In an interview with CNN's Tony Snow yesterday, Bill Cosby spoke his mind. This was quite unlike Hillary Clinton's quick apology after criticising the younger generation for being lazy...after being chided by her daughter. The text follows (Please keep in mind that I am transcribing an oral conversation, so the text is not always grammatical:

COSBY: "We are at a time when you look at numbers. And people throw these numbers out and these numbers tend to have no feeling about the incarcerated African male. This is not good news when you have the African American female looking for a love partner, a mate, a business partner, a marriage partner, whatever you want to call it for someone to build a family and a home with. This is not your grandmother's world. This is a WHOLE different place. And you have got to be thinking about YOU taking charge in business, family, raising your home. You have to take care of YOU. There is a whole bunch of confusion in this United States about who we are. We are many many things. We are the weakest, we are the strongest within ourselves. There are tons and tons of examples of those who have been down as low as anybody can be as in having a foot on your throat and they toss that foot away and get up and they win! And there are those who have had things and they have allowed themselves to become something called a "culture" that Mr. Farracon has said "is leading our children into the valley of death."

Narrator: "Do you think Legacy at all."

Cosby: " Yes, not for me. I think legacy and I think how our race is allowing the word "culture" to allow people accompany us who are drug dealers, and saying they are dealing drugs because they don't want to flip burgers or think about moving higher in the business world, or getting an education. (Now getting animated) I am watching TV and I'm watching a host of a show who is applauding a movie about some damned pimp and how rough his life is and a movie about some damned drug dealer and how intelligent he is because he can count money. These people have gone crazy. It's not a legacy and it certainly is not a culture ...."

From among the pressing crowd of voices we hear from one minute to the next, all our lives. From all sorts of voices, we must recognize the voices having authority, the voice of the Good Shepherd, who provides the essential directions through the strait and narrow toward the tree of life eternal.

As Paul said to the Corinthians, “There are … so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.” (1 Cor. 14:10.) Yet, all to often there are those on a path long and winding as opposed to being straight and direct. All provide useful information needed in mortality.

Here I provide reference only to those voices that speak of the commandments, the doctrines, the ordinances, the practices of the church of God. Some speak on these subjects have been called and have been given divine authority to do so. These are they who have not taken that authority upon themsleves. Others, whom I choose to call surrogate voices, speak on these subjects without the benefit of calling or authority. Yet to be a surrogate voice is not to be avoided. Not all of us are called to speak and teach. Not all of us have official authority from the Church to speak and teach.

At times, Church leaders and members have been distressed by things said by these surrogate voices. I am persuaded that some members are befuddled about the Church’s relationship to the surrogate voices. This is for good reason. Where order has been lost the work of the Lord can suffer.

Some surrogate voices are substantiated with the Lord’s teaching that his servants should not have to be commanded in all things, but “should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.” (D&C 58:27.)

Others pursue selfish interests (property, pride, prominence, or power). These others are typically those who have taken authority for themselves. Other voices are the bleatings of lost souls who hear the voice of the Shepherd through the whistling wind, while traveling their own path. Still others are the lost leading the lost.

Some surrogate voices are those who are determined to mislead and devour the flock. The Good Shepherd warned, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matt. 7:15; see also 3 Ne. 14:15.)

There have always been surrogate voices of deception. They are essential elements to the Plan. The prophet Lehi taught that there “must needs be … an opposition in all things.” (2 Ne. 2:11; italics added.) The unselfish and wholesome surrogate voices are also a part of the Plan.

Consistent with the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, as members of the Church, we (LDS) are directed to avoid disputation and contention. Yet, we are free to choose the level of discord we visit. Even the full time missionaries, who are official LDS, do not always find themselves in harms way because they are careless. It is precisely because they care and are led by the spirit that they stand before the darkened door and knock to impart what light they amy be permitted.

Within the environs of the blogging world, individual members of the Church may also confront difficult questions. One effort may be edifying and uplifting, something a faithful Latter-day Saint would wish to support or enjoy. But another effort may be destructive, something a faithful Latter-day Saint would not wish to support or promote. Where it is common practice here at Blogstream to shout down divergent religious thinkers, it is a place where one may remain for a time.

Some of life’s most knotty decisions involve such a mixture of good and evil. When should one seek the benefit of something good if simultaneously it provides aid to something bad which one opposes? That is a personal decision, requiring a sophisticated view of the entire picture. It requires a prayer for heavenly guidance.

There are surely limits at which every faithful Latter-day Saint would draw the line. As for me, being a Temple covenant holder, I will not generally allow the pollution of my blog with the voices of those who publish or discuss temple ceremonies anywhere else. I do not support a public discussion of things I have covenanted to hold sacred.

Snow in the Rockies:

My Canon Digital Rebel EOS XT and I have had a safe and agreeable relationship since purchasing her, say a month or so ago. Keeping our photomaking on auto has assured that. Now I've started a 4-Week online Short Course: Camera RAW Processing. All this means is that I place my camera in a setting where much of the microprocessor function is bypassed so as to allow me to custom process each chosen pic in Photoshop.

I have previously become completely enthralled building a video from my Canon Digital Video Camcorder GL-1. But this new digital camera has so much to it, where I have absolutely had no previous experience with any sort of SLR, this has got me by the throat.

But what drives me is the vision of becoming a candid photographer in the front lawn at the Hawaiian Temple at Kona on the big island.

Yes, that seems to be where we will be going....in spite of the suspicion that Hawaii will be the American doorstep to Asian Bird Flu. We just didn't relish the idea of spending over $300 monthly for heat in Anchorage. And how long is their winter up there?

So, if the two of you (whomever I am talking to) have a mind to get yourselves baptised, in a year I will be there on the front lawn waiting for you. We will, in fact, hold a bedroom for you, gratis. So, what have you got against being baptised?