Our latest guest brings a Fowles mouth and even more Fowles reputation. Read More

Born 11 days ago, Jacob is happy and healthy as is his (sleep-deprived) mother. A picture of him in the hospital is available here for a few more days. Read More

“Ama-ar-gi,” a Sumerian word, has the distinction of being the oldest written instance of the concept of freedom or liberty, appearing on a clay tablet from about 2300 B.C. The word itself has something to say about the vexed question of the relationship between Mormonism and liberty or freedom. Read More

This will be my last post at T&S. I’d like to thank those who gave me this opportunity and those who have participated on my posts. It’s been fun. We appear to be a top-down institution, the higher-ups telling those below them what to do, but my experience indicates to me that we work from the bottom-up. An example: Read More

Nate posted recently about the “Gentile Boogie” — that is, things people do or say when they don’t think a Mormon is around. Nate’s post suggests a world of subtle exclusions and small slights. There is a much darker side to the Gentile Boogie, though — one that I caught a glimpse of, a decade ago. Read More

I was browsing through my mission journal a bit ago and decided to copy a few excerpts for your reading pleasure (or boredom). A few observations: 1) I was extremely moody/emotional. 2) The first half of my mission all I talked about was Shelley, my pre-mish girlfriend who I wanted to wait for me, who was there when I got back, who I didn’t marry. 3) 95% of what I wrote is embarrassing to read. 4) I was a little kid. 5) I grew a lot. 6) The mission isn’t nearly as romantic when you’re going through it as it… Read More

There is a classic Saturday Night Live skit (from back when it was funny) that perfectly captures one of my nagging anxieties about being Mormon. Read More

I’ve been arguing this point for years, but today a group made it in Federal court: laws imposing child support on fathers who didn’t want a child violate the father’s “reproductive freedom.” The group calls their cause Roe v. Wade for Men. According to their attorney, “The public is still dealing with the pre-Roe ethic when it comes to men, that if a man fathers a child, he should accept responsibility,” and they hope to change that. Read More

Yesterday, Akismet caught its 10,000th spam since its installation less than four months ago. Read More

I have been doing a bit of research on the drafting of the Utah State Constitution, reading the proceedings of the constitutional convention held in 1894. The delegates seem to have spent most of their time discussing furniture, stationary, and who got to be appointed official stenographer for the convention. Every so often, however, they would pause to actually consider possible constitutional issues. Read More

Today, out of the blue, I got a query from a friend — a smart, competent, and female professional — who asked me this: What’s the right temperature for baked eggplant? My immediate (and correct, I might add) answer: 350. Read More

BYU is often ridiculed for its dress and grooming code. The basic argument is that it is silly. Read More

Go read this. Then return and report. Read More

One of the fun things about education is that you get all sorts of fun new toys, ideas that magically seem to cut through all sorts of Gordian knots and whose mere invocation has occult intellectual powers that liberate one from previous difficulties. Read More

At the upcoming slavery reparations conference at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, I will speak on the topic of reparations within the rule of law. Read More

There are many areas in which the “green” hymnal is superior to its predecesor. It has better indexes, lots of added information, and the mixed blessing of simpler, more playable hymns. However, in the vitally important category of hymn-texts-penned-by-parents-of-Supreme-Court-justices, it is sadly lacking. Read More

Polygamy created a bastardy problem for nineteenth-century Mormons. Read More

The 2006 Annual Meeting of the Society for Mormon Philosopy and Theology will be held March 17-18th at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. The conference program now appears on the web, with further details on the location, parking, etc. The conference is free and open to the public. Read More

An announcement for people who may be in the Southern California area on March 24 or 25: Nate Oman, Caroline Kline, and Kaimi Wenger will be speaking as a panel at the Miller-Eccles group in Southern California, on the topic of LDS blogging. Read More

Non-Utah Mormons like to complain about the supposed failing of Utah Mormons. Forgotten in this inevitable and highly stylized discussion, however, are the odd tics of Utah non-Mormons. I recently had a deja vu experience that reminded me of this strange breed. Read More