Every square foot in parts of the Middle East — Israel or Palestine is certainly among them — offers potential archaeological discoveries.  For those interested in history, it’s an amazing place.   http://www.livescience.com/56986-ancient-thinker-sculpture-uncovered-in-israel.html   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    I love stories like this:   http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-muslim-turkey-drive-met-20161122-story.html   I love this one in particular because it demonstrates not only general human kindness but, specifically, the power of religious belief to motivate good actions, and the power of religious organization to make them more effective.  I also like it because, in its small way, it says something about the American Muslim community that desperately needs to be heard.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    On a day when we Americans eat even more than we usually do and, ideally, give thanks to God for all the blessings that we enjoy, this little item about the ancient Near Eastern background of the Book of Mormon might hold special interest.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    A nice (and timely) new commercial from Amazon Prime:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouu6LGGIWsc   (Thanks to Darren Zechiel for alerting me to it.)   Incidentally, are you aware that you can buy books and other things through Amazon Smile and thereby, at absolutely no extra cost to yourself, have money sent from each purchase to the Interpreter Foundation (or to some other charity of your choice)?   It’s easy to set up and, thereafter, completely painless to use.  And it... Read more

    “To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.” Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)   He himself fell victim to such vilification.  After his mysterious death in Baltimore, his biography was written by a man named Griswold, who had long held a grudge against him but who somehow managed to become the manager of his literary estate.  Mr. Griswold set into circulation the image of Edgar Allan Poe as a... Read more

    I first became acquainted with Professor Anthony Esolen as a superb translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy into English:   https://www.amazon.com/Inferno-Modern-Library-Classics-Dante/dp/0812970063/ref=la_B001ITX3JW_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479948317&sr=1-5   https://www.amazon.com/Purgatory-Modern-Library-Classics-Dante/dp/0812971256/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0812971256&pd_rd_r=N90T5ANPSZGHW10N7M90&pd_rd_w=D2Ej6&pd_rd_wg=xysQ1&psc=1&refRID=N90T5ANPSZGHW10N7M90   https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Modern-Library-Classics-Dante/dp/0812977262/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0812977262&pd_rd_r=88PR0DBQSCQ7YWVYM3A8&pd_rd_w=qROz7&pd_rd_wg=lHd8Y&psc=1&refRID=88PR0DBQSCQ7YWVYM3A8   I thought so highly of him that, one Christmas, I gave a set of his translations to one of my sons, who is particularly interested in poetry.   Then I discovered that he is an outspoken and courageous defender of orthodox Christian thinking on gender and the family, and my admiration for him... Read more

    Just in case there’s anybody out there who wants to read something Thanksgivingish, here are my Thanksgiving columns from the previous two years:   “Reasons for gratitude on this Thanksgiving Day”   “Gratitude to our God is paramount”   I wish my American readers a joyous Thanksgiving holiday.  And to my non-American readers?  I wish for you a reasonably nice Thursday.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Last week, I published a column in the Deseret News that included this paragraph:   For some, in a sense, the most effective answer to questions about early Mormon plural marriage might be information about Arabian Nahom and Lehi’s trail. The most reassuring response to the Mountain Meadows Massacre could be the Book of Mormon witnesses. And evidence of the Book of Mormon’s roots in the ancient Middle East may, in certain cases, offer the most convincing defense... Read more

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/20/travel/cnnphotos-dead-sea-dying/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool   By the way, my wife and I will be leading a tour group along the shore of the Dead Sea (and to the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and to Caesarea Maritima and to Nazareth and to the Sea of Galilee and to Caesarea Philippi and to Masada and the Jordan River and Qumran and Jerusalem) this coming May.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-probe-snaps-stunning-new-images-of-dwarf-planet-ceres/   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more