Comments for Ryan I Am

Comment on Breitbart fails by Howard

Howard — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:01:54 +0000

Thanks. I’ll check these out.

Comment on Breitbart fails by Ryan Kirk

Ryan Kirk — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:43:31 +0000

I didn't mean to say I was a recent convert to the Church. I was born and raised, went on a mission to Finland, married in the Temple, etc. However, I am a recent convert to the feminist, intellectual cause within the Church. I particularly like the writing of Joanna Brooks who runs a Q&A blog called Ask Mormon Girl and writes essays at Religion Dispatches. I also like Brad Kramer's anthropological perspective. You can friend either of them on Facebook as well and become privy to the discussions going on there. There's also FMH but I don't have time to follow all the discussions there (or in their Facebook group). I appreciate your open mind, and I hope you find something that can help you understand the liberal perspective within the Church. Even if you don't agree with it all, at least it would give you greater understanding.

Comment on Breitbart fails by Howard

Howard — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:13:03 +0000

Thanks for the reply. I know that some of the emails that circulate (not relating to the church) and that are obviously intended to polarize and inspire hate of other races or other political party members tend to frustrate me. Sometimes I have to take a chill pill on those, but I haven’t found as much to be upset about regarding women’s issues, though I am aware of some of it and I suppose my spouse might wish that I was a little more aware of others. Anyway, sounds like as a more recent convert, again I am assuming, you have a little different view of the feminist issues than I do, but it might be interesting to see what you have to say. Can you point me to any other writings on it (your’s or others’) that represent your views? It might help me better understand my own. Thanks.

Comment on Breitbart fails by Ryan Kirk

Ryan Kirk — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:38:34 +0000

Howard, yes I am LDS. My personal chip is against this sort of inflammatory, biased rhetoric that continues to polarize us, and also against a dismissal of minority and/or women’s views. The author happened to hit both of those nerves with me.

Of course, I’m not even scratching the surface on feminist issues in the Church. I only became generally aware of them within the past couple of years, so I understand there is a lot of ignorance of them by the traditional white male born-and-raised in the Church membership, of which I am part. But it’s a cause which, after educating myself on the matter, I have come to embrace.

Comment on Breitbart fails by howard

howard — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:26:00 +0000

Good, interesting, well-written and thought-provoking response. Makes me realize just how perhaps many, if not most of us LDS may have a “chip on [our] shoulder” – I assume you are LDS. Is it possible to be in our situation, e.g., beset as is everyone by an increasingly polarized environment, and at best misunderstood (at worst on the receiving end of extreme leftist bigotry) and not emerge having a pretty strong counter-bias? Even wannabe moderates like myself? Not that I’m a BW fan, I hadn’t heard of him before, but I would ask, what type of wood is your chip made of? Your characterization of BW’s article as “rubbish” suggested alot of energy you have for the topic. Perhaps like me you find it is increasingly frustrating living in a world in constant turmoil because of blatant bias and oversimplification of the important issues before us? Thanks for delving deeper and exposing for me what I think is a significant problem – unwitting bias – in the way we as humans, not just LDS humans, experience politics, and what tends to make it so difficult to form a consensus these days.

Comment on A Child’s Prayer by Kristin Owens

Kristin Owens — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:40:13 +0000

IS there anyway that Ican pay u for a copy of this arrangement? I have am accompanyhing some girls in church on sunday, and they are having a hard time finding the melody when u put it together..can I please pay for a copy of this version? I love IT!! Please email me at krist2002@yahoo.com

Comment on Let’s All Make Fun of the Retards Now, Shall We? by Ryan Kirk

Ryan Kirk — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:02:46 +0000

I stand by my adjectives. It may be blunt, but it’s true.

Most of America is politically and economically ignorant. Even I myself don’t claim to be well-informed on many important matters, yet I frequently hear things said by both Democrats and Republicans that are just plain stupid. There is just no other way to describe it. Anyone who thinks they can take out $100k worth of loans without having to face the consequences is a moron. Anyone who thinks a complete collapse of the world financial system and the risk of total anarchy is an acceptable risk in order to stick it to a few fatcats (ie, anyone who thinks we should not have bailed out Wall Street) is a nutjob. I think that if someone’s ignoring reality and/or staggering evidence yet loudly proclaiming some random talking point they read in a pamphlet, they’re well on their way to idiocy.

I’m curious though, we were having quite a polite discourse through email and you never replied back to me.

Comment on Let’s All Make Fun of the Retards Now, Shall We? by Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:25:16 +0000

Morons, nut job,slackjawed yokels, idiots. These are not terms that are characteristic of polite discourse. I’m dismayed at the shrill and angry tone in today’s political discourse and the way we marginalize groups by characterizing them as intellectually inferior or worse.

Comment on Blind Followers are Blind – Part 1 by Ryan Kirk

Ryan Kirk — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 04:43:42 +0000

You’re only blind if you refuse to believe that any element of the opposing ideology to your own can possibly be considered correct, and that only your own ideology can be and is 100% correct.

Do you get that I’m not arguing in favor of the left or the right? It’s about correctness.

Comment on Blind Followers are Blind – Part 1 by Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 03:45:31 +0000

Interesting. So, if I were to disagree (remember, I didn’t say that i do), I would be blind.

I think there are honest people on both sides who sincerely believe they are right. I happen to personally believe that the founders were right when they feared the centralization of power in a federal government. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t important things to be done by government, but when you give as much power as we have given to Washington, there is great danger that in attempts to do good things, there will be great inefficiency, corruption, or worse. It’s clear that has happened. A government that provides all things necessarily has to have the power to take all things.