A recent column in the Wall Street Journal Online criticized the effort in some states to render the Electoral College meaningless, by states passing laws that, regardless of the vote in that state, the electoral votes of the state would go to the national winner of a popular vote plurality.  The column and its reasoning can be found at http:// ( Read more... )

The following is a comment I made on a discussion on Timesandseasons.org concerning a recent editorial in the BYU Daily Universe that suggested that Mormons who publicly oppose the official position of the LDS Church, which endorses the amendment of the California Constitution to reinstate heterosexual marriage as the law, are no longer "active ( Read more... )

 The current issue of WIRED magazine has a story about two scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories who have published a series of research papers supporting the argument that we can totally neutralize the increased heat caused by mand-made greenhouse gases by investing about $1 billion a year in spreading sulfur dioxide in the ( Read more... )

Recently Professor Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary, wrote an essay for Beliefnet entitled "A New Opportunity for Mormonism?" (found at http://www.beliefnet.com/story/233/story_23378_1.html) in which he suggested that the LDS Church convene a Vatican II style conference to review its doctrines in consultation with theologians ( Read more... )

 
In the practice of law, and argument over the meaning of a court decision as applied to a different case, attorneys assume that there are two levels of writing in court opinions.  The writing that specifically addresses the questions placed before the court for decision, and which must be answered to come to a conclusion, are the "holding" of the ( Read more... )

One of the best recollections of Independence Day was offered on a cold day in November, 1863, by Abraham Lincoln, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Lincoln saw the need to maintain a unified and strong United States in order to demonstrate that the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence could be embodied in a real nation, so that the rest ( Read more... )

The Deseret Morning News has reported on a new Pew Charitable Trusts survey of religious groups in America and their views and practices in religion and politics.  The story can be found at http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700237373,00.html?pg=1.  The Survey report can be found at http://religions.pewforum.org/.

A bit more than 500 people ( Read more... )

 
I was set apart for my mission by Bruce McConkie, back when he was one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy, and also assigned to oversee my mission in Japan. Over my two years there, he would do periodic interviews with each of us, in addition to spending a couple of hours teaching us as a group. Looking back at the three things I had jotted ( Read more... )

 
Because major road construction is being conducted all summer on the highway to our work site, the company sent out information about the hazards of road construction to both workers and vehicle passengers.  It occurred to me, when I read that over 1,000 people die each year in accidents in road construction areas (including about 100 road ( Read more... )

 The following is my comment on a posting on Article6blog.com, which is concerned with maintaining religious freedom in the election process, as required by Article VI of the US Constitution, which prohibits any religious test or oath for persons taking Federal office. This comment responds to an item that was quoted from PBS Religion and Ethics ( Read more... )