Monday, November 19, 2007

Like, no way!

From the really useless research department . . .

Researchers found that men's scores on general knowledge tests drop when they are shown photos of blonde women, the Sunday Times of London reported.

Upon further inspection, it was found that the test subjects were not distracted by the light hair, but driven by social stereotypes to "think blonde."


Lucky for me Becky is a beautiful brunette, otherwise I wouldn't be able to function at all around her!

(Please . . . no jokes about my current level of functionality)

Article about the Church in Africa on MSNBC.com

An interesting article on the church is up on MSNBC.com today. they do a pretty good job being fair and open-minded. There are very nice quotes form Nigerian members of the church too, and glimpse into what the church is like over there. Also a few interesting statistics. (I'm quoting from the article):
  • The church has more than 250,000 members in Africa, including almost 80,000 in Nigeria
  • More than 8,400 Mormon churches or meetinghouses abroad, with a new one built nearly every day.
  • Among the places the church says it is particularly vibrant are Brazil and Mexico which have about 1 million Mormons each, and the Philippines, with nearly 600,000.
  • More than 220,000 people a year [are] baptized abroad into the Mormon Church -- four times the 54,000 annual baptisms in the United States.
One of the members had some particularly good things to say:


Joshua Matthews Ebiloma . . . said the Mormons offered him "peace of mind" he had not found anywhere else.

Nigeria is half Muslim and almost half Christian, and proselytizing foreigners, from the United States to Saudi Arabia, are pouring millions of dollars into the African nation of 135 million to expand their faiths.

Ebiloma has sampled a range of them. He was born into a pagan family and still bears the scars of tribal markings carved into his cheeks when he was young. After attending Muslim schools as a child, he tried various Christian churches before finding what he described as "happiness and peace" in Mormonism.

Now, Ebiloma nodded and smiled as fellow Mormons told their stories. [in testimony meeting]

"It is quiet and more organized in here," Ebiloma said later. "In other churches, people are shouting at the top of their lungs, sweating so much they need a hanky. One thing I know for sure: God is not deaf." . . .

Ebiloma said that five years ago, curious about this new church, he jumped off a city bus and walked into the buildings of tile and marble. He immediately liked what he heard inside, especially that no one preached that people of other faiths were going to hell. He had soured on the many Christian pastors he saw growing rich on collection-plate cash and admired the fact that Mormon church leaders are largely unpaid and support themselves with other jobs.

Abstinence from alcohol, another church practice, was a tougher sell. But gradually, with the help of his favorite part of the church -- regular home visits from missionaries and other members -- he abandoned Guinness, his favorite drink and one heavily advertised in Nigeria.

Now, the affable father of two said, he even tries to obey the church's no-caffeine rule. Tugging proudly at his belt, he said he had dropped 50 pounds and now weighs a trim 165. "I am so happy," he said. "I am at peace."

"If you are bereaved or you have a new baby or you don't have money to pay your hospital bills, church members rally around you," he said, smiling. "You tell me: Is this a church I should leave?"

Amen.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Democrats' View of Taxes

In speaking of a tax cut, Gene Sperling, Hillary Clinton's chief economic advisor, said the following at a recent National Press Club panel discussion:


The question is, should we be giving an extra $120 billion to people in the top 1 percent?


Democrats see tax cuts as the government giving people money. This is insane! Welfare is giving people money, tax cut are no such thing. One gets the impression from the Democrats that wealthy Americans are a natural resource, to be pumped for as much cash as we need. Jonah Goldberg explains very eloquently in National Review:


You can see where Democrats get this idea, after all. The top 1 percent of wage earners already provide nearly 40 percent of federal income tax revenues. The bottom 50 percent of taxpayers contribute only about 3 percent.


This is dangerous to our form of government.

According to Democrats, it's greedy to want to keep your own money, but it's "justice" to demand someone else's.

Taxes are a necessary evil. But their silver lining is that they foster a sense of accountability and reciprocity between the taxpayer and the tax collector. Indeed, democracy is usually born from this relationship. Widening prosperity brings a rising middle class, which in turn demands the rule of law, incorrupt bureaucracies and political representation in exchange for its hard-earned money.


As the tax burden shifts to the rich, and as fewer people overall pay taxes:


the people are less inclined to see government as their expensive servant and more as their goody-dispensing master.

