http://www.sltrib.com/home/4001211-155/rolly-salt-lake-city-cops-public   What do you think?  Had Kevin Stayner gone off against Jews and/or Judaism in, say, New York City or Miami, would that have affected his career?  Had he publicly expressed his contempt for believing, orthodox Catholics in Boston or Los Angeles, would his department have taken notice?   Posted from Stockholm, Sweden     Read more

    For, so long as there are interesting books to read, it seems to me that neither I nor anyone else, for that matter, need be unhappy. Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940)   Posted from Stockholm, Sweden     Read more

    Continuing with my self-imposed writing assignment:   Frankincense is a fragrant gum resin consisting of small white chunks and beads that can easily be ground into a powder. When burned, this powder gives off a pleasant odor like that of balsam. The resin, milky white in color, was probably produced in the central district of Hadramawt, along the Indian Ocean coast of southern Arabia. From there, it was exported to Palestine and other parts of the Mediterranean world.... Read more

    Today’s reading is Alma 28.   I’ll pick up on just one idea from it.   The chapter tells of a great war between the Nephites and the Lamanites about 75 years before the birth of Christ, and of the sorrow of those who lost loved ones during that war — sorrow not only because their loved ones were dead, but because, while the survivors had hope for the happiness in the next world of many of the... Read more

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/the-gun-group-that-wants-to-arm-gay-america-213961   I’m inclined to think this a good idea, and to support it.   (Thanks to Cody Quirk for bringing this item to my notice.)   Posted from Stockholm, Sweden     Read more

    As all bien-pensants know, Chick-fil-A is a company run by hateful bigots and religious zealots, the kind of “Christian” operation that has no place in a tolerant city such as New York.   So I’m grateful to Dan Stewart for calling my attention to this item about the vicious way in which these corporate haters responded to the mass shooting at that gay nightclub in Orlando:   http://dcgazette.com/2016/chic-fil-gay-club-shooting-isnt-viral/   If I were in the States right now, I... Read more

    New York Times:  “Donald Trump’s Mormon Problem”   Washington Post:  “This new Utah poll is amazingly bad for Donald Trump”   Based upon preliminary observations here, by the way, I’m reasonably confident that absolutely no Swedish Latter-day Saints will vote for Mr. Donald Trump.   Posted from Stockholm, Sweden     Read more

    I tend to take such things cum grano salis, as the saying has it.   Still, after decades of complacent pseudoscientific efforts to portray my religious and political inclinations as the product of psychosocial defects and/or depravity, it’s amusing to see the shoe on the other foot for once:   “Liberals are Simple-Minded”   “Liberals, Not Conservatives, Express More Psychoticism”   Posted from Stockholm, Sweden     Read more

    “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”  Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice   It wasn’t a bad trip over.  I like to watch movies on transoceanic flights.  On this one, I watched Casablanca, which I still regard as almost a perfect film.  Also Eddie the Eagle, which... Read more

    I’m repeatedly asked why Muslims don’t condemn Islamist terrorism.   I myself think that there ought to be a perfectly deafening response to murders in the name of Islam, and that the reaction, thus far, hasn’t been loud enough or, in some ways, clear enough.   But it’s simply wrong to say that there have been no condemnations.   Take, for example, the horrendous and vile mass murder in Orlando, Florida:   I’m traveling right now and have little... Read more