I’m a great believer in peer review.   I think that, although it’s not indispensable — a great piece of work remains a great piece of work whether it’s been approved by two or three peer-reviewers or not  (as in the cases, for example, of Newton’s Principia, Mendel’s papers on genetics, Darwin’s Origin of Species, and Einstein’s initial article on special relativity) — it’s extremely useful, and particularly helpful to editors.   But it’s not all-powerful.  It wields no... Read more

    Are you okay with this?   Can you see the handwriting on the wall?   http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/suicide-post-christian-west-liberalism-belgium/   Do you see the “personal autonomy” connection that I do between this and current cases of “self-identification” with regard to race and gender?   Did you know, incidentally, that I self-identify as a seven-foot-tall immigrant from the Planet Zarkon?   (Thanks to Cassandra Hedelius, I think, for bringing this article to my notice.)     Read more

    I.   I just came across this account, describing what some (include Elder Dallin H. Oaks, of the Council of the Twelve) regard as the miraculous preservation of the Manilla Philippines Temple back in December of 1989:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865630599/Viewpoint-God-of-miracles.html   I hadn’t heard the story before.   II.   Last night, Monday night, my wife and I attended a showing of The Cokeville Miracle.  Years ago, I read some things about the remarkable 1986 story upon which the film is... Read more

    At least, to eliminate him completely from the English literature curriculum for inner city youth and/or people of non-European ethnicity:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/06/13/teacher-why-i-dont-want-to-assign-shakespeare-anymore-even-though-hes-in-the-common-core/   Mark you that the call isn’t merely to cast the net widely, to read Shakespeare along with works from different periods and different backgrounds.   No, it’s to jettison Shakespeare altogether, because he’s old and dead and white and difficult.   I can’t think of many more effective ways, academically speaking, to ghettoize young black students... Read more

    “We found many difficulties to combat, for it is not an easy thing to go into France and learn to talk French well; but at the same time, if a man sets to work in good earnest, he can do it. I have scratched the word ‘can’t’ out of my vocabulary long since, and I have not got it in my French one.” John Taylor, Journal of Discourses     Read more

    This is a pretty big hit:   http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/06/16/us-targets-leader-al-qaeda-in-yemen-with-cia-drone-strike/   AQAP seems to be the most dangerous and most ambitious al-Qa‘ida franchise.     Read more

    My inimitable friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague Bill Hamblin has begun a series of responses to a series of attacks on the Book of Mormon launched out of the blue by Philip Jenkins, a reputable non-LDS historian — not a specialist on either Mormonism, Mesoamerica, or the ancient world — whose work both Dr. Hamblin and I have appreciated in the past:   Response to Jenkins 1   Jenkins Response 2: Expertise   Jenkins Response 3: Rules of... Read more

    I think, given the many years and the considerable inflation intervening since the late 1820s, that we modern Latter-day Saints typically fail to grasp the magnitude of the sacrifice made by Martin Harris in order to publish the Book of Mormon.   E. B. Grandin’s price was $3000 to produce 5000 high quality books.   Martin Harris was a locally prosperous small town farmer, but $3000 was nearly the value of his entire farm.  To put this into... Read more

    Matthew 18:23-35   It’s really easy to deride the folly and blatant hypocrisy of this unmerciful servant.   But how many of us, if we examined ourselves honestly and accurately, could escape pleading guilty to the charge of having a double standard, judging others while hoping to escape judgment ourselves, or, at least, to be treated with a charity that we deny to others?   Since slanderous and unjust online accusations against me have been on my mind a bit of late,... Read more

    I would like to call attention, yet again, to a charity that my wife and I like:   http://www.liahonachildren.org/#/home   It’s a wonderful cause, and — and I think this is an attractive quality — one offering goals that can actually be realistically achieved.   Here’s an easy way to help:   http://www.liahonachildren.org/#/get_involved/liahona_jar   But, of course, there are others.     Read more