“Wuv.  Twoo wuv . . . ”   http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420930/oregon-christian-bakers-pay-135000-monday-or-face-potential-lien-your-home-david?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Jolt&utm_campaign=Best%20of%20Saturday%207%2F10     Read more

    The biweekly Hamblin-Peterson Deseret News column has appeared.   So far, though, for some reason, no commenters — not even the usual suspects — have shown up to pronounce me a raving lunatic:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865632373/Is-suicide-bombing-in-the-Middle-East-really-motivated-by-religion.html     Read more

    I highly recommend a look at this fourteen-minute film, available for free on YouTube:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n900e80R30   I saw it this morning at FreedomFest in Las Vegas.   It’s a fascinating venture into an aspect of intellectual history with which I was unfamiliar.  As I commented earlier today, I knew that Social Darwinism was a major tributary leading to National Socialism, but I hadn’t realized how important it was as a factor in World War One.     Read more

    Neal Rappleye offers another valuable comment on the Jenkins/Hamblin exchange:   http://www.studioetquoquefide.com/2015/07/dueling-perspectives-on-book-of-mormon.html     Read more

    “There is no passion to be found playing small — in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” Nelson Mandela     Read more

    http://www.byunewtestamentcommentary.com/annual-conference-on-july-31-2015-1-corinthians/   Posted from Las Vegas, California     Read more

    And, as a matter of fact, it clearly is.   The military historian Col. Ralph Peters offers an interesting perspective:   http://nypost.com/2015/07/09/junior-varsity-blues-why-isis-is-still-winning/   Posted from Las Vegas, Nevada   Read more

    It being Friday, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has published yet another article:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/careless-accounts-and-tawdry-novelties/   You thought, maybe, that we were on vacation?   Posted from Las Vegas, Nevada     Read more

    Mr. Trump is here in Las Vegas to speak at FreedomFest.   I’m not a fan and I don’t support his candidacy, though I freely confess that I would have enjoyed seeing him.  He’s a major show, worthy of this city.   I share the viewpoint expressed in this article by John Fund, who is also here, and I like the proposed way of dealing with him:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420981/donald-trump-third-party-spoiler   If Trump runs as a third-party candidate, the... Read more

    But I’m still having a good time.   I delivered the second of my two lectures this morning, and it went reasonably well.  Good crowd.  Nobody threw anything.  Etc.   Then I attended a really interesting short film about Social Darwinism and its impact on Germany prior to the First World War.  Fascinating.  I’d been aware of the Social Darwinist strain in National Socialism, but I hadn’t realize how much it had affected things much earlier.   Then... Read more