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World of Warcaft, a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing
Game is, by some estimates, the second-most popular MMO-RPG in the
world, currently attracting more than a million players into its fantasy
world.
Of course, the real world peaks through. Within World of Warcraft are
public chat channels where people talk about mundane stuff like the
latest movie, sports, current events, etc. And of course, whenever
people get together in a forum like this, politics and religion also are
talked about.
Reading over these chat channels is an experience not for the faint
of heart. Hiding behind the anonymity of the internet, the real person
comes out, most likely because people know they can’t be punched.
Sex is a topic often brought up, and it isn’t G rated.
Politics is one of the most popular topics. Generally, you see less hatred between the two sides in the Middle East.
Religion comes up occasionally. Since the game population is
generally located in Western Civilization, religion is about
Christianity, and usually how “Jebus” is fake, hated, or a monster.
World of Warcraft is okay with all that. Sure, they do have a Terms
of Service, and this To states that a player may not engage in
“disruptive” behavior. It does not, however, define what “disruptive
behavior” is.
Well, we know what it is now. In the midst of anal sex jokes,
anti-Israel diatribe, and telling people they are monsters for being of a
different political position, posting a Bible verse is verboten!
Enter a player who posted a bible verse every once in a while to the
public chat channels. These bible verses were rather innocuous. Love
your neighbor. Do not take an insult to heart. Do to others as you would
have them do to you. Generally sayings that most people would agree
with.
Well, apparently, this crossed the line. Calls for Biden supporters
should be castrated and Trump supporters should be imprisoned are all
okay. But the Bible? God Forbid!!!
Oh, I mentioned God. Should I be banned from the internet?
Well, this person was banned from World of Warcraft. His posting privileges were suspended for one week.
Sure, a company can limit speech on their servers. Final Fantasy XIV
has a rule that clearly states religion and politics can not be
discussed publicly. World of Warcraft has no such rule. And clearly
allows all types of conversation. Except God. Well, except supporting
God. If you hate God, you can post all you want, apparently.
In the end, maybe World of Warcraft can ban someone for posting a Bible verse. Should they?
What has our world come to if we are okay with that?
Blizzard Entertainment did not respond to request for comment for this article.
Thomas Himinez is a published author of both audio drama and the written word.
You can catch Rick and Bubba on some 70+ stations across the nation.
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In
the kitchen sits a full cookie jar, and 6-year-old Todd is determined
to have one. When his mom walks in, she finds him—one arm still in the
jar—chewing fast. The first words out of his mouth are, “I’m sorry.” He
obviously regrets being caught and is unhappy about the punishment that
may follow, but he’s probably not remorseful for eating the cookies.
Believers
sometimes approach confession and repentance the same way. Sorrow
usually accompanies admission of guilt, and feelings of shame and
remorse are labeled as repentance. Yet too often our repentance is
shallow. We’re sad over the consequences of our actions and upset that
we’ve failed to live up to our own standards of good behavior. But
genuine repentance goes deeper than self-reproach; it involves a sense
of grief over having wronged God by sinning against Him.
Our
desire should be to please our heavenly Father, not grieve Him. So
genuine repentance leads us to forsake the sin and practice obedience.
When we humble ourselves and truly repent, the Holy Spirit pours His
power and strength into our life. Then we are enabled to turn from that
sin in order to walk in obedience to our Lord.
Being overweight is turning out to be an increasingly
critical public health issue because it raises the risk for so many
medical disorders, most of which can be quite major which places a major
obligation on health care systems around the globe. It is estimated
that generally in most the western world, 40 to 50% of people can be
considered to be in the obese group. The health effects of being
overweight have an impact on almost any body system which includes the
brain, arteries, heart, liver, gall bladder, bone tissues and joints.
Having too much weight or having obesity dramatically increases the
potential for having a cerebrovascular event and the repercussions and
also complications of this.
Fat which is located round the neck might
make the air passage too small which is going to increase the threat for
sleep apnoea which is in the event the inhaling and exhaling might
actually cease for short intervals during the night in people who have
sleep apnoea. Those with overweight problems have been associated with a
greater risk of gastroesophageal reflux disorder which is when the
gastric acid escapes into the oesophagus. There is also a greater risk
of forming gall stones. Excessive fat is specifically a challenge for
developing surrounding the liver and ultimately causing liver damage as
well as liver failing. In people who are at an unhealthy weight the
heart as well as the vascular system must continue to work hard to pump
blood throughout the entire body resulting in high blood pressure which
also raises the chance for a stroke, cardiac arrest and renal disorder.
Obesity additionally helps make the body’s cells more resistant against
insulin which is a key factor in raising the possibility for diabetes
type 2. Type 2 diabetes in turn also increases the chance for a range of
other medical issues, which includes cardiovascular disease, renal
disease, stroke, loss of limb and loss of sight. Obesity causes it to
become harder for a females to get pregnant and in those who do become
pregnant, it might add to the potential for serious difficulties during
the pregnancy.
