Notes on the passing scene

Coming tomorrow: “5,000 episodes: The power and reach of ‘Music & the Spoken Word’: Messages from listeners have helped to craft the choir’s milestone 5,000th episode on Sunday”

I don’t know whether I’ll have the opportunity to watch this.  I hope that at least some of you will.  And, of course, it may be available online for later viewing.  I hope so.

And this new item, written by Newell D. Wright, was posted earlier today on the blog of the Interpreter Foundation.  I think that it will have particular meaning to some people.  I certainly hope so:  “A Book of Mormon Metaphor for Young Service Missionaries”

And, speaking of missionaries (both service missionaries and proselyting missionaries), there’s this:  “Latter-day Saint missionaries practice what they and their ‘captain’ preach through service.”  It comes, of course, from the storied Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™.

I think that I’ll dip a bit randomly into recent news for a few items to share:

Although I’m more inclined to libertarianism and even to federalism than he was, I wasn’t dissatisfied with the late (moderate conservative) Bob Bennett when he represented Utah in the Senate of the United States, and I was unhappy with the way he was deprived of the party’s re-nomination for that office by the 2010 Utah State Republican Convention.  Once Senator Bennett was out of the picture, though, I was more than happy to support Mike Lee in his earlier years.  However, I have found many aspects of the now-MAGA Senator Lee a bit difficult to take.  For example, I still have neither forgotten nor forgiven his fawning comparison of Donald J. Trump to Captain Moroni.  Here’s an article that has evidently appeared recently in more than one venue:  “Utah senator alienates conservative Mormon Church leaders with ‘bellicose’ MAGA stunts”

One of the aspects of the MAGA movement that I find distasteful — it’s illustrated in the story immediately above — is its hostile, uncivil, and often deeply ignorant rhetoric.  (“Jewish space lasers,” anyone?)  Thus: I’m not even remotely a fan of Ilhan Omar and I’ve never really thought much about Randy Fine.  But he certainly didn’t cover himself with glory in these recent remarks:  “House Democratic leaders call on GOP congressman to apologize over ‘unhinged, racist and Islamophobic’ attack on Ilhan Omar”

I posted two links yesterday about the increasing reluctance to receive vaccinations that is evidently spreading in Utah and nationwide, and exhorted anybody reading my blog to resist that trend.  Here is another relevant article:  “Measles detected in Provo waste water system: Test confirms measles is in the area, but not who has it. Utah has nine confirmed cases, including seven in Utah County”  I don’t want my family to be attacked my measles.  There is no defensible need for taking that risk.  But others around us appear to be content to expose us to it.  This doesn’t please me.

I never watch Dancing with the Stars.  Evidently, though, at least some people must:  “Ezra Sosa Jokes ‘DWTS’ Can ‘Never’ Have ‘Enough Mormons,’ Breaks Down Utah Dance Culture (Exclusive)”

This, I think, is a piece worth reading and considering:  “Opinion: Capitalism isn’t the enemy — what young voters really want”  He may well be right — I hope he is! — that most socialism-affirming Mamdani-backers don’t really want real socialism, but I couldn’t help thinking of satirical videos such as this one: “Students Support Socialism… Until It’s Applied To Their GPA.”  (I think that I recall seeing a funnier video on the same theme, but I haven’t been able to find it.)

From National Review:  “Palestinian Priests Beg for Help Against West Bank Settler Attacks.”  My sense, by the way, is that many people in the West — certainly in the United States — seem to forget that there is such a thing as Palestinian Christians.  Rather, they tend (though maybe a bit less nowadays than they once did)  to view the Arab/Israeli conflict as one simply between Jews and Muslims, which is more less a battle between good and evil.  However, Christianity has been present in Palestine since, literally, its earliest existence.  Jesus lived there, for one thing.  Christianity didn’t originate in Rome or Canterbury or Wittenberg or Geneva.  It’s not a “Western” religion, in a sense; it came to the West from its native Middle East.

This situation in the Red Sea concerns me very much, but I’m even more concerned about the non-response to it on the part of the United States and others:  “Two Ships Desperately Tried to Fight Off Houthi Attacks. Help Never Arrived. Iran-backed group carried out its most complex and violent attack yet on Red Sea shipping.”  The article to which I’ve just linked comes from the Wall Street Journal, so it’s possible that you may be unable to access it.  However — and despite the unfortunate fact that more and more news sources are going behind pay walls — there will probably still be a number of places where, if you wish, you can read or watch more about the two cargo ships that were recently sent to the bottom of the Red Sea by essentially unopposed Houthi militants.

This story, too, is concerning.  Russia may not exactly be an economic powerhouse, but it’s certainly showing a certain entrepreneurial flair:  “UK arson attack trial reveals how Russia-linked operatives recruited ‘gig’ workers for terrorism.”  There is a kind of analogy here to the “lone wolf terrorism” that has been coming out of the Middle East.  It’s very difficult to defend against both “lone wolves” and “gig terrorists.”