Are you offended and infuriated all the time?  If not, that may simply prove that you’re a horrible person.   Here are some good recent reasons to be outraged:   “They Crossed that Bridge When It Came”   “City Installs ‘Female’ Traffic Signals for Equality, Gets Slammed for Stereotyping Women as Skirt-Wearing”   Are you showing enough righteous anger?  Have you sufficiently demonstrated how very, very sensitive you are to injustice?  Could you be manifesting still more outrage?   Resolve... Read more

    I’m very happy to see such cordial relations between Latter-day Saint leaders and the Catholic hierarchy — and not merely here in Utah:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-apostles-welcome-new-catholic-bishop-utah     Read more

    http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2017/03/07/why_georges_lematre_should_be_as_famous_as_einstein.html   Wider recognition of the contributions of Father Lemaître would also, I think, give at least 3.2 seconds’ pause to some of the loud voices who like to dogmatize about the supposed complete incompatibility of science and religion and about the alleged war between them.     Read more

    Many of the reports out of Egypt about the state of Christianity there are not good.  Here are two:   “Egypt’s Christians are being driven out – will the world notice?”   “ISIS murdering Coptic Christians on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula over faith”   Now, before some of you begin posting comments about the intrinsic evil of Islam and Muslims, please note that this current bout of persecution is something new — while Islam in Egypt isn’t new.  You... Read more

    I understand full well the importance of guarding against quackery, false medical claims, and the exploitation of those who are weak, ill, and/or fearful.  But, I confess that, if the story told in this little article is accurate, it does seem to me more than a little bit over the top:   “Amish Farmer Sam Girod is in Jail. . . .  His Enemies Want Him there for Life”   Are federal bureaucrats really so completely without discretion, so... Read more

    Some day science may have the existence of mankind in power, and the human race can commit suicide by blowing up the world. Henry Adams (1838-1918)     Read more

    I continue to try to create a slight buzz about it that will encourage a specifically Mormon discussion of Rod Dreher’s proposed “Benedict Option.”  So here’s another link to someone else’s brief reflection on it:   http://www.weeklystandard.com/one-mans-prescription-for-a-post-christian-culture/article/2007084   Posted from Monterey, California     Read more

    A contemptible group of leftist totalitarians revealed their character and the character of their movement at Middlebury College in Vermont on Friday.  Their shameful actions need to be widely known and recognized for what they are:   “College Students Shout Down Charles Murray as ‘White Supremacist’”   “The Middlebury Mob”   “Middlebury: Thoughtcrime and Punishment”   Posted from Monterey, California     Read more

    Morgan Deane, who’s been around the block a bit with online controversies, reflects on his experience with them — in terms that many of the rest of us will recognize and sympathize with:   http://mormonwar.blogspot.com/2017/03/of-punks-and-posers.html   The internet — e.g., Facebook — can be a really irritating place, and a tremendous drain on one’s time.  But, of course, it has a lot of positive points, too.   Posted from Monterey, California     Read more

    We’ve been in Monterey for the annual Jazz Bash by the Bay.   As always, I think that my favorite act here was Tom Rigney and Flambeau.  (We like Caroline Dahl on her own, too.  And Danny Caron is a fine guitarist.)   Other favorites include Ivory & Gold (and Jeff Barnhart singly), anything with Carl Sonny Leyland, and the High Sierra Jazz Band.  There are others, but that’s enough for now.   In terms of local restaurants, we... Read more