Category: News and Politics

  • Notes from all over.

    Blog Administration

    The week in notes, belatedly.

  • Global Warming, Redefining Marriage, and Risk Aversion

    Frank McIntyre

    I think we can all agree that, from a risk analysis perspective, global warming and gay marriage share a lot of characteristics.

  • A Bad Reason for A Good Policy

    Julie M. Smith

    Let me remind everyone that I support the Church’s position opposing same sex marriage.

  • Notes from all over.

    Blog Administration

    Comment on the week in sidebar links.

  • Vampires

    Kylie Turley

    You are probably too erudite to discuss this, but I’m bringing it up anyway: vampire books. You know what I’m talking about.

  • Interesting P.R. Approach

    Marc Bohn

    Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve encountered an interesting banner link in my gmail account:

  • Notes from all over.

    Blog Administration

    The week in sidebar links.

  • Notes from all over.

    Blog Administration

  • It Begins

    Kaimi Wenger

    Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 From: [redacted] Subject: MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT MONSON

  • When The Prophet Speaks

    Marc Bohn

    Dave’s Mormon Inquiry has a post up about a new article in Meridian Magazine today that likens the brewing battle over gay marriage in California to the War in Heaven. The comments of the post link to an editorial from the Daily Universe editorial board this week that I found pretty shocking. The money quote:…

  • McCain and the Revelatory Economist

    Frank McIntyre

    Bloomberg reports the following from McCain about economists who criticized his (lunatic) summer gas plan:

  • “We lived after the manner of happiness”

    Wendy Ulrich

    The other day somebody sent me a YouTube link for a comedian I’ll call Mrs. Jones. Mrs. Jones was a chubby gramdma with hot flashes – not the kind of person you usually see doing stand-up. Most of the “funny” email forwarded to me makes me sigh and hit the delete button. Mrs. Jones made…

  • A modest, sensible, reasonable proposal that is certain to fail

    Kaimi Wenger

    Utah’s NBA team needs to change its name, period. The name is silly. There is no jazz in the state of Utah. They should give the Jazz name back to the good folks of New Orleans, for whom the moniker actually makes sense, and pick a new one that actually makes sense for Utah. Which…

  • Revisiting the Church’s Stance on Immigration

    Marc Bohn

    Just over a month ago, Kaimi posed a question asking how exactly our Latter-day Saint beliefs should translate into specific ideas on the issue of immigration. His blog post was provoked by press accounts of meetings that Elder M. Russell Ballard and other Church officials had just had with members of the Utah legislature from…

  • Mitt Romney’s Speech “Faith In America”: Your Reaction

    Matt Evans

    Thank you, Mr. President, for your kind introduction.

  • Graduate Student Conference at Claremont: Call for Papers — CHANGE!

    Jim F.

    “May These Principles Be Established”: Mormonism in the Political Arena

  • Grad Student Conference: Mormonism in Politics

    Jim F.

    Graduate Student Conference at Claremont: Call for Papers “May These Principles Be Established”: Mormonism in the Political Arena

  • Help out Harry Reid

    Frank McIntyre

    When Harry Reid spoke at BYU last week, he brought up a topic he was uniquely suited to address. To paraphrase, how can you be a Mormon and a Democrat? Reid’s response was, well, deeply predictable in the outset but wildly unpredictable after that.

  • Evans Political Bull-Bear Indicator: August 2007

    Matt Evans

    The people who bet money on their ability to predict political events are bullish on Mitt Romney.

  • Mormonism and Pluralism

    Ben Huff

    Mormonism and Pluralism In the U.S. today, many people are wary of religion because they feel it often supports a kind of intolerance. Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy provides an interesting case study on the relationship between faith and pluralism. On the one hand, we see clear examples of religious intolerance from people like Bill Keller.…

  • What if . . . ?

    Jim F.

    What if I didn’t believe in God? Would I still be a Mormon?

  • Markets and Consumer Activism

    Frank McIntyre

    With fair regularity, one hears someone talking of efforts to buy less of some commercial product, either out of a desire for global conservation or because he doesn’t like how it is produced or whatever. Invariably, he comments that his own effect on the market is small, but he wishes to “send a message” or…

  • The ordinary

    Jim F.

    However well we do in school or our jobs or in our church callings or in any endeavor, most of our lives are and will be ordinary.

  • Making Money off the Mormons: Sacrament Butt-pads

    Michael McBride

    When I was a senior in college, I worked at Seagull Book and Tape, an LDS book and trinket store across the street from the LA Temple. (The pay was lousy, but working with books was fun. So it turned out to be a decent job.) I was amazed by all the stuff that Mormons…

  • Movie Review: An Inconvenient Truth

    Julie M. Smith

    A review in four parts:

  • O Jerusalem, Jerusalem

    Patrick Mason

    My wife and I were in Jerusalem for a week in March. Below are some thoughts on the city, its religious heritage, and the current conflict.

  • How perfect a union?

    Ben Huff

    Are the United States substantially a moral union–a union on moral questions? This question has bearing on what belongs in the Constitution.

  • The Real Danger?

    John Fowles

    [NOTE: After initially posting this, I soon removed it because I was made aware that it was unnecessarily divisive. This was not my intent. However, I am putting it back up, unaltered, in the interest of debate. Additionally, one commenter pointed out that it was unfair to delete the post after people had commented, something…

  • Tomorrow morning, at 2 AM

    John David Payne

    Once a year, after enduring a grueling six hours of church in one day, I lay down to sleep knowing that during the wee hours of the night I will be robbed of one whole hour. It is time to forever abolish Daylight Saving Time.

  • Defining terrorism

    John David Payne

    By request, this morning I am going to talk about defining terrorism. The first important thing you need to realize is that there is no single widely accepted definition, either in academia or in the policy world. Everyone uses their own. So we’re going to talk about how you can build your own definition of…