Invoking the name of the Lord, a quantitative history#

Brown University in the Eighties#

Larry Craig and Thomas Schelling#

Awesome short#

Cooties#

Lesser Known C. S. Lewis quotes. After a teenagehood of reading Lewis, I am often amazed at how often LDS people quote him, given his extreme antagonism to LDS ideas, such as marriage in heaven.#

If Education is signaling then...?#

Just because education is largely signaling, it does not follow that students are not learning anything! The point, rather, is that students are not learning job skills. I don't deny that students learn history in school; I just deny that knowledge of history makes people (historians aside) into measurably better workers.

How Culture Exploits Men (and more)#

Chocolate doesn't have caffeine#

Shriram describes MIR3#

Availability bias#

Healing from Sexual Abuse#

Anti-Nephi Lehis#

Political Corruption is a Symptom -- The Problem is Political Power#

Tries and their Derivatives#

Why Are Creeds an Abomination?#

Darth Vader#

Latter-day Prophets And The Divine Council#

Rationality and the English Language:#

Some rationalists will try to analyze a misleading phrase, try to see if there might possibly be anything meaningful to it, try to construct a logical interpretation. They will be charitable, give the author the benefit of the doubt. Authors, on the other hand, are trained not to give themselves the benefit of the doubt. Whatever the audience thinks you said is what you said, whether you meant to say it or not; you can't argue with the audience no matter how clever your justifications.

A writer knows that readers will not stop for a minute to think. A novel-experience is a continuous stream of first impressions. A writer-rationalist pays attention to the experience words create.

Happiness Advice for Women#

A Problematic Parable of Evil#

Women Dressed As Ninjas Rob Gas Station With Sword#

Tyler Cowen at Google#

Jet-lag variants#

Oh man#

William Tell Overture Mom#

Missionary stuff#

Eternal Sonata review#

If ever there were a game that stood to make a solid argument for the ongoing debate of whether games can qualify as art, Eternal Sonata stands as a shining example.

So You Think You Can Be President?: I love it!#

Caplan on Immigration#

The Prophet's Shelf#

Movies and Chastity#

Overcoming Bias#

Feminism and Just Price Theory#

Anti-Mormon Craziness#

How to Be the Perfect Girlfriend#

Bias against Torture#

The Rise of LDS dot Org and the Decline of Everything Else#

Let’s say that brother Smith and sister Young are asked to speak next Sunday and are both given the topic of personal revelation. As they prepare, it is very likely that they will both go to the official website and type ‘personal revelation’ into the search field. The server will give them both identical results, with talks by general authorities ranked in order of relevance. Next Sunday, both Smith and Young will be seen on the stand with their scriptures and a sheaf of papers an inch thick. Both stacks of papers will contain long passages of cut and paste material from general authorities’ conference talks, right down to a word for word recounting of the personal anecdotes of the GA in question. Their talks will cover the same ground, quote the same scripture passages, and relate the same third person experiences. And it wouldn’t be surprising to hear the speakers express amazement at the workings of the spirit, which contrived to put the same words in their mouths. That is especially ironic under the circumstances, given that the topic is personal revelation.

The writer has brilliant irony.

Allegory in Harry Potter (Spoilers)#

No Buttons#

Rowling gives additional Harry details (Notice the mention of an Encyclopedia.)#

Mormonism in strange places (read comments)#

The 8 Strangest Communities on the Web#

Book of Mormon Plagiarism (Funny)#

Absurd Comic Book Origins#

Amazing Shoes!#

The Selfish Reason to Have More Kids#

Interview with JK#

Serious Interview with JK#

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Street Gangs#

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (Awesome)#

The dangers of compulsory education#

Q and A on the Community of Christ#

On Getting Creative Ideas#

Bryan Caplan: "[Immigrants] have one-fifth the incarceration rate of natives. Yes, natives are incarcerated at five times the rate of the foreign-born"#

Learning that Heavenly Father loves His children#

Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways#

How do other religions explain why God created us?#

Lambda the Ultimate commenter on an interesting language:#

The "living in the present" tag is a little misleading for Pirahã -- it does have a simple notion of past, just no cultural support for the notion of time that no one alive has experienced. Basically, the notion of shared cultural memory is rejected in favor of a no-shared state, message-passing approach to communication of experience.

