Sunday in Outer Blogness: Double Edition!

While I was spending a week basking in the sunny Sunstone Symposium — far from the Internet — life went on as usual here in Outer Blogness. So I have two weeks worth of fun stuff for you today!

First off, there have been a number of beautiful images posted this past fortnight. Green Mormon Architect gives a poetic description of the city, and wren took some poetic photos of another city in the rain. Tom is sharing with us the top eleven (NSFW) images that define his work as a photographer. In light-hearted fun, watch Fiona give a raspberry to her mommy’s tummy, and see Christy in London! In disturbing images, Jeremy Firth posts something you don’t want to see in your hotel bathroom, and in creepy images, GreenishBlue reports that you can have your own Edward sillhouette watching you sleep. And let’s end this batch of images with a chuckle from Chuck.

We’ve also got an impressive series of reviews and events!! Remember John Dehlin’s How to stay LDS? (If you’re not familiar with John Dehlin and Mormon Stories, check out the recent Mormon Expression podcast on the subject.) Well, Andrew has posted a six-part review and response to it! By contrast, Saganist’s review of The Reason for God is a little less thorough (he typed in his notes), yet thought-provoking nonetheless. (Saganist also reviewed Richard Dutcher’s talk at a Unitarian church.) Jonathan Blake reviews Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know about Sex (But Were Afraid They’d Ask). The Salt Lake City skeptics have some advice for the Humanists of Utah, and are announcing an upcoming lecture by Eugenie Scott!

On to everyone’s favorite subject: Mormonism! Chino describes the “Perfect Storm” of Bad PR for the LDS Church in its persecution of homosexuals. Disillusioned Mormon has just joined the ranks of the resigned-from-the-CoJCoL-dS. Please go offer support and/or congratulations. In Mormon culture, Markii has been doing a little research on Multi-Level-Marketing, and Sabayon learned that her brother got engaged after a mere two-week courtship. Johnathan, strangely enough, is fantasizing about giving a talk in church on Pure Religion and Stewardship. Cr@ig in the Middle explains the key problem with apologetics (which we all know, but we just keep going back to debate them anyway…). On a related note, Daniel Midgley asks How to Persuade? And who? with the highlight on how to deal with people whose position is so totally divorced from reality that it’s not clear where to begin. And that brings us to the subject that warrants its own separate roundup:

What is going on with the U.S. health care debate??

First off, let’s clarify some misconceptions about health care in the UK. They wouldn’t just let Stephen Hawking die for being handicapped as Investor’s Business Daily claimed (hint: Hawking is British & not dead). Djinn follows up on the story with a real-life example of the kind of care (unheard of in the US) that disabled children receive. In a similar vein, Crispy Sea describes how the British NHS saved his life (with service that Mojoey points out would have cost at least $50K in the U.S.). Pixelfish brings us some additional information about health care in Canada, and about what the self-employed can expect in the U.S..

But that’s old news. The current question is this debate’s descent into madness. Dissenting in Part gives a good concise explanation of the problem and Austin Cline gives a more extensive analysis of accusations of fascism. The Ridger offers us Barney Frank’s example of how to deal with nonsensical accusations. And Jesus’ General has discovered the real problem: Obama’s Long Dark Staff of White Insecurity.