We’ve been traveling so much this summer that we really haven’t had much time to . . . well, to have a summer.   And a large part of “summer,” to me, is certain foods.   But, today, we went a long way toward overcoming the deficit.   The tri-tip steak was really good.  But the fresh corn, fresh tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, fresh onions, fresh peaches, and fresh Green River watermelon — picked up from a stand here... Read more

    http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2015/08/31/carly-fiorinas-powerful-new-friend/?intcmp=hpdm&intcmp=obnetwork   I could be happy supporting a Carly Fiorina–Ben Carson ticket.   I like her executive experience, and her willingness to speak her mind.  I would love to see her debate Hillary Clinton.     I worry about Ben Carson’s lack of executive experience.  But I like him a lot, and he’s a obviously extremely bright.  He would grow rapidly into the vice presidential role.   This is far down my list of priorities, but I would... Read more

        With the proviso that, in my opinion, the “jihadists” distort and misrepresent the authentic original meaning of jihad, I think this article is correct:     http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/09/02/losing_the_war_of_ideas_127966.html   Right at the moment, I think that the world is indeed losing the battle with jihadism — and that this will have horrifying and massively lethal consequences in the not-too-distant term.   I also believe that jihadism needs to be engaged not only militarily but intellectually, culturally, and... Read more

    John 10:22-39 Compare Luke 4:29-30   Jesus’ pronouncement here that he and his Father are “one” is one of the bases for the doctrine of the Trinity.  I’ll argue in a forthcoming article for Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture that some contemporary Catholic and Protestant theologians are drawing closer to Mormon understandings of the Godhead via other, and arguably much better, ways of understanding that “oneness.”   I discussed an important part of John 10 in an article... Read more

    Today’s biweekly Hamblin-Peterson column has appeared in the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865636102/Wartburg-Castle-is-at-the-center-of-Germany-and-its-history.html   If you have the time, please be sure to look at all five of the photos that accompany the article.  They’ll give you a reasonably good idea of the place.     Read more

    An intriguing thought:   http://etherscave.blogspot.com/2015/08/fire-and-brimstone.html     Read more

    Matthew 20:1-16 Compare Matthew 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30   It’s common to dismiss or mock deathbed conversions.   I certainly understand why this should be so.  Such “conversions” must, I assume, commonly be rather cynical, insincere, self-interested, and ultimately vain attempts at fooling the Supreme Being.  The time for sinning having run out, and eternity staring the sinner starkly in the face, the dying miscreant attempts to get into the divine good favor at the last possible... Read more

    My wife and I went out to dinner with friends tonight, and then, afterwards, attended a BYU concert with them by Kelli O’Hara.   She arrived here in Utah yesterday, taking a break from her current role in the Broadway revival of The King and I, and she spent much of today in a master class with BYU music theater students.  I was impressed:  It’s obvious that she really gave them her attention, and that she enjoyed it.  She... Read more

    “Scientific progress is the discovery of a more and more comprehensive simplicity. . . .  The previous successes give us confidence in the future of science: we become more and more conscious of the fact that the universe is cognizable.”  (Father Georges Lemaître [1894-1966], Belgian astronomer, physicist, and priest, and, arguably, originator of the theory of the “Big Bang”)   “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.”  (Albert Einstein, German-American physicist [1879-1955])   “The... Read more

    Few religious-themed or religiously motivated films — whether Mormon or non-Mormon — have been particularly memorable.  But the effort is important, some have been fairly good, and the best is undoubtedly yet to come:   Chris Hicks surveys some of the relatively recent offerings for the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865636001/Faith-films-cant-be-dismissed-as-irrelevant.html?pg=1     Read more