Another interesting Deseret News article from Taylor Halverson:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865619298/Evidences-for-the-Book-of-Mormon-Nephi-the-scribe.html     Read more

    No doubt some of you have seen the disturbing video of a wounded Paris policeman lying in pain on the sidewalk.  He had, it seems, been shot during the initial attack by the Kouachi brothers on the offices of Charlie Hebdo.  When one of the brothers trots over toward him, he raises his hands defensively and appeals for his life.  But the gunman casually shoots him in the head just before leaving the scene in a waiting car…. Read more

    The latest bi-weekly Hamblin-Peterson column has been posted at the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865619301/What-is-scripture.html   Your long, desperate wait is over.   (For the humor-impaired, please imagine a smiley face or an “LOL” here.)     Read more

    He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, still dead.   There’s wisdom in considering that fact.   However, continuing on the theme of death, here’s something funny.  If you haven’t seen it, you’ll like it.  If you have seen it, you’ll probably still find it funny:   https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=674335039330565&set=vb.176854042412003&type=2&theater     Read more

    This is pretty striking:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/nasrallah-cartoons_n_6443530.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000014   And, for those who wonder:  Yes, it was said in Arabic.  To Arabs.  In the Middle East.   (Thanks to Jabra Ghneim for pointing me to this.)     Read more

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    Paris as been all the news of late, for entirely understandable reasons.   But we should at least glance in the direction of Africa from time to time . . .   http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b2d7a0252dd04676b20697bd39356fcc/7-kids-reunite-parents-lost-nigeria-islamic-uprising   Incidentally, while I take no real pleasure in anybody’s death, it was appropriate, somehow, that the two murderers in Paris who effectively destroyed the editorial leadership of Charlie Hebdo died at a printing plant, and that that third murderer, plainly an anti-Jewish bigot, died in a… Read more

    Consider these two items:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/396031/establishment-vs-establishment-eliana-johnson/page/0/1?splash=   http://www.businessinsider.com/report-mitt-romney-is-considering-another-presidential-run-2015-1#ixzz3OMjNFVCx   For the record:  If he runs, I’m in.   Is he as conservative as I am?  Probably not.   But he’s conservative.  And he was right.  On a host of issues.  He should have won in 2012; the United States and the world would be better off if he had.   He’s honest, extremely bright, breathtakingly competent — I heard an impressive personal illustration of that just the other day… Read more

    Ralph Hancock, still trying to raise the level of discussion to actual issues, weighs in again with a useful piece:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/soulandcity/2015/01/whos-afraid-of-secularism-2-my-bracketing/   Meanwhile, Bill Hamblin posted five related items yesterday and the day before (7 January and 8 January):   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/enigmaticmirror/   Some critics suspect that we wicked apologists are coordinating these posts, and that it’s all part of some nefarious larger strategy.   I want to confirm this.  We’re all sitting right now in the same… Read more

    You thought that maybe The Interpreter Foundation wouldn’t be publishing a new article today?  Even though it’s Friday?   Seriously?   Think again:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/who-was-sherem/     Read more