Yesterday, I posted a link to a piece by Jack Welch about his discovery of chiastic structures in the Book of Mormon and his subsequent experience with the study of chiasmus there and elsewhere:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2016/01/forty-five-years-of-chiasmus-conversations-correspondence-criteria-and-creativity.html#comment-2436444870   My friend Michael De Groote, an attorney and writer (and, for years, a reporter for the Deseret News), posted a comment in response, and I liked it so much that I decided to feature it in a separate blog entry:  ... Read more

    http://www.wired.com/2015/12/modern-medicine-resolves-the-mysteries-of-egypts-royal-mummies/     Read more

    Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. The Buddha       Read more

    Mark Wright and Steve Smoot and Neal Rappleye and others — maybe many others; am I the only person who’s been left out? — have recently been cavorting around Mesoamerica.  Here’s a report from their trip, of which I’m profoundly jealous:   http://www.studioetquoquefide.com/2015/12/when-land-and-stones-and-books-tell.html#more     Read more

      In 1 Nephi 6, Nephi indicated that his chronicle would concentrate not on temporal matters but on sacred ones.   That is not to say, however, that a secular record wasn’t kept.  In today’s short reading, 1 Nephi 9, Nephi explains that he’s made two sets of plates — the larger to accommodate a secular narrative of his people, the smaller dedicated to his promised primary focus on spiritual things.   The Book of Mormon is much more complex... Read more

    “Americans place a higher priority on preserving the religious freedom of Christians than for other faith groups, ranking Muslims as the least deserving of the protections, according to a new survey”:   http://bigstory.ap.org/article/de486b3d64154d0baae9f04fba0a4094/ap-norc-poll-religious-rights-us-christians-most-valued   Understandable, in a way.   And, in fact, too many Latter-day Saints, I’m sorry to report, have been quite serene about (or even supportive of) recent suggestions that Muslims be singled out and barred at the American border; that Muslims, specifically, be obliged to register... Read more

    I have no idea.  But this article claims that they are:   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3382328/Drunkards-audience-ruining-Book-Mormon-Broadway-getting-inebriated-vomit-pass-review-says.html   If it’s really happening, perhaps they’re secret agents sent by the evil Mormon cult to disrupt the play?     Read more

    Last night, we went to see the latest James Bond film, Spectre.   Lots of things blew up.  I enjoyed it.  My critics can happily dismiss me, yet again, as a low-brow and a Philistine.  I don’t much care.   Early this evening, we watched a screening of Justin Kurzel’s 2015 film of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  It’s not my favorite version of the “Scottish play,” but it’s an exceptionally interesting interpretation and it made for some very good discussion on... Read more

    “To gain control of the world of space is certainly one of our tasks. The danger begins when in gaining power in the realm of space we forfeit all aspirations in the realm of time. There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of... Read more

    http://www.livescience.com/53235-what-archaeologists-expect-in-2016.html     Read more