Today’s new article from Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture is now up and (as always) easily accessible at no charge:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/to-see-and-hear/#more-8117   Thanks to all of the volunteers and donors who have made this possible!     Read more

    This has been a concern of mine for years.  I resolved while still in early adulthood to avoid the problem, and I’ve kept my vow:   http://www.statnews.com/2016/01/21/can-you-exercise-too-much/   Seriously, though, this is an interesting article.  Very few of us, I think, are in danger of overexercise.     Read more

    I can’t remember whether I’ve posted this before.  Truth be told, I’d forgotten that it was online, and I only found it again a day or two ago by sheer coincidence while looking for something else.  I thought that some might perhaps find it interesting.  It was recorded back in late March of 2012, and it lasts — drags on? — for about an hour and eleven minutes:   https://vimeo.com/50117415     Read more

    Donald Trump picked up the endorsement of Sarah Palin earlier this week.  And now he’s garnered the endorsement of Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson.  I don’t think I could be more impressed today if he were to announce the support of every single male and female performer for World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.   In other news, National Review, the venerable conservative magazine founded by William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955, has now published a special symposium entitled “Against Trump.”  ... Read more

    “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” Samuel Johnson (d. 1784)     Read more

    I’m grateful to my colleague Mike Bush for calling this remarkable address by President Harold B. Lee to my attention.  It was delivered at the April 1971 conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   I’m sure that I must have heard it when it was delivered.  But it seems to me as timely and relevant now as it was when it was delivered, if not, indeed, more so:   https://www.lds.org/ensign/1971/06/the-iron-rod?lang=eng     Read more

    What to make of the Mormons?   http://www.gonzagabulletin.com/opinion/article_7f4ecbb8-bff7-11e5-97c9-a7a8fa8ab2b5.html     Read more

    Today’s reading, 2 Nephi 3, has bothered some because of the remarkable specificity of its prediction of Joseph the Seer, who would be named after his father.   Joseph Smith Jr. and Joseph Smith Sr., right?   Get it?   And that prophecy has caused certain critics a great deal of merriment because, on their assumption that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon himself, it seems so embarrassingly self-glorifying.   There’s not much that I can say in... Read more

    I actually grew up with nine planets.  Yes, I’m that old.   But I’m not old enough to believe that there were just five of them — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn — orbiting the Earth along with the Sun and Moon.  For that kind of old, you have to go to one of my senior companions in the mission field.   Anyhow, though, it now seems that we were right after all.  There are nine planets.... Read more

    Donald Trump picked up the endorsement of Sarah Palin the other day.  I have no interest whatever in Ms. Palin as a political candidate, let alone as a political thinker, but I sadly admit that her backing will almost certainly benefit Mr. Trump.   I myself give much more weight to this:   http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/21/politics/national-review-magazine-opposes-donald-trump/   Unfortunately, it’s probably far too little somewhat too late.   Angry Trumpites aren’t likely to care as their chosen demagogue cruises toward the Republican... Read more