“We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.” Hilaire Belloc     Read more

    Well, truthfully, I’m not sure that they’re all that important.   But they’re fun:   http://mentalfloss.com/article/65401/88-amazing-facts-everyone-should-know     Read more

    If it can’t be archaeologically proven, it didn’t happen!   http://fornspollfira.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-archaeology-of-council-of-nicaea.html     Read more

    Technically, it’s considered a “dwarf planet”:   http://www.nature.com/news/intriguing-geology-of-ceres-revealed-in-new-pictures-1.17819     Read more

    I think Franklin Graham has summed up the traditional or orthodox Christian position on this moral question rather well:   Being gay-friendly is not optional; it is a commandment from Jesus. But being an advocate for the gay lifestyle contradicts God’s word.     Read more

  This brief article summarizes the glorious past and current dysfunction of one of the world’s great civilizations, but nonetheless manages to express some very slight optimism:   http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2015/06/can_islam_come_back_to_the_light_of_science.html     Read more

    A really interesting item from the Washington Post:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/22/what-mormon-problem-more-would-vote-for-a-mormon-than-an-evangelical-christian/?wpisrc=nl_pmpol&wpmm=1   Latter-day Saints haven’t suddenly become popular.  Evangelical popularity is plummeting.   On one level, I think some Evangelicals have brought this on themselves through their aggressive triumphalism and, sometimes, through their air of sheer smug superiority.  (Evangelical anti-Mormonism affords an unappetizing illustration of these traits, but it’s not the only illustration.)  On another level, I’m afraid that the shift reflects an unhealthy change in the broader American... Read more

    This is a wrenching story.  I can’t think of many situations that would be worse.   Yet it’s a happy and positive one, too:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865631208/Afton-strong-LDS-teen-spends-final-days-at-church-and-temple-caring-for-others.html?s_cid=Email-4     Read more

    Noticing my recent posts in defense of Brigham Young, my friend, onetime FARMS Review colleague, and current Interpreter Foundation colleague Greg Smith called my attention to something that he’d recently posted on his own blog, but which I had missed while traveling overseas:   https://seesangelsinthearchitecture.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/one-reason-why-i-love-brigham-young/   It’s a nice story, little known but indicative of the real character of the man.     Read more

    “Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.” Thomas Sowell     Read more