A nice article from The Creole, which is the online newspaper of Ascension Parish, Louisiana.   And don’t miss the short comment that follows the article.   I hope that those who routinely mock Mormon Helping Hands efforts — yup, there are such folks — are doing at least as much to help other people as those they ridicule and deride are doing.     Read more

    This week’s new Interpreter article is up:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/with-the-tongue-of-angels-angelic-speech-as-a-form-of-deification/   I’m deeply grateful to all of the writers, readers, editors, source checkers, donors, technical experts, filmmakers, roundtable discussants, and other volunteers who have made Interpreter possible.     Read more

    “Try to understand men. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love.”  John Steinbeck     Read more

    I haven’t been following the responses to this monograph, but I’m not surprised that at least a significant number of the hostile reactions seem to have been textbook  specimens of the ad hominem logical fallacy:   “As Predicted, Gay Activists Attack the Messengers, Ignore the Evidence”   Does it really need to be pointed out that personally attacking the authors of a book or article isn’t a substitute for examining the evidence and analysis on which it rests?   (And... Read more

    From an obviously deranged former member of the Church:   http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14715781.Father_who_threatened_to_slaughter_church_congregation_faces_lifelong_restriction_order/     Read more

    http://www.news.com.au/world/asia/utah-mormon-david-sneddon-missing-since-2004-in-n-korea-acting-as-kim-jonguns-personal-tutor/news-story/7f722b7253557e54aaca9f565ebb09af   Here’s some background:   “Did North Korea Kidnap an American Hiker?”   North Korea has been in the kidnapping business for a very long time.  Here are a few articles on the subject:   “This is the craziest story you’ll ever hear out of North Korea”   “North Korean Abductions of Japanese Citizens”   “North Korean Abductions of South Koreans”   “North Korea systematically abducted foreign citizens, Japanese paper claims”   North Korea’s is a truly... Read more

    http://www.ldsliving.com/Louisiana-s-Governor-Praises-Mormons-I-Have-No-Doubt-God-Sent-You-Here/s/83083?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=lovebeingmormon     Read more

    A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers. Friedrich August von Hayek   One of the great privileges of my life was to spend a week in Scotland during 1976 in the meetings of a small group that included F. A. Hayek, who had won the Nobel Prize in Economics two years before.  (Also in the group were future Nobel laureates like George Stigler [1982], James Buchanan [1986], Ronald Coase... Read more

    A story that some of you will find of interest:   http://www.ldsliving.com/LDS-Scouting-and-Young-Men-Leader-Survives-Rafting-Accident/s/82921?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=social_button     Read more

    Wow.  I wish I were in Salt Lake.  I’m feeling the need of a burger:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865661332/I-found-my-voice-as-a-Mormon-Chedda-Burger-chef-shares-testimony-of-joining-LDS-Church.html?pg=all   And the idea of combining it with a Krispy Kreme doughnut!   My voracious appetite for Krispy Kremes — I think I may have had one within the past five years — is the stuff of legend in certain areas of the internet.     Read more