All of the levity over Mormon being the new black is a bit of a sideshow — obscuring the meat of what Elder Oaks is proposing: Those who seek to change the foundation of marriage should not be allowed to pretend that those who defend the ancient order are trampling…
“I’m rubber and you’re glue!”
It has got to be the most popular rhetorical trick in the bag these days! It goes something like this: Someone criticizes you (accusing you of, say, “X”), but you don’t want to have to answer the charge. You don’t want to even have to think about whether the charge…
All the good gossip
Between buildings we passed by a pharmacy that had in its display window a large poster advertising some sort of mysterious medication. The image on the poster was a soft black-and-white shot of a nude woman looking off into the distance with her breasts completely exposed to view. Read the…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Conference Edition!
Sorry about missing last week, folks! We spent the weekend in Boston (as you can see from the photographic evidence here and here), and I meant to get back in time to do my usual weekend roundup, but didn’t. Fortunately, it was conference weekend, so I didn’t miss much, and…
“Let’s talk about our relationship”: Ockham’s Razor, by Alan Michael Williams
Antelopes and giraffes have a few things in common, right? Four legs, both mammals. We consider them fundamentally different creatures. Now lets say a third animal comes running alongside them. One that resembles an antelope, but it also has a number of qualities that a giraffe has. Maybe it has…
Not Adam and Steve
Check out this YouTube clip: Random thoughts after an initial look at this ad: 1) Weren’t Adam and Eve supposed to be nekkid in Eden? 2) Jesus did not approve this message. 3) It will convince many in Washington that its creators truly are Zoids from planet Dork. But the…
Not some dorkazoid missionaries!
The next morning, after Elder Beaverton and I had done our usual personal study and companion study, we set off to go out tracting. As usual, no one wanted to let us in. To break up the tedium and frustration of it, we played little games to vary our door…
General Conference predictions
Back in the days when I paid attention to General Conference, I always attended the priesthood session with my wife’s father and brother. I enjoyed the tradition of returning to report some fantastic fictional revelation to my wife and her mother. I call this a tradition because I did it…
Book Club Discussion of “Under the Banner”
My book club recently read Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer. Despite my interest in all things mormon, I did not recommend this book to my group. I had read it before, and found it frightening. The Lafferty murders were especially heinous (to my mind) and disturbing on…
New Maine Marriage Polling Numbers
x-posted from Daily Kos by permission. Guest post by Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for the (Maine) No on 1 campaign. A new public poll from Democracy Corps was released yesterday, showing us with a slight lead in this race of 50% to 41%, a significant jump from kos’s numbers from…