well as the ability, as good stewards of his creation, to innovate and create, and that includes in the fields of science and medicine. To me, God is as sovereign over medicine as he is anything. All good and perfect gifts come from him. So if I take medicine and my headache goes away, praise God, it worked, and it's because he's created us with the ability to develop something that can help treat a simple, physical, non-spiritual ailment. Carrying that point further, I can wear a mask, knowing full well God is still sovereign, and hope and pray that this simple act, when done en masse by a cooperative population, can help curb this outbreak and get us back to "normal."

Fair enough. And we actually have a decent amount in common, belief-wise, Natureboy. I too, mildly-stated, despise the government (speaking specifically towards the Federal level) and have the same amount of trust as you. And if I was one of the people like the couple you know, or if I was a close friend of theirs, like you, that sort of experience would make me beyond skeptical as well, and probably a little jaded. But I'll ask the question again, now with the knowledge that we share essentially the same viewpoints on government: Why not wear a mask? No one is saying shampoo with lysol, or whatever else you're referencing, but simply a mask. What does it actually cost YOU to wear a mask?

One of my favorite professors in college, during various situations, would often say to me: You have two options in life, you can be part of the problem or you can be part of the solution. If you choose to do nothing, you're part of the problem. As I just mentioned earlier, it's crazy that an infinitesimally small act, such as wearing a mask in public places (which really costs you nothing), has any affiliation with the government whatsoever. And now that it somehow is equated to owning an AR-15? I understand what you're trying to say there, but that's a super weak and tired analogy and the two conversations aren't related at all. I don't own an AR-15, personally and I don't subscribe to the NRA's philosophy, but, like you, I don't think the government needs to tell people they can't own one. But put your politics aside, turn off Fox News, just for a second and THINK, critically, selflessly, as a fellow human, a fellow Texan, a fellow American. You want to live a normal life, just like all of us. You want the economy to pick back up. You want football in the fall. So what can we do to ensure we all get to do that? Well, the health experts — not the politicians, not the government, not the radical right or the radical left, not the talking heads of Fox or CNN or the agenda du jour — are advising that we wash our hands often and wear a mask, and don't gather in large groups. Those same health officials have also warned about the protests, where most but not all, the protesters were wearing masks. The health experts said there could be spikes in positive cases as a direct result of the protests, and it's safe to assume that certainly happened. So my question back to you, Natureboy, would be: Why not wear a mask? What is it truly costing you to wear a mask and to encourage your family and friends to do it too, with the idea that if we could largely cooperate as a cohesive group, we could actually have a positive impact for the population? Why not do that?

Exactly, and somehow — inexplicably! — the idea of wearing a mask became politicized, or a symbol of "living in fear," and the very weak minded bent willfully to that asinine logic.

I'll agree that career politicians are terrible, by and large. It should not be a career path. But most of the more level-headed politicians, the ones capable of thinking critically and objectively outside their own party colors, will agree with the health officials who are and have been saying the same thing: Opening things up is fine, BUT WEAR A MASK, and use common distancing sense, and we can actually buy ourselves the time needed to beat this thing. Everyone hollering for herd immunity doesn't understand the cost of that. This isn't the flu and this isn't the chickenpox.

Welcome to America — where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter!

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