Well, the Roman orgy stuff showed up after lots of threads at Ricochet were tending toward gaming talk... Or perhaps I should find out what else my tadpoles were looking at than Johnny Test videos on Youtube... Hmmm...

Speaking of the Iron, Jimmy Carter, was that your favorite piece? I always preferred the boot. I have this hilarious memory of childhood with my sister clowning around with the thimble and the top hat, one in each nostril... Ah, good times...

I would also add the Tepeyac Center, Gianna Center, and Pope Paul VI Institute as places where the value of each human life from conception to natural death is nourished, and where many women obtain the medical treatment they need to cease serial miscarriages and carry a child successfully to term.

Yeah, what Fricosis Guy said!

Barkha -- I totally agree with you that the zombie picture was meant to be funny. I don't understand the zombie craze, and we here at Toad Hall are not really into it. I must say I was avoiding the main feed page until Yeti took it down. 

To veer completely off topic, why was this post promoted to the main feed yet it still shows up in the most popular on the member feed box? (I am not questioning its promotion, just the way it is still kind of member feed-ish...)

Just curious!

I agree with Zafar -- tell us what you're eating!!

(I made cornbread and garlic shrimp with cilantro and beer for dinner tonight... yummmmmmmy)

And I also agree with Nanda -- prayers for a safe journey and return.

I agree with you, Trink. I hate to have anything appear on my computer screen that I would not want my 4 yo daughter to see (since about half the time I'm using the computer she's on my lap or otherwise nearby), and that image certainly qualifies.

As the fifth of six children, I definitely read the all rule books.

So, yes, I have bought property in Monopoly for less than the listed price when the person whose turn it was was unable to buy it. 

cbc - I agree that Ivan's argument was fatally flawed. I certainly am not intending to argue that mankind should seek slavery rather than freedom in order to be guaranteed bread to eat!

I believe in free will, and I also believe that every human life is of infinite worth in the eyes of the Lord, whether that life exists for 25 minutes or 100 years.

Our purpose in this life is to seek the face of God at every moment of our lives. Those who have done so in a visible way, especially those who have had long and full lives, help us to see our own path to union with the Almighty and we cherish their memories in a special way that is not possible for those who die early. I agree with you there, iWc.

I will agree that the parable of the talents also occurred to me, Pygmy Hippo.

(I typed your full name instead of a 2 letter abbreviation just because it was fun to type Pygmy Hippo...)

I can't accept that our lives are worthless, only our actions. I believe the Lord loves each and every one of us with a wondrous love and deeply wants us all to be happy with Him forever.

The way we can be happy is by choosing to love Him.

He created us with free will in order to make sure we were able to do so fully.

Is the life of a small child who only lives outside the womb for 3 hours a waste?

If our lives have no value in the eyes of the Lord, then why did He make us?

Reading over your post, iWc, I find myself thinking about people with serious brain damage, genetic disease like Down Syndrome causing severe retardation, mental illness, or other problems. 

Such people may not accomplish many things -- their accomplishments may seem like nothing compared to, say, a good marriage of decades. 

Their lives are as valuable as my own or yours, however, in the eyes of the Lord. Isn't this the intrinsic worth -- not the value of accomplishments but simply the human being himself? I think the value comes from our importance in the eyes of the Lord -- whether or not we accomplish anything of note to others.

I am reading Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov, and am right at the part in which the middle brother, Ivan, is explaining to Alyosha why he cannot accept the world as it is -- because it is filled with suffering. He rejects the burden of free will because the world is filled with suffering as a result of man's wickedness.

I think this is the nature of the disagreement between conservatives and liberals -- the liberals want freedom from suffering, i.e., free bread; and conservatives accept suffering as the cost of free will.

I also want to say that some of the weird ads I get here at Ricochet (Roman orgy online games??!??! really??) distress me. I have been finding myself disinclined to pop in here at Ricochet because of the advertising...

Really incredibly beautiful. Thanks for sharing.