Fake news! “New Covid-19 cases reported Friday in the US are the second highest since the pandemic began” “Another smashed record of positive COVID-19 tests pushes Utah over 101,000 cases: University of Utah Health officials plead for residents to help stem the spread as ICU at 99% capacity” “Daily coronavirus case numbers in the US are at levels not seen since the summer, and 14 states recently have set hospitalization records” “Coronavirus pandemic is... Read more
There were serious clashes between Arabs and Jewish settlers throughout the 1920s and 1930s, until the point in 1939 when, hoping to gain Arab support against the Axis powers in World War II, the British began to restrict Jewish immigration to the Holy Land. This, in turn, brought an angry and often violent response from the Jews of Palestine. Fed up with the situation, Great Britain submitted the problem to the United Nations after the close of the... Read more
A new item — this one by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, and Ryan Dahle — appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Where Did the Names Mahaway and Mahujah Come From? A Response to Colby Townsend’s “Returning to the Sources,” Part 2 of 2 Review of Colby Townsend, “Returning to the Sources: Integrating Textual Criticism in the Study of Early Mormon Texts and History,” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 10, no. 1 (2019): 55–85, https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal/vol10/iss1/6/. Abstract: In... Read more
An important new academic discussion has now appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Pre-print of ‘Revisions in the Analysis of Archaic Language in the Book of Mormon,'” by Stanford Carmack and Royal Skousen This is the introductory note that I wrote for it: In The Nature of the Original Language [of the Book of Mormon] (hereafter, NOL), Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack indicated that additional research into the language of the Book of Mormon might... Read more
Sic et Non‘s resident epidemiologist, Sam LeFevre, today posted the comment that appears below. I thought it so important that I asked his permission to incorporate it into the main portion of this blog so that it could be more widely seen, and he kindly agreed. So here it is, with the necessary proviso that he speaks here for himself and that he is not an official spokesperson for the Utah Department of Health, where he works: ... Read more
But, first, the latest installment of my bi-weekly column for the Deseret News has now appeared: “The irony of St. Simeon the Stylite, who lived atop a 60-foot column: St. Simeon, a monk who lived in ancient Syria, wanted time to meditate and pray, but was pursued but those interested in his hermit lifestyle and others seeking advice or help supplicating God” *** My admiration for Terryl Givens, already considerable, has soared with the publication... Read more
Despite numerous dissenting voices, the political Zionist movement began to gain momentum during the First World War, in which Great Britain defeated the Ottoman Empire and freed much of the Arab world, including Palestine, from Turkish domination. Latter-day Saints, too, tended to look upon the fall of Jerusalem into the hands of the British as “one of the steps in the foretold gathering of the Jews in the latter days, and as the beginning of the fulfillment of... Read more
“‘This is a real disease’: Hospital giving behind-the-scenes look at intensive care in the COVID-19 era: Utah reports another 1,363 new cases Wednesday, 6 deaths” “Calling Utah one of world’s ‘worst hot spots,’ governor pleads for compliance” *** I just saw this on Scott J. Pierson’s Facebook page, and, with his kind permission, I’m sharing it here for your consideration: I saw a statistic yesterday that indicated Australia’s normal seasonal range for the flu... Read more
I was extremely pleased to see this: From national CBS News: “Republican and Democrat running against each other for Utah governor unite for joint ad” From the Deseret News: “In our opinion: Utah’s politics aren’t an aberration. They’re a model for the nation: Those who designate Utah a sleepy state in election years should wake up to its increasingly unique influence” Because — as manifested in the recent passion for “erasing” people, and elsewhere — we’re... Read more
In 1882, young Jews calling themselves “Lovers of Zion” began actively to promote immigration to Palestine among their people. This was the beginning of what came to be known as “practical Zionism,” which advocated building Jewish settlements in Palestine. (It was “practical” in the sense that it pushed for real action to implement the dream Jews had been dreaming for nearly two millennia.) Jews returning to Palestine in the late 1800s and early 1900s began the heavy work... Read more
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