Yes, I used all caps.  It’s that important.   If you’ve been thinking about buying something — a book, a video, whatever — through Amazon, please consider doing it today (Thursday, 16 March 2017).   And do it through AmazonSmile.   Using AmazonSmile is easy.  It’s just about as easy as using the regular Amazon.   See here:   https://smile.amazon.com/   AmazonSmile is always great.  It donates .5% of the price of whatever you buy through it to a... Read more

    “Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last and final awakening.” Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)     Read more

    An interesting new entry on an interesting new blog:   https://littlepacketsoflight.com/2017/03/16/the-symphony-of-truth/     Read more

    “How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, ‘Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken.  Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art!  Then, let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!” Elder Neal A. Maxwell     Read more

    I am a strenuous advocate of the “Oxford comma” or “serial comma.”   The Deseret News, for which I write a weekly column and co-author a biweekly column, is not.  (They may, in this, reflect a more general journalistic opposition to the serial or Oxford comma.)   Anyway, Doug Ealy has called my attention to a case that illustrates the dire consequences that can ensue when people follow evil and depraved punctuation practices:   http://bangordailynews.com/2017/03/15/business/a-missing-comma-keeps-oakhurst-dairy-labor-lawsuit-alive/   Divine judgment, say I.... Read more

    I very much regret having had to devote a chunk of time today to this unworthy piece of anti-Muslim propaganda.  But I felt that I needed to do it.  I hope that it will do some good:   A commenter posted the following item on my Facebook page a couple of days ago.  I’m not a cruel person, so I won’t share his name here.  However, I feel the obligation to respond to this obnoxious little tract, since it’s... Read more

    This Thursday, in Logan.   This Saturday, in Provo.   I can’t attend either of them, since I teach all day on Thursday and will be in California over the weekend.   So you need to go and then to report.   It’s your duty.  It is your destiny.     Read more

    One Protestant theologian’s reaction to the discovery of TRAPPIST-1:   http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2017/march-web-only/exoplanets-declare-glory-of-god.html   I can literally never think about this subject without the Lord’s comment (at Moses 1:33) coming into my mind:  “worlds without number have I created.”     Read more

    “Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world’s work, and the power to appreciate life.” Brigham Young   This simple quotation has been adopted, for the moment at least, as something of a motto for my college, the College of Humanities, here at Brigham Young University.  (You can see it in abbreviated form here, on my College’s website:  http://humanities.byu.edu.)   Yesterday, as I was waiting for somebody, I contemplated it on... Read more

    Since I’m widely known to have reservations about the temporary immigration bans that have been proposed by the Trump administration, I’ve been accused of believing that our borders should be completely open and that there should be no vetting whatever for foreigners seeking to enter the United States.   The fact that I believe nothing of the sort, and, consequently, have never said anything that can be reasonably construed to endorse open borders and no vetting, plainly doesn’t deter certain... Read more