Democrats keep telling the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers that America's problems would be solved if only the rich people would pay "their fair share" of income taxes. Not only is this patently untrue and a siren song toward a welfare state, it amounts to covetousness as fiscal policy.

. . .it's unhealthy for a democracy when the majority of citizens don't see government as a service they're reluctantly paying for but as an extortionist that cuts them in for a share of the loot.


Beware any candidate who equates tax cuts with government spending. They may cut "spending" so much that we may end up with no money at all.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Remembering Our Veterans


(Photograph by Jay Talbott/Scripps Howard News Service)

Thank you to all who have fought for freedom. Please read this memorial to one very average American who gave his life protecting ours.

In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children. . .

Behold, whosoever will maintain this title upon the land, let them come forth in the strength of the Lord, and enter into a covenant that they will maintain their rights, and their religion, that the Lord God may bless them.

Alma 46:12,20

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Most ridiculous British laws:

  1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament
  2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down
  3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store
  4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day
  5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter
  6. In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet
  7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen
  8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing
  9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour
  10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Vouchers and Control

Another set of people who want to make decisions for us are the teachers' unions.

In Utah, more than 40 percent of Hispanics and African-American public students do not graduate with a diploma. This is a travesty. Adding insult to injury, the “minority advocates” in Utah seem to be doing everything in their power to keep minorities from having real educational choice and thereby from reaching their potential.

So here you have the ultimate irony. It is not the NAACP or teachers’ union coming to the rescue of minority families, but conservative Republicans, who have stepped forward with a solution to give a hand up. It is Republicans, not Democrats, who have gone to Milwaukee to study the city’s successful voucher program and see how it could be applied in a state where minorities are struggling in record numbers.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Beware Global Cooling!...er...Warming!...er...Cooling!...er...Warming!

I am good and tired of people predicting the end of humanity from climate change unless we immediately do what we're told. There may be something we are doing to warm the Earth's climate, but the hype in the media should be taken with a grain of salt.



It was five years before the turn of the century and major media were warning of disastrous climate change. Page six of The New York Times was headlined with the serious concerns of “geologists.” Only the president at the time wasn’t Bill Clinton; it was Grover Cleveland. And the Times wasn’t warning about global warming – it was telling readers the looming dangers of a new ice age.


We've seen hysterical climate change stories before, we are seeing them now, and we will probably see them in the future. Just like all aspects of the climate, they seem to go in cycles. (about 25 years in this case - just long enough to train a new generation of journalists? hmmmm).

Speculating is fine. Trying to preserve the environment is fine. Advocating non-pollution is fine. Trying to force fundamental economic and social changes on society based on climate predictions that have changed like clockwork every quarter century is NOT OK. Now Global warming has morphed into "climate change"

Recent global warming reports have continued that trend, morphing into a hybrid of both theories. News media that once touted the threat of “global warming” have moved on to the more flexible term “climate change.” As the Times described it, climate change can mean any major shift, making the earth cooler or warmer.

Advocates of climate change no longer need to worry about specific solutions to specific problems. They don't have to worry if the climate suddenly starts to cool, cooling is climate change too, and man must be responsible. They can work on controlling all economic activity that may impact the environment. This is what they really want -- control over the means of production (ie socialism/communism). They believe that individuals can't make the "correct" use of their own assets, and that government should make the decision for them so that all of us will be saved, and not one soul shall be lost. (Dana Carvey voice) Who does that sound like.... could it be..... I don't know.....maybe SATAN!!

I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.
-- Moses 4:1

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Guilt by Association

HBO's "Big Love," the Warren Jeffs trial, Mitt Romney's two grandmothers, you can't escape news about polygamy these days.

All the publicity surrounding polygamists these days has repercussions for average Mormons, and for Utahns in general.

In My Estates and Trusts class, we were talking about how the law handles children omitted from a parent's will. One student raised his hands and asked, in all seriousness, "do they have special provisions in Utah because polygamy is allowed?"

*sigh*

I, of course, informed the class that polygamy is not allowed in Utah -- but I really shouldn't have had to do that.

I'm Picking Up Good Vibrations . . .

Sadly, I have experienced this phenomenon. it used to happen a lot when I had my old phone in my pocket. Not so much now that I have a holster.

I Knew It !!!

I always knew the shoe companies' marketing was a crock! ("trainers" is British for tennis shoes)

Long live the 25 dollar Sketchers!