http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensavage/2016/03/26/vermont-driven-gmo-labeling-questions-and-potential-unintended-consequences/#1871291e20d8         Read more

    http://www.xojane.com/issues/stephanie-cegielski-donald-trump-campaign-defector   Of course, what this woman says can easily be refuted by means of such arguments as “Trump in 2016!” and “Make America Great Again!” and “Look at her ugly face!”   If somebody hits her, maybe Mr. Trump will pay the legal fees.   Brave woman, to challenge The Donald like this.     Read more

    http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2016/03/worldwide-stake-growth-accelerating-in.html?_sm_au_=iVV4JHqR0SHF3nZn     Read more

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2016/03/26/muslim-murdered-after-offering-easter-blessing-to-my-beloved-christian-nation/   A horrible story, and a horribly sad one.  I’ve seen comments about it, however, that require response.   The murder of Asad Shah, evidently by an extremist anti-Christian Muslim, is said to illustrate the evil of Islam and the danger that Muslim immigrants pose to all of us.   But here’s the obvious fact:  Mr. Shah himself was a Muslim.  And he seems to have been a good man.   The majority of the victims of... Read more

    In 1996, fully two decades ago, the syndicated television program The Simpsons prophesied of a Trump/Clinton presidential race, using the metaphorical ruse of Kang and Kodos (and Bob Dole) to make its stunningly prescient point:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v7XXSt9XRM   And it predicted the outcome of that election as follows:     Uncanny accuracy, don’t you think?   I’m grateful to one of my sons for bringing these twenty-year-old examples of clairvoyance to my attention.   In other news, here’s a National Review... Read more

    Today’s reading, Mosiah 15, forthrightly declares that “God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people” (15:1).   Verses 2-5, however, have caused some perplexity.  They seem unclear, and not a a few readers (mostly critics) have felt that they’re inconsistent with modern Mormon “tritheism” and even with mainstream Trinitarianism.  That, in fact, they teach a view of the Godhead that is often called “modalism.”   I won’t attempt to deal with this question here.... Read more

    Martin Van Buren (who served 1837-1841) wasn’t much of a president.  Certainly not insofar as it concerned the Mormons.  But this is a good line:   As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it.   It really does make one wonder, sometimes, why so many people seek the job.     Read more

    I’m enormously gratified to watch as Utah (and, by extrapolation, its predominantly Mormon population) distinguishes itself, while still adhering to its fundamentally conservative values and political orientation, from many others in the United States (notably a large proportion of conservative Evangelicals) in its response to Trumpism and to the plight of refugees.   First, in the wake of his defeats in Idaho and Wyoming, where Mormons constitute substantial voting blocs, Trump was handed his worst defeat of the primary... Read more

    David Wills, of Australia, who frequently alerts me to really interesting science stories, reminds me of this fascinating video:   https://www.facebook.com/Universe.Explorers/videos/927204077396637/?pnref=story   If you’re in need of a dose of humility or a bit of awe, have a look.  (If you don’t believe that you are in need of some additional humility or awe, you should really take a look.)  The video is about three minutes long.     Read more

    http://existentialcomics.com/comic/126   The second book published by the Islamic Translation Series — part of BYU’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (METI), a project that I conceived and for which I served as editor in chief until my expulsion from the Maxwell Institute in 2012 — was al-Ghazali’s The Incoherence of the Philosophers.   Ibn Rushd (aka Averroës, which is a Latin corruption of a Hebrew corruption of his original Arabic name) really did write a famous response to al-Ghazali entitled The... Read more