This is a rather weird idea:   http://www.seeker.com/your-yawn-reveals-the-size-of-your-brain-2030659404.html   By the way, since I have politics on the brain right now, here’s my prediction for the presidential debate tomorrow night:   At some point, Mr. Donald J. Trump will declare:  “I have unbelievably big yawns.  Really.  The best yawns in America.  Many people tell me this.  When I’m president, I’m going to yawn so often, so deep and so long, that you’re going to be tired of my... Read more

    I’m sorry, actually, to be posting so much on the presidential campaign right at the moment, and especially on such an unprecedentedly sordid aspect of it.  But we’ve plainly reached an inflection point in the race for the White House.   My expectation is that nothing will significantly change, that Donald Trump will remain the Republican presidential nominee, that he will go down to massive defeat, and that he will, very likely, take the party’s majority in the Senate (and even,... Read more

    “Another Trump Crisis”   “The Sleaziness of Donald Trump”   “Donald Trump, Groper in Chief”   “Character is Destiny”   “[Paul] Ryan ‘sickened’ by Trump, joint appearance scrapped”   “Donors Are Pulling Out And Demanding A New GOP Candidate Immediately”   “AVALANCHE: Top Republicans pile on Trump after lewd comments about women emerge”   “Gov. Herbert, Rep. Chaffetz won’t support Trump following ‘despicable’ comments”   “Sen. Mike Lee calls for Trump to step down”   Wow.  Isn’t it a... Read more

    “It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.” George Washington         Read more

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html   He’ll make America great again!   Trump 2016!     Read more

    It’s Friday, so the Interpreter Foundation has, yet again, published a new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/nephis-use-of-inverted-parallels/#more-9519   Have a great weekend!     Read more

    I’ll be doing a brief fireside tonight at 7 PM, at 1497 South State in Orem — upstairs, above the Brigham Larson Piano Studio — on the presence of the Savior in Kirtland, in the wake of the five days of filming that we spent there last week.   I’m also likely to emphasize the School of the Prophets and Joseph Smith’s interest in educating the Saints there.   The person who has organized this asked me, just... Read more

    These images are simply magnificent:   http://www.boredpanda.com/iran-mosque-photography-mohammad-domiri/   Thanks to Mary Thompson Vogwell for calling them to my attention.     Read more

    This announced legal interpretation, it seems to me, poses a threat not merely to religious liberty in particular but to freedom of speech more generally:   Pronouns and Pastors: Massachusetts Law Threatens Churches over Transgenderism   It seems a pretty plain violation of the principles enshrined in the First Amendment.   But then, what’s the big deal about freedom of speech?  Who cares?   “Yale Students Totally Cool with Repealing the First Amendment”   Read more

    Election Day is almost exactly a month away, and I can hardly wait for this seemingly interminable horror to be behind us.  Maybe then some of us can focus on trying to resurrect the American conservative movement or, barring that, can surrender politics and concentrate on things of more lasting value while, sorrowfully, we watch our country fall apart.   In the meanwhile, though, I continue to read about the current crisis and, from among my readings, I... Read more