Vort

It's one thing to "downplay" one's personal beliefs. It's quite another to publicly question one's very membership in the kingdom of God. I would always say that I'm married to my wife. Even if someone didn't like her, my response would be, "She's my wife". Not "Well, we're sort of married, but I'm really not sure how to define whether or not I like her." Such a thing is disloyal and exhibits a deficiency of character. I see two possibilities: Huntsman is telling the truth. He truly is not a very dedicated Latter-day Saint. He accepts the social and cultural trappings of Mormonism but does not really self-identify as a Mormon, at least in a spiritual sense. In this case, I think it's dishonest of him to run as a Latter-day Saint. Better publicly to disclaim his Church membership, even if he doesn't officially withdraw his name from the Church records. I could respect that, and would certainly consider voting for an unbelieving Mormon or ex-Mormon that sees things politically and culturally similar to how I see them -- but only if he's honest about his LDS Church affiliation or lack thereof.Huntsman is lying. He either hates the LDS Church but does not wish to alienate his base, thus keeping his putative membership; or else he believes the LDS Church to be as it claims, but is unwilling to associate his name with it for fear he might not be elected. Either position is despicable.I don't think a man's religion should be a major consideration to his candidacy, but how he treats and identifies with that religion certainly is. In this regard, the Time magazine article portrays Huntsman in a very poor light.

Then may a Mormon never reach the national executive office. God forbid a man sell out his very integrity and deepest beliefs in hopes of winning an election.

To PC's and applepansy's advice, I would add only this: Don't presume to speak for your late daughter. She and your grandson's father very well might not have seen eye to eye on this topic, but that's an unknowable thing. If I were the child's father, I would feel like my girlfriend's mother was unfairly bringing her into the equation to push me to do what she (the mother) wants -- which would be exactly the case. Instead, tell him how important you think baptism is, both to you and to the child. And in the end, if the father says no, accept it.

Hi, PC. The teachers unions are perfectly happy for parents to help their children succeed in public schools. More successful children = better pay for teachers. But teachers unions do NOT want parents teaching their children at home if that means the kids don't go to public schools, because that threatens the teachers' jobs -- and in the union's mind, the schools exist primarily to give teachers jobs, not to educate children. They can hardly be blamed for this; as one teacher succinctly put it, "the NEA is our union, not the kids'." I am trying to say as clearly as I can that the RESPONSIBILITY FOR EDUCATING CHILDREN BELONGS TO THE PARENTS. It is not the states' job to educate kids. It is the parents' job.One possible avenue to discharge that educational obligation is public education. This is fine; if the parents wish to establish publicly-funded schools and let those schools educate their children, that's how society works. But when the public schools fail to educate the children adequately and/or fail to provide a good environment for the kids, then ultimately, the responsibility lies with the parents. Complain all you want about crummy schools, but in the end, it's your responsibility to see to your child's education. If we would simply acknowledge and live by this one self-evident truth, many of the problems of our children's education would be resolved quickly.

Hugh Nibley is arguably the most brilliant (and most entertaining) LDS scholar in history. His stuff is most definitely worth reading and listening to. But Nibley himself would be the first to tell you never to base your testimony on such things. Yes, much of his stuff would be considered outdated today. He is not the latest, greatest word on All Things Mormon. Base your testimony on things of eternal worth and duration. For the most valuable thing Nibley ever said, you might listen to the last of his Time Vindicates the Prophets lectures, a capstone to the previous sixteen lectures which serves as his testimony of what he's spoken of.

I'm an xkcd.

"Brother M" is sufficient. This is appropriate for any brother in the Church, including General Authorities.

I'm sorry to hear this, Elph. The virus writers are a pox on humanity. It is difficult for me to dredge up any charity for them.On a Windows box, esp. Windows 7, always install Microsoft's free antivirus program Microsoft Security Essentials (unless you're on a corp network that has another antivirus solution in place). This is a solid antivirus that I'm pretty sure will fix the Windows 7 Recovery virus.

