Sic et Non

    There’s been a recent flurry of excitement among certain critics of Joseph Smith and Mormonism regarding a new video by Dan Vogel.  Brian Hales responds to it here:   Response to Vogel’s Second Polyandry video   Incidentally, for those interested in (or troubled by) the subject of Joseph Smith and early Mormon plural [Read More…]

    “Some people grumble because roses have thorns; I am thankful that the thorns have roses.” Alphonse Karr (d. 1890), French critic, journalist, and novelist     [Read more…]

    Although one hubristic reader directed me this morning to post no more political comments on my blog, I’m going to throw caution to the winds and do so anyway:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/13/why-the-political-world-needs-more-mitt-romneys/?utm_term=.99f0f832f5c3   I agree with this article.     [Read more…]

    An entertaining and provocative 17.5 minutes:     It’s pretty painfully obvious to me that the two atheist interlocutors didn’t really get the point.  Of course, in fairness, they’re scarcely alone in this.  I’ve found that the atheists I’ve spoken to have rarely been able to see the issue, either.  They often assume, [Read More…]

    The 2016 United States tax year is coming to a close, and many Americans are thinking about charitable gifts, as well as about Christmas.   There are hundreds, if not thousands, of worthwhile charities that do a host of good things.  They nourish children, fight diseases, support museums, furnish scholarships, underwrite schools and [Read More…]

    You might find this retrospective interesting.  There’ll be stories that you had forgotten, and, very possibly, stories that you hadn’t heard about in the first place:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/2016     [Read more…]

    Most of you have probably already heard about this — I’m a bit late reporting on it — but it’s a fascinating discovery:   http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/12/feathered-dinosaur-tail-amber-theropod-myanmar-burma-cretaceous/   So much, it seems, for the dinosaur images and dinosaur figures that I grew up with.  (I didn’t, contrary to popular fable, grow up with actual dinosaurs. [Read More…]

    Someone called my attention to this article, on what seems to be an alt-right and/or Trumpist website:   This Is The First Country In The World That Bans Islam And Demolishes All Mosques [Video]   I haven’t verified the story itself, but I’m struck by how the article holds its depiction of Angola [Read More…]

    “‘Almost everything is already discovered’, a young Max Planck was told in 1874.  Planck, who would become one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, had travelled to Munich to embark on a career in physics, only to be told by Professor Philipp von Jolly to study something else, as ‘theoretical physics [Read More…]

    By Saturday Night Live:   http://www.ldsliving.com/SNL-Hilariously-Shows-What-Trump-Romney-s-Meetings-Must-Have-Looked-Like/s/83984?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email     [Read more…]