Overweight problems have significant influences on the bone and joint
system, causing a weakening with bone strength and density and muscle
tissue raising the potential for bony injury. The extra weight applies
too much stress on the joints, leading to pain and stiffness as well as
raising the possibility for osteo arthritis. Obesity impacts your feet,
placing a large amount of stress on them when we walk around increasing
the possibility for a lot of distinctive foot conditions.
Those with
obesity may also find it difficult reaching the feet resulting in
difficulties with self-care in addition to wearing footwear. Obesity has
also been linked to an elevated probability of many different types of
cancers including cancers of the liver, digestive tract and pancreas.
The bigger the Body mass index, the greater the probability of these
types of cancer. Skin rashes can occur where the epidermis of excess fat
folds causing cleanliness problems. Overweight problems have also been
connected with a variety of mental health issues and they are generally
more likely to have reduced overall well-being, encounter a lot more
undesirable inner thoughts and display more psychopathological signs and
symptoms including depressive disorders, poor self-esteem, in addition
to difficulties with body image. Simply because obesity affects
virtually every section of the human body, it's increasingly important
to handle this with a combination of diet regime, physical exercise, and
lifestyle changes.
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To get the most out of this devotion, set aside time to read the scriptures referenced throughout.
It’s
common to hear Christians say, “You don’t have to be perfect—God loves
you just the way you are.” And that statement is true, except it’s not
the whole picture.
Yes, the Lord’s love is unconditional; we can
do nothing to change it. At the same time, His plan for all believers is
to make us increasingly like Himself. It’s a perfection that transcends
our understanding of the term—a perfection found not in how we perform
but in our willingness to surrender our life to Him.
In Matthew 5:48
(NIV), Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.” Instead of hearing those words as an impossible expectation,
think of them as an invitation. He’s welcoming you to the abundant life,
the healing of your soul, the recovery of your true self. It’s what we
know as the process of sanctification.
To be sanctified—in other
words, to become holy—is not a pursuit of faultlessness but rather one
of becoming more and more like Jesus. And there’s just one way to do
that: Say “yes” to His invitation each day.
A
video from a ring doorbell camera captured a deadly encounter between
two men. One of the two men involved walked away, the other is dead.
Looking at the brief encounter gives us a good perspective of just how
fast your day can go from routine to extreme.
Not what you want to see when you reach your front door.
Before we get into the video, I think it's important to point out a
few things. First, I don't have any information about the men in the
video or what led up to the shooting, other than what we can glean from
the video.
Next, anytime we analyze one of these types of incidents, there are
some people who think that I'm just “Monday morning quarterbacking,” and
that is not the intent. Rather, I think we can learn a lot about
violence and civilian defensive gun uses, that we can then apply to our
defensive strategy.
Lastly, I just want to point out one of the many observations we can
get from this brief video clip. Most likely, you'll have opinions and
observations of your own. Feel free to share those thoughts in the
comments below.
Some Gunfights Are Won Before a Round Get's Fired—
In no way am I discounting the importance of training with and using a
reliable everyday carry (EDC) gun and holster. The one of the many
things we focus on here at Concealed Carry dot Com, is to help people
become safer and more proficient with their firearm. However, many
well-trained professionals and civilians have died in an ambush.
Because, mostly, as defenders, we are reactionary in that we respond
to an attacker. We don't typically get to choose when, where, or how a
defensive gun use will go down. Try as we might, training can't really
replicate real world violence in a safe way. Even force-on-force
training, which is some of the best training one can participate in,
can't recreate the suddenness of an attack. You're either in the
training scenario or you're not. You know something is likely going to
happen when you're training. In real life, it can happen just at that
brief moment you drop your guard or mentally check out.
No one can have 100% situational awareness every moment they are in
public. Lots of people think they do, but it's not only impossible, but
unhealthy. Consider a thing called the Dunning-Kruger Effect,
which essentially describes how we have a propensity to overestimate
our abilities. The lower or ability is, the higher people tend to
estimate their abilities.
But this doesn't mean we shouldn't be aware of our surroundings. We
absolutely need to pay attention to who and what is around us. The point
in all of this is to point out that in the video, it was the victim's
awareness that gave him the best chance at winning this fight.
The Victim's Awareness—
We see the victim return home with grocery bags carried in his left
hand. We can see he has a semi-auto handgun tucked into his waistband on
his right hip. He has his door keys in his right hand and uses them to
unlock and I think, open his apartment door.
As he's doing this, we hear someone calling out to the man saying
something like “hey bro.” He turns to look and grips his handgun with
his right hand. He sees the man, which we later see is wearing a
t-shirt, pants, mask and hat. I don't know the timeframe of this video,
but it doesn't seem like the guy was wearing a mask because of cold
weather, as he was also wearing just a t-shirt. Now it's possible it
happened when it was fashionable to wear face diapers. Even after 3
years of 15 days to flatten the curve, I don't feel comfortable when I
am around someone wearing a mask.
