Thanks to Yvonne Wells Swinson for calling this to my attention:   http://www.dailywire.com/news/7337/exclusive-dump-trump-rnc-delegate-leader-we-have-daily-wire?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=062316-news&utm_campaign=benshapiro   See also:   “Dear Mr. Trump: Are You Even Trying to Unite the Party?”   All of which connects neatly with my post from earlier today.     Read more

    Just a few quick notes about today’s reading, Alma 50:    It’s instructive that, even in a time of great peace, Moroni is preparing defenses in case of war.  Moroni finds it comparatively easy to recruit soldiers because his preparations give them a sense of confidence.  When morale is high, when confidence is justified, people want to join the army.  Compare this to the problems that General George Washington was having in the early days of the American Revolution,... Read more

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/bible-philistine-israelite-israel-ashkelon-discovery-burial-archaeology-sea-peoples/     Read more

    Bill Kristol raises an intriguing possibility:   http://www.weeklystandard.com/as-convention-approaches-will-romney-or-kasich-step-up/article/2003227   I would happily support either of them.   And here are three articles for background:   “Neither of the Above”   “What’s Next for the Never Trump Camp?”   “America Is Driving toward the Abyss, and It’s Time We Hit the Brakes”   Read more

    http://blog.fairmormon.org/2016/01/12/what-did-president-kimball-think-about-pressure-regarding-the-pre-1978-priesthood-ban/   This isn’t, of course, merely a historical issue.  There are those who believe, or who claim to believe, that the 1978 revelation on priesthood was received, in large or small part, because pressure from dissidents forced President Kimball to take the matter to the Lord.  And they conclude from that historical notion that dissident pressure today will ultimately lead to a revelation (or, as some frankly put it, a “revelation”) authorizing __________ .  (Fill in the... Read more

    http://wheatley.byu.edu/events/individual.cfm?id=231     Read more

    Muslims have been better and longer integrated into U.S. society than many Americans realize:   http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2016/07/11/american_islam_a_view_from_the_suburbs_107124.html     Read more

    Really.   Some, anyway.   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437644/left-wants-old-people-not-vote   It’s a bit reminiscent of the old motto of Berkeley’s “Free Speech Movement”:  “Don’t trust anyone over 30!”   And who can possibly doubt that the world would be a much better place if the only voice permitted were the piercing insight and sturdy wisdom of the young?   The Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend), China’s Red Guards, the children’s armies of Africa, the child soldiers of Cambodia — these and many other cases might be... Read more

    To love someone means to see him as God intended him. Fyodor Dostoevsky   Read more

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/10/mormons-pledge-to-stay-in-russia-despite-religious-clampdown   Under difficult circumstances, it’s fortunate that the Church has able leadership on site.   The area president in Moscow is my old friend Elder Bruce D. Porter, whom I’ve known since we were freshmen dorm neighbors at Brigham Young University.   I have enormous respect for him.     Read more