We spent most of today at the Viking Ship Museum, the Kon-Tiki Museum, and the Fram Museum, out on the Bygdøy Peninsula.  These are, deservedly, three of the tourist highlights of Oslo, and it was great to see them again.  The Viking ships are magnificent, and they remind me of my ancestors, whose remorseless and aggressive violence in combat have always inspired me and urged me on; they’ve helped me to achieve the reputation for mean-spirited viciousness that I... Read more

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/mormon-voters-antipathy-trump   The national media have been very aware of this issue.   So, plainly, is Mr. Trump.   And it should do nothing to help him in Utah and other Mormon-heavy areas that he’s evidently used his lack of support among Latter-day Saints as a tool for attempting to increase his support among Evangelicals:   Washington Post:  “Trump makes play for evangelicals by noting his problems in Mormon-rich Utah”   (Significantly, Evangelicals already have supported Mr. Trump... Read more

    I would imagine that some of this guy’s audience will believe him.   After all, his story is no crazier and no more obviously bogus than the claims with which Ed Decker and Bill Schoebelen and the inimitable Loftes Tryk have entertained audiences (and from which at least one of them has apparently derived a living) over the past several decades:   On Ed Decker (and, to some extent, on his sidekick Bill Schoebelen), see “P. T. Barnum... Read more

    “Jazz isn’t dead,” Frank Zappa once remarked.  “But it smells funny.”   Well, it didn’t smell funny at all tonight.     My wife and I and one of our sons walked from our hotel, which is located near the city’s Sentralstasjon, over to the magnificently-sited Oslo Opera House for a concert by the great Norwegian musician Jan Garbarek.  He performed with  his group as part of the 2016 Oslo Jazz Festival.  They were superb, the large opera hall was... Read more

    A nice little bibliography (with links) of discussions of the Book of Mormon’s “Mulek”:   http://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.no/2016/08/mulek-son-of-zedekiah.html   Posted from Oslo, Norway       Read more

    An interesting case.  I know something about getting the boot via an email while traveling.  I also believe that private religious institutions have a perfect right to maintain their beliefs and their standards.  But I’m also very sympathetic to what’s often called (as in this article) “open theology.”   http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article95597627.html   Posted from Oslo, Norway     Read more

    Well, maybe it did:   http://motherboard.vice.com/read/this-bizarre-meteorite-may-be-the-first-to-come-from-the-outer-solar-system-kuiper-tagish   Back in June, I wrote here about another object that, it’s been suggested, came from beyond the ordinary asteroid belt of our Solar System.  A few days later, driving from Stockholm westward across Sweden to Göteborg, my wife and I took a little detour to go visit the rural stone quarry where that apparent meteorite was found.  There was nothing there — no crowd, not even a sign — to indicate the... Read more

    A YouTube video is now up of the remarks given by Laura and Brian Hales at the FairMormon conference in Sweden, not too far from where I sit right now, back in June 2016:     You might find it interesting and/or of value.   Posted from Oslo, Norway     Read more

    How can we give to the Lord? What shall we give to him? Every kind word to our own, every help given them, is as a gift to God, whose chief concern is the welfare of his children. Every gentle deed to our neighbor, every kindness to the poor and suffering, is a gift to the Lord, before whom all mankind are equal. Every conformity to the Lord’s plan of salvation — and this is of first importance... Read more

    I hadn’t so much as thought about it for many months — I’ve scarcely heard or seen it mentioned — but I was recently reminded that there are some out there who imagine that they’ve found the “smoking gun,” the decisive evidence that proves Joseph Smith (or somebody) to have stolen the Book of Mormon from a previously published modern book.   For some, in other words, this is this generation’s “Spalding Manuscript,” or our time’s designated equivalent... Read more