The Draw and Holding Items in Your Hands —
The victim here blades his gun away from the masked man and draws his
handgun with his right hand, keeping it shielded from the attacker's
view as he engages the man is brief conversation. I think it's important
to note that the defender grips his handgun while still holding onto
his keys in his right hand. He may even be still holding the grocery
bags in his left, but we can't see this. I bring this up because there
are some different schools of thought on carrying items in your hands.
We can see the keys still dangling from the shooting hand fingers of the defender.
Method One —
One method is to carry items in your non-dominant hand. This way you
can draw your firearm even if you have something in your hand. However,
if you're carrying concealed, you need to clear a cover garment, and
typically this is done with your non-dominant hand. And while it may be
easy on the range to practice dropping things to free up your hands
during the draw stroke, it's not uncommon for people to hold on to
things in their hands during a stressful incident.
I'm sure you can pull up multiple videos of officer involved
shootings at the window of a vehicle, where the officer draws his gun,
engages the bad guy, all while holding an FI pad in their other hand. I
have experienced this same phenomenon as a patrol cop in a busy southern
California city. This is a good plug for practicing your draw from
concealment using only one hand.
Method Two —
The other method is to carry things in your dominant hand. This way,
it somewhat forces you to drop items from your hands when you move to
draw your gun. It also leaves your support hand free to begin the draw
stroke by clearing the garment. I see this as a viable option that I've
seen work, however that didn't actually happen in this case. Now, to be
fair, the keys might have been entangled in the defender's fingers, so
he might not have been able to drop them easily. This could happen with
other items besides keys.
The point is, when we're focused on defending ourselves, we may not
perform exactly how we thought we will in respect to dropping things
from our hands. My advice is still to practice carrying and dropping
items from both hands, and working on drawing one handed so that you
have reference points to access, no matter what hand you might have
something in when you need to draw.
The Defender was Ready —
The defender felt something was off and drew his gun before the
attacker drew his. He didn't draw it and immediately shoot, but he had
it in his hand, ready to go. The defender also positions himself,
placing a bit of the building's corner between him and the bad guy.
The defender was ready, the bad guy wasn't.
The bad guy's “draw” began from his left pants pocket. This isn't
ideal, as he was a right-handed shooter. So the bad guy needed to draw
the gun, then transfer to his right hand, then raise it to bear on the
defender. This gave the defender perhaps an extra second of time to
process what he saw, and then react. What's telling is that even though
the defender already had drawn his gun, the bad guy was able to bring it
to bear on him at almost the same time he broke his shot on the bad
guy.
Fortunately for the defender, the men were just outside arms length
distance, and he was able to break a shot on the bad guy and get the
first significant hit. That hit seems to impact the attacker in the face
or head. The attacker's head goes back and he begins to slump forward.
The defender is able to break a second shot which is difficult to see if
it impacted the bad guy or not.
If the second shot missed it likely missed horizontally, and not
vertically. Meaning that it could have entered the apartment directly
behind the bad guy. Another side point, this is a reason jacketed hollow points are preferred
for your everyday carry gun. Over penetration of a human body is one
concern for sure. But misses are something that while we want to avoid,
are a reality in many defensive shootings. At most, there is probably a
60% hit rate when looking at all defensive shootings. This means upwards
of 40% of rounds miss the mark. If our defender missed here, a JHP
projectile is still going to penetrate the apartment walls, but ideally
with much reduced velocity, compared to a full metal jacketed (FMJ)
projectile.
Reasonable Questions —
Understanding that this doesn't
represent every defensive gun use, I still think we should ask ourselves
a few questions. I'm not going to include my personal answers here. I
would rather use this as an opportunity for you, the reader, to come to
your own conclusion.
—Would the defender have survived had he not preemptively
drawn his gun? That is to say, recognized something was wrong, and
acted on that intuition.
—Do you regularly pay attention to people and things going on around
you? How about when you reach your home? We've covered many DGUs on the Podcast
that involved a suspect following the victim's home and attacking when
the victim is about to enter their home. What steps do you take to
secure your home? Do you even have a home defense security plan?
—Had the defender been carrying the gun without a round in the
chamber, would he have been able to rack the slide before using it?
—Do you think the defender thought this was the day he would need his
gun? Do you carry every day, or just when you go to “the dangerous part
of town?”
In Conclusion —
Again, I just wanted to focus on the defender's mindset of readiness and situational awareness. We talk about having a wholistic defensive mindset.
Do you have one? I don't know, but don't suspect the defender was a
master class IDPA competition shooter. He didn't have a tricked out 2011
with a fancy red dot. He might not have even been using a holster, or
at least if he did, it was one that collapsed when he removed the gun.
Yet he survived an intense, deadly confrontation. It all started with
being ready. The question is, are you?
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