Even dust can be interesting and revealing:   http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/12/cosmic-dust-from-the-origins-of-our-solar-system-found-on-the-roof-tops-of-europe.html   That’s why I never clean my office.     Read more

    An interesting article from an evangelical Protestant apologetics source — very frequently quite anti-Mormon, so this isn’t a blanket endorsement — that I think a number out there will find interesting:   http://www.equip.org/article/biblical-archaeology-factual-evidence-to-support-the-historicity-of-the-bible/   The author, Paul Maier, isn’t your typical Evangelical polemicist.  He earned master’s degrees from both Concordia Seminary and Harvard Divinity School before receiving a doctorate after studying with Karl Barth and Oscar Cullman at the universities of Basel and Heidelberg (where John Gee is... Read more

    The value of this effort is genuinely incalculable.  It will be a massive primary source for black family history, black history more generally, and the study and understanding of American history overall:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/freedmen-bureau-database-national-museum-african-american-history-culture     Read more

    The American intelligence community is apparently saying that it did:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_russiahack-745p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.db28ef9d95db   If this report is accurate, the question would be “Why?”   I suspect that it’s because Vladimir Putin wants to make America great again.   Posted from Salt Lake City, Utah     Read more

    Last month, I alluded to the alleged approach of the grand Mormon holiday of “Smithmas,” which some particularly dishonest critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claim we celebrate to the detriment or in place of Christmas.   It occurs to me, in that connection, that I’m not sure that I so much as heard the name of Joseph Smith mentioned last week during the First Presidency’s annual Christmas devotional.   It must have been an unaccountable... Read more

    A thought for Christmas, on the New Testament Christmas story:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865668980/Jesus-the-shepherd-and-the-shepherds.html   Posted from Salt Lake City, Utah     Read more

    The Interpreter Foundation’s 19oth posted scripture roundtable — featuring Martin Tanner and Bruce Webster — focuses on 2016 Gospel Doctrine lesson 46, which is based, in turn, upon Ether 12-15:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-190-book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-lesson-46-by-faith-all-things-are-fulfilled/   Have a wonderful weekend!   Posted from Salt Lake City, Utah       Read more

    Five quotations from the great Irving Berlin:   “The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.”   “Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it.”   “After you get what you want you don’t want it.”   “Every man should have a Lower East Side in his life.”  (referring to his early-childhood poverty)   “I gave up trying to get your mother to economize,”... Read more

      If it’s Friday, there must be a new article from Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture.  And, whaddya know?, there is:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/improvisation-and-extemporaneous-change-in-the-book-of-mormon-part-2-structural-evidences-of-earlier-ancient-versus-later-modern-constructions/   Or, if that link doesn’t work, try this one.     Read more

        You should meet the man who wants to strip your church of its tax-exempt status, deprive your tithes and offerings of legal recognition as charitable gifts, and single your faith out for punitive action by the Internal Revenue Service:   “LGBT activist plans ad blitz targeting Mormon church’s tax-exempt status”   If you support the moral teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he says that you’re motivated by hatred and he regards you... Read more