I’m grateful to Doug Ealy for calling this important piece of investigative journalism to my notice:   http://www.theonion.com/article/local-church-full-of-brainwashed-idiots-feeds-town-34860?utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing     Read more

    “No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”  Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)   Read more

    This site could teach us something about ancient Egyptian boatbuilding:   http://www.archaeology.org/issues/242-1701/trenches/5097-trenches-egypt-middle-kingdom-boat-burial   It’s just one more intriguing aspect of the ancient temple city of Abydos.     Read more

    Some time ago, I mentioned Bølgen (“The Wave”), a really impressive — that is, quite terrifying — 2015 Norwegian drama that my wife and I had recently watched.  It’s about the all-too-real possibility of a landslide and a resulting megatsunami in Norway’s glorious Geirangerfjord, a tourist mecca that we visited most recently last August.     One of my readers has complained, sometimes, about what he sees as my propensity to feature “Wow!” scientific items.  I don’t apologize... Read more

    Sister Jan Chamberlin has been receiving international attention.   For the sake of fairness and balance, Sister Cristi Ford Brazao, who has been a member of the Choir longer than Sister Chamberlin was, deserves at least equal attention:   http://kutv.com/news/local/mormon-tabernacle-choir-member-gives-reasons-why-she-will-sing-at-trump-inauguration     Read more

    The latest installment of the biweekly Hamblin-Peterson column has appeared in the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865670606/Moroccan-saints-and-their-shrines.html   Of course — like everything I write or co-write — it’s nothing but hateful lies and personal attacks.     Read more

    Throughout the history of the United States, war has been the primary impetus behind the growth and development of the central state.  It has been the lever by which presidents and other national officials have bolstered the power of the state in the face of tenacious popular resistance. Bruce D. Porter (1952-2016)   Shortly before his call to the Seventy in 1995, Professor Bruce Porter published a book entitled War and the Rise of the State.   The passage... Read more

    It has been alleged that the participation of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the 2017 presidential inaugural ceremonies constitutes an endorsement, by the Choir and its sponsoring church, of Mr. Donald J. Trump.   The inauguration, some claim, isn’t a celebration of the peaceful transfer of executive political power in our constitutional republic, but, rather, a partisan celebration of the person, ideas, and character of Mr. Trump.   I claim that it isn’t a celebration of Mr. Trump. as... Read more

    Allen Wyatt takes a look at a recent book on the Gospel and polygamy in this, the most recent article published in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scary-ghost-stories-in-the-light-of-day/#more-9892   Posted from San Diego, California     Read more

    Many thanks to Anthony Xavier Diaz for reminding me of this stimulating and profound speech by my retired BYU colleague and friend David Paulsen.  You can read it and/or listen to it:   https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/david-l-paulsen_joseph-smith-problem-evil/   Posted from Carlsbad, California     Read more