Welcome back! Your blog is interesting. Good luck with the coffee addiction; that can be tough for some people. As for the perfumes... A few years ago, I first experienced what I had heard about for years: Getting sick because of someone's perfume. My wife and I went to an opera and sat near a sweet old lady who apparently had bathed in some cheap perfume. The odor was not offensive, but it was overpowering. After a few minutes, I started to get a headache. Finally, we moved to a different location, literally running away from the toxic fumes. I personally almost never wear cologne and I always avoid antiperspirant, because it gives me a rash. But I use deodorant in deference to our society's (rather bizarre) aversion to any hint of body odor. Heaven forbid a human being smell like, well, a human being. Are you sensitive to deodorants? If so, your life must be difficult indeed, at least in that aspect. I've met only one person whom I know did not use any deodorants at all, and that was a girl back at BYU in the early 1980s.

No apologies necessary. It's a cool image.

Also, the stars would only be colored as in the image if they were specifically filtered in some way. To our eyes, all stars would look white or, in the case of low-temperature stars, some shade of red. The complete lack of any starspots is another giveaway that these are not actual photographs.

Cool image, but note that it's not a compilation of photographs. Kepler works by seeing the dip in a star's brightness associated with a planet transit, then the researchers figure out how big the planet must have been relative to the star. This image is a sort of "recreation" using a stock "star" figure recolored to represent the stars studied. The stars are way, way, way far off, even those "close" to us. There are a few stars that are so incredibly huge that our most powerful telescopes can see them as an actual disk, rather than just as points of light. But only a few. Almost all stars will show up in the most powerful telescope ever made as just a point of light with no distinguishable "size" or disk.

I don't think it's much used any more. Outside the LDS Church, the general consensus is to dismiss the Book of Mormon out of hand as a work of fiction with no ties to actual people or events in preColumbian America. Inside the Church, the general consensus is that the Book of Mormon is a work of literal historicity, despite non-Mormons being too prejudiced to consider the possibility.

Three-word post of the week!

See that? I knew I had a knack for something.

Mormons break for Jello? I didn't know Mormons could break. I thought they couldn't dance at all.

No need to get offended or upset. We've all started threads that interested us and that we were sure would be fascinating, only to see that few others seemed to share our fascination.I read my old journal from 1978 when I was 15 and wrote that I was sure the Second Coming would have to have happened by the year 2000. Duh. Anyone can see how obvious that is. I had even had adults at Church say as much. Yet somehow, God didn't keep to the same timeline. As a result of ten million little experiences like this, many of us have become inured to that particular speculation. But don't get upset by our lack of enthusiasm. We'll happily talk about lots of other things.

LollyPop, You are convinced that you were led by the Spirit to contact this man. This is entirely possible; none of us can know, so that's really your call to decide. However, just because you were led by the Spirit to contact this man doesn't mean you are being led by the Spirit to enter a personal and potentially marriage-directed relationship with him. If he has made it clear that he does not/cannot love you, respect his agency in such a choice and move on. It's my observation that women often tend to attribute different meanings to the words of others (especially men, and more especially men they care about) than the others mean. The safest course of action is to accept what this man says at face value. Don't second-guess or try to read something else into it. He has said X, therefore X is how he feels. That's my view, for what it's worth (which is equal to what you paid for it).

Mormons are historically, uh, frugal. Thus the screaming nickels.

Thanks for spotting the typo. That'll teach me not to proofread my posts, even short ones.

Actually, I was answering your original question. Don't know much about Vegas slots.

I love the entire Book of Mormon. I could not possibly pick a favorite book or chapter. I have read the Book of Mormon through, cover to cover, at least 25 times, am currently in the middle of a study project on it for personal scripture study, and have again begun reading it with my wife. I will say that I have always had a special attraction to Nephi's writings, despite the Isaiah chapters, which took a few readings for me to be comfortable with.

The nickels screaming in agony are a dead giveaway.

1. 2008 2. 1838 3. 2160, when I would be 197 years old. (The sentence can end here, if desired.) I believe Christ's second coming is imminent, but I doubt I or, probably, my children will live to see it.

A first glance at your topic title left me thinking, "Hung Your Cat Day? What kind of celebration is that?" Seemed somehow inappropriate, and I'm not even a cat lover (except in the sense that they taste like chicken).