An interesting profile of several Muslim veterans, especially helpful in light of the recent controversy surrounding Mr. Donald Trump and the family of Capt. Humayun Khan     Read more

    Could “myth” actually be, to some degree or other, history?   http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/08/03/have-archaeologists-found-king-arthurs-birthplace.html     Read more

    Max Perry Mueller, of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, offers a serious analysis of something that I’ve found enormously gratifying:   http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/08/why_mormons_don_t_like_donald_trump.html     Read more

    “I claim to be an historian. My approach to Classics is historical. And I tell you that the evidence for the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history . . .”  (E. M. Blaiklock, Professor of Classics at Auckland University)   “Where the data of the Gospels can be tested, they consistently have proven to be remarkably accurate, especially in John. Archaeologists have unearthed the five... Read more

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/opinions/donald-trump-howard-stern-bunch/index.html     Read more

    A bit of fun at the expense of Generation Y, or the Millennials — those born between the 1980s and the mid-1990s or perhaps the early 2000s:   http://conservativepost.com/video-hilarious-parody-song-about-millennials-is-pure-viral-gold-haha/     Read more

    http://www.sltrib.com/home/4187360-155/penthouse-goes-after-utah-governor-mormon?page=1   You just know that the Church is false when even Penthouse dislikes Mormonism.   How in the world did we stray so far from the path of goodness, progress, and enlightenment?     Read more

    My wife and I had lunch at downtown Provo’s India Palace with friends from Arizona.   Thereafter, Matt Roper, my longtime friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague, shared an interesting, well-illustrated presentation on swords in Mesoamerica and in the Book of Mormon — responding, mostly implicitly, to claims by critics that Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans had no swords.  I consider this objection pretty completely neutralized now.   Wendy Ulrich delivered some extremely well-received remarks on women and priesthood.  I liked them.... Read more

    In Alma 58, we see the first intimations of a supply problem.  Helaman’s forces are not receiving the food and so forth that they required, but they don’t know why.   We’ll hear more about this particular situation very shortly.   In today’s military, some estimates suggest, there are roughly four people in support positions for every soldier in an actual combat role, and perhaps only 1-4% of the military actually engage in fighting.  (If these figures aren’t... Read more

    An important blog entry on the Church’s official “newsroom” website:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/churches-social-problems-pew-research     Read more