Q. What is the church’s official position on intact dilation and extraction, also known as partial-birth abortion? [Read more…]

God’s second commandment, love thy neighbor, clearly leaves no room for racism.

Neal A. Maxwell, “Deny Yourselves of All Ungodliness.” [Read more…]

We have to make reindeer food, of course. Reindeer prefer chocolate and Chex, and you wouldn’t want the reindeer to go hungry.

The kids leave a snack out for Santa, too. It’s a well-known fact that Santa is a big fan of cheese. [Read more…]

Enough politics, already. Here we go, strictly for fun.*

A deer, a female deer
A drop of golden sun [Read more…]

“I have a testimony that God can help us find the answers to our questions. I was trying to find out the difference between anti-neutrons and neutrons. I googled it, but the first link I clicked on didn’t really explain it. Then God told told me to look it up again when I failed the first time. So I clicked on a different link, and I found a site that had some information about them, including the difference. A neutron is made of an electron and a proton, but an anti-neutron is made of a positron and an anti-proton.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

We spent the rest of sacrament meeting giggling over silly anti-matter jokes. Like: If Nephi and Lehi lived in an anti-matter universe, what would they be?

What are people’s thoughts, so far? What sessions have you liked, or loved, or hated? (Who got to see the feminist firestorm session?) I’ll type up some more detailed notes, soon — I hit the FLDS, Web 2.0, and motherhood sessions, myself, and there was a lot of good stuff — but in the mean time, let’s open a thread for general comments.

Like many of you, I’ll be attending Sunstone this year. I’m looking forward to many of the panels. Kristine and Janet and Jana and Bored in Vernal will be speaking. Armand Mauss and Claudia Bushman and John Dehlin and John Hamer and Lorie Winder and Paula Goodfellow and Newell Bringhurst. _Nobody Knows_ will show. Really, the only thing that worries me is the moderation. [Read more…]

Is it just me, or has Elder Ballard really been on a roll lately?

For instance, his 2004 talk, “O Be Wise“, contains some of the best advice about church service that we’ve heard in a long time. [Read more…]

Saturday night found me — where else? — on a crowded dance floor, surrounded by fourteen-year-olds. [Read more…]

My reaction to John’s reaction to the LDS reaction to the FLDS situation was a little different. I really don’t think that we’ve been overly apologetic, as a people, for polygamists. In fact, I find it horrifying how quickly church members and leaders were to throw those folks under the bus.

The most prominent reaction comes from Elder Quentin L. Cook, a recently-sustained member of the Twelve. In a smiling, amiable, six-minute video (available through the church website), he sets out a number of points. [Read more…]

Today is the day that Son1 will play piano in Primary. He’s been working on Book of Mormon Stories for a couple of weeks now, and he’s got it down, cold. He’s ten years old, and it will be his first time playing piano in public. [Read more…]

A familiar face returns to BCC. Kaimi Wenger was around when we founded this scrapheap years ago, and remains one of the Bloggernacle’s most recognized names. He used to be a real lawyer, but now has left that noble profession to teach hapless 1Ls about res judicata and other worthless arcana. Welcome back to this errant knight, this prodigal blogger who now guests among us.

Justice Brandeis’s famous phrase “sunlight is the best disinfectant” set the tone for a century of securities regulation. The rule is this: To pass muster under securities laws, you must disclose. You must give accurate and complete material information to investors. And that’s about all. It’s fine if your business plan is “We will buy large quantities of lead and then hire a wizard to wave a magic wand over the lead, turning it into gold.” The SEC will not say, “That’s an idiotic business plan, buster.” What they will ask, is, “did you disclose?” And as long as you disclose, you’re generally okay (some exceptions below), no matter how ridiculous your business plan may be. This approach reflects a particular philosophy of law, a hands-off, laissez-faire approach to regulation. The SEC’s role is to make sure that the markets have accurate and complete material information — and after that, to get out of the way and let investors make their own choices. It assumes that investors, individually or collectively, are pretty good judges of information and are well-equipped to figure things out, themselves.

Or, to put it in Mormon terms, “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.” [Read more…]

Most of the time, when I blog at Times and Seasons, I find myself stuck in the role of peacemaker.  Take, for example, my last post regarding feminism as a zero-sum game.  I had to negotiate carefully between the feminazis that frequent my blog, and the more conservative men that comment regularly.

Well, I’ve had enough.  So, it’s only appropriate that I just come right out and say it: I hate women.

[Read more…]

is available here.  Not a bad tune, either.

Don’t worry, we won’t tell your old AP what your reply was . . .

We’ve all seen it: The family you’ve just met introduces you to their sons Moroni, Mosiah, and Brigham. Not only are they goofy names, they’re names that scream out “look at my Mormon-ness!” [Read more…]

Movie editing is all the rage these days, as various companies (operating in a nebulous world of copyright) create “clean” versions of movies for the demanding (and paying) LDS customer. (For one article on the subject, see here). And what a job description — “the person who looks for sex and nudity in movies in order to filter it out later.” I’ll bet they don’t have difficulty filling the position of the guy who looks for the sex. (Hey, I wonder if they’re hiring?)
[Read more…]

(I know, I’m using the term icon loosely — it’s not like I had a lot of material to work with here).

Your chance to sound off about the demigod of Mormon authors: