Comments on: Who Should Have Been Mormon of the Year, 1990-2007

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:39:43 +0000

On stem cell research, it was Oregon Senator and Church member Gordon Smith not Orrin Hatch who started the legislative effort. As I understand it, Smith got Hatch to sign on to have a more senior conservative senator on the bill to get more support.

I heard Smith give a great speech about his view of what the D&C says about when life begins and how it impacted his legislative actions. Smith should be your runner up and not Hatch for 2001. Also, any LDS congressman outside of UT deserves more credit as they had to overcome the anti-mormon bias in the electorate.

By: Rob Perkins

Rob Perkins — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:28:10 +0000

I watched New York Doll. There are certain youth who could really benefit from seeing it. (And others, of course, who would never understand why I’d make that claim.)

The imagery of Arthur Kane, ravaged by a lifetime of transgression, rage, and regret, working in a family history center, kind of encapsulates an example of what repentance can do, what it cannot, why it would be better to avoid the sinning in the first place, but also what kind of person comes out of the repentance process.

And watching him try to explain bits of Mormonism to his old bandmates as they make nervous jokes about it is a touchstone of common experience. What Mormon hasn’t had to go through that, after all?

By: Paul S

Paul S — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:59:27 +0000

In fairness to Bybee it should be pointed out that he did not author the torture memo. The memo was written by John Yoo (who is very proud of the fact) and approved by Bybee who was Yoo’s superior at OLC. Perhaps this is splitting hairs as Bybee’s name is on the memo.

By: Last Lemming

Last Lemming — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:51:16 +0000

Thanks for the info on Pope. I’ll add him to my list (although it might be years before I actually offer another proposed list).

As for the 2004 selection, y’all are probably right that Ken and Napoleon will age better than New York Doll. I’ll keep that in mind when I do my next list. (Who knows. NYD might become a cult classic among punk rockers). But my citation of Kane was timed to reflect the filming of the movie, not its release (which occurred after his death).

By: Frank McIntyre

Frank McIntyre — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:28:59 +0000

Arden Pope’s work on air pollution might be a better bet for something in the mid-90s. EPA regulations proposed in 1997 were based on it — and his only competition that year is apparently Ashton’s Thanksgiving Point.
In fact, Arden’s first papers used inversions in Utah Valley during the Geneva Steel era to get the effects of particulate matter on health outcomes.

Here’s a recent article he published on the effects of air regulation on decreasing mortality. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/22/air-pollution-life-expectancy

By: Matt Evans

Matt Evans — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:48:20 +0000

For generating publicity as a Mormon, Ken Jennings certainly surpassed the others. Maybe a few hundred thousand people saw New York Doll? And didn’t New York Doll premiere at the 2005 Sundance, anyway?

By: Frank McIntyre

Frank McIntyre — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:50:16 +0000

It’s a pretty tough call, but I think Ken probably beats out Killer Kane and Napolean Dynamite.

By: Alex Valencic

Alex Valencic — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:20:22 +0000

If you are looking for a good candidate in the blogging world in general, why not Jeff Lindsay, creator of Mormanity? I don’t know if we really have any LDS bloggers who are well-known by the world at large, and i would seriously doubt any of them would really qualify for Mormon of the Year, but it seems to me that Jeff was definitely one of the earlier of the LDS bloggers. (Of course, his Cracked Planet was starting much earlier, and his blog didn’t start until what, 2004 or so?) Just a thought…

I would have placed the Hesses or Ken Jennings above Arthur Kane, simply because I know that I had never heard of him previous to reading this post, but I know plenty of people, especially non-LDS who, upon learning I was LDS, would comment about either Napoleon Dynamite or Ken Jennings. (And I live in the midst of corn and soybean fields in Illinois!)

By: Last Lemming

Last Lemming — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:18:59 +0000

Looks like this batch is going to have to age a bit. Thanks for playing, everybody.

By: Last Lemming

Last Lemming — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:13:41 +0000

Adam has a good suggestion for 2003, but I want to get a little more personal than “The Bloggernacle,” which wasn’t even named until the following year. The founding members of a certain group blog that began in that year might be good candidates, but some might interpret that as more than a little self-serving. Who else was actively blogging in 2003? It seems Dave Banack might be a candidate, but perhaps there are others.