If you turn on the news these days, one of the first things you will discover is that “being a boy” will very often get you thrown out of school, suspended or even arrested.

Consider, for example, this 10-year-old boy who was suspended for pointing his finger like a gun. Or this eight-year-old boy who used his finger as a gun. Or this six-year-old boy…

You know the slogan, “point your finger, go to jail.”

The very fact that there exists one school administrator, not to mention many, who does not understand that this is simply how boys play is alarming enough.

But this is only the beginning of the war on boys. Matt Walsh goes into great detail in this excellent post.
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New Sunday School lesson is on my blog:

http://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2014/03/ot-10-birthright-blessings-marriage-in.html

read there / comment here.

[This post is part of a series on Joseph Smith’s Polygamy. To read from the beginning or link to previously published posts, go to A Faithful Joseph.]

The Guardian of Paradise, oil on canvas, 1889, by Franz Stuck

Prior to the fall of 1841, an angel reportedly appeared to Joseph twice, commanding him to establish the principle of celestial marriage. But in the fall of 1841, the angel would return with sword in hand. Joseph had to establish the principle, or his position and very life were forfeit.

Something had changed. God could no longer permit Joseph to take his own sweet time establishing celestial marriage among members of the Church. In the final days of 1841 Joseph enlisted the aid of Dimick Huntington. Like Joseph Bates Noble, Dimick would remain true to Joseph beyond death.[ref]Dimick and his brother, William, were among the four men Emma would entrust with the secret reburial of Joseph’s remains in February, 1845. The other two trusted men were Jonathan Harriman Holmes and Gilbert Goldsmith, son of Elizabeth Durfee.[/ref]

The four women Joseph would marry in response to the angel’s threat were women who were married to other men.[ref]In one case, Agnes Coolbrith Smith, the husband had died.[/ref] I believe Joseph did this because he had already contracted one marriage that did not involve sex. Perhaps he was already aware of how unhappy lack of intimacy had made Louisa Beaman. It would be unreasonable to expect other single women to be satisfied with a marriage that didn’t involve physical intimacy. But these married women would be relieved if the celestial marriage were purely ceremonial.
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Liberalism today is not the same as it once was.

Harry Truman, from Missouri, integrated the military and began an important work that would help lead to Civil Rights in regular American life.

Dwight Eisenhower, though a Republican, sought to liberalize things that made sense. He attempted the first true Civil Rights legislation, but was voted down in Congress.  He succeeded in building a national highway system, which opened the door for free enterprise and jobs to expand as we have it now.

John F. Kennedy pushed for a tax cut, opposed communism and sought to use government in ways to truly expand society.  He would have passed Civil Rights legislation, which was left for LBJ’s legacy after his untimely death.  This came to pass in spite many Democrats in Congress voting against the Civil Rights Act (including Al Gore’s father).  LBJ signed the Bill with the help and liberality of the Republican party!

Today, however, we often see those who claim to be liberals giving mixed signals.  They ostensibly are for women’s rights, yet most were silent on Bill Clinton’s and others’ affairs.  While Bill Clinton was a true liberal on many things, this event brought out the false liberals to defend him at any cost: including the misogynist harming of women and viewing/treating them as objects, rather than as individuals.

When Pres Obama had majorities in both houses of Congress, he had a true chance of passing liberal immigration reform, but let it pass so that he could use up all of his political capital on the unpopular and less than liberal (but progressive pro-big government) Obamacare.

Today in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan compares the “liberal” mayor DeBlasio of New York with the “moderate” governor Cuomo.  DeBlasio seeks to end charter schools in NYC, in a bid to pay off his teachers’ union cronies, while sending poor kids back to impoverished and failing schools.  True liberals would seek to help the kids, not empower unions or big government that gets in the way of their success.

Post-modern liberals attack Congressman Darrell Issa for following protocol on his investigation of the IRS, because he would not allow democratic Congressman Cummings to grandstand during the period specifically set aside to only ask questions.  Meanwhile, “liberal” IRS worker Lois Lerner took advantage of her Constitutional right to plead the 5th Amendment rather than testify on whether the IRS was abusing its power against the constitutional rights of conservative organizations.

Liberals of the past used government cautiously, insisted on balanced budgets, and ensured decisions did not risk harming the rights of individuals.  Many of today’s false “liberals” defend the NSA snooping, trillion dollar deficits, drone attacks on Americans, etc.  It is a cancer that is killing our nation.

I applaud Governor Cuomo for taking a true liberal stance FOR the children of New York.  I wish those who pretend to be liberals would change and truly stand for those liberal concepts that defend the Bill of Rights and increase freedom for all Americans, rather than be the “progressives” that seek to grab power and get gain in any way they can as a political machine.  This holds true for both major political parties, as there are many Democrats and Republicans who only seek power and to pay back their cronies, rather than seek the best for America in liberty.