Just a reminder about this year’s FreedomFest, which bills itself as “the world’s largest gathering of free minds” and which opens tomorrow night and runs through Saturday:   http://freedomfest.com   I regret very much that, due to a scheduling oversight (I consented to holding an important meeting all day Saturday back in Utah without realizing the conflict), I’ll be leaving Las Vegas fairly late on Friday night and will miss the final day of FreedomFest, which is always... Read more

    “There are few talents more richly rewarded with both wealth and power, in countries around the world, than the ability to convince backward people that their problems are caused by other people who are more advanced.” Thomas Sowell   Posted from Carlsbad, California     Read more

    Zainab Hawa Bangura, the special representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for sexual violence in conflict, a devoutly Muslim native of Sierra Leone, reports on her recent visit to refugees from the conflict in Syria and Iraq:   http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/11/opinions/bangura-isis-treatment-women/index.html   The situation is horrific, and it must not be ignored.   I have to say, though, that, without in any way wanting to minimize the seriousness of what’s happening to my sisters under Islamist totalitarianism,... Read more

    My wife and I had a gift coupon for the Chart House restaurant in Encinitas, California, last night.  (Technically, it’s in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, south of Leucadia, which is south of Carlsbad, directly on the coast.)   My wife had read a good but not enthusiastic review of the restaurant.   So, for that reason — and because this blog is bidding to be the only source of information that you’ll ever need on any topic (“When Sic et Non speaks,... Read more

    In the wake of Sunday’s elections in Greece and that nation’s massive default on its debts, this classic item from 2012 is worth reprising:   http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/greeks-apologise-with-huge-horse-2012051527146   Thanks to Russell Spencer for reminding me of it.   Posted from Carlsbad, California     Read more

    http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/07/02/competing-for-hispanic-catholics-secularism-other-faiths-battle-for-souls/   Have you ever seen a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging on the wall of any Latter-day Saint chapel?   Does your ward offer incentives of money and/or jobs to potential converts?   Posted from Carlsbad, California     Read more

    http://www.clickhole.com/article/song-was-originally-going-be-jaws-theme-until-john-2434   Posted from Carlsbad, California     Read more

    Luke 12:10 Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-20   “And every one who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit [εἰς τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα βλασφημήσαντι] will not be forgiven.”   In my view, people routinely act against the Spirit.  They deny obvious truths, ignore moral impressions, repress intuitions, dismiss intimations of the divine, and so forth.   But that, I think, is not what this verse is talking... Read more

    Some have argued that many of the books of the Hebrew Bible were composed quite late — and are therefore historically suspect — because Hebrew literacy and/or an Israelite scribal tradition really arose only during, say, the period of the late Judahite monarchy.   Here are a couple of little items relevant to that argument:   “The Latest on Hebrew Inscriptions”   “More on the New Hebrew Inscription”   Posted from Carlsbad, California     Read more

    http://www.academiaobscura.com/is-this-the-worst-academic-journal-ever/   Amazingly, despite the fantasies of some of my anonymous online critics, I’m actually not its editor!   Posted from Carlsbad, California     Read more