Life at Google: The Microsoft Perspective#

"Europeans were immune to being told by Marco Polo how real unicorns (rhinoceroses) differed from what they had imagined"#

Things are different in Church service#

Water is the new Fire#

Orson Scott Card on Christianity:#

The ordinary meaning of the word “Christians” definitely includes Mormons; and when you say Mormons are not Christians, most would take that to mean that Mormons “do not believe in the divinity of Christ,” which would be flat wrong.

That’s why I appreciate the fact that Dr. Mohler made it clear at the start that by “Christian” he means “everybody but the Mormons,” so that if we accept his peculiar definition of the word, the argument is, indeed, over.

What's wrong with revenge?#

Was the Garden of Eden in Missouri?#

Marriott Debate#

A Letter to Optimus Prime From His GEICO Auto Insurance Agent By John Frank Weaver#

Lack of Male Equality in the Church#

Tallest man vs. Shortest man - Fight!#

Princess Bride + 20yrs#

A Mormon Perspective on Transhumanism#

Data and Codata#

The Advantages of Bad Theology#

The First Presidency Listens#

Bad arguments from Eugene England#

The Bare Facts of LDS Ritual#

:

The ritual, according to Smith, represented “a perfect hunt with all the variables controlled….Such a ceremony performed before taking on an actual hunt demonstrates that the hunter knows full well what ought to transpire if he were in control; the fact that the ceremony is held is eloquent testimony that the hunter knows full well that it will not transpire, that he is not in control.” So what good are such rituals? Smith suggests that through their ability to present a world in which “contingency, variability, and accidentality have been factored out,” they “display a dimension of the hunt that can be thought about and remembered in the course of things,” and that they further “provide a focusing lens on the ordinary hunt which allows its full significance to be perceived.”

"[W]ithout comtemporary corroboration such a message from the present will be only a myth."#

Female Gamers#

RPG Map of America#

13 Real Heists#

What the World Eats#

Ron Paul: "I invited each of these colleagues to match my private, personal contribution of $100 which, if accepted by the 435 Members of the House of Representatives, would more than satisfy the $30,000 cost necessary to mint and award a gold medal to Ronald and Nancy Reagan."#

Some interesting Islands and Lakes#

Tom Brokaw at Skidmore College:#

You've been told during your high school years and your college years that you are now about to enter the real world, and you've been wondering what it's like. Let me tell you that the real world is not college. The real world is not high school. The real world, it turns out, is much more like junior high. You are going to encounter, for the rest of your life, the same petty jealousies, the same irrational juvenile behavior, the same uncertainty that you encountered during your adolescent years. That is your burden. We all share it with you. We wish you well.

The Ghandi Nobody Knows:#

I propose to demonstrate that the film grotesquely distorts both Gandhi's life and character to the point that it is nothing more than a pious fraud, and a fraud of the most egregious kind.

[...]

The film leads the audience to believe that Gandhi's first "fast unto death," for example, was in protest against an act of barbarous violence, the slaughter by an Indian crowd of a detachment of police constables. But in actual fact Gandhi reserved this "ultimate weapon" of his to interdict a 1931 British proposal to grant Untouchables a "separate electorate" in the Indian national legislature--in effect a kind of affirmative-action program for Untouchables. For reasons I have not been able to decrypt, Gandhi was dead set against the project, but I confess it is another scene I would like to have seen in the movie: Gandhi almost starving himself to death to block affirmative action for Untouchables.

[...]

So, for those who like round numbers, the British killed some 400 seditious colonials at Amritsar and the name Amritsar lives in infamy, while Indians may have killed some *4 million* of their own countrymen for no other reason than that they were of a different religious faith and people think their great leader would make an inspirational subject for a movie.

Elder Joanna?#

Forgiveness#

Great discussion of Evangelicals and Mormons:#

Robinson makes a wise statement on p. 141:

If we would each admit that we share a common acceptance of the Bible while rejecting the other's additions to it (the councils and creeds on your side and the revelations of Joseph Smith on mine), we would find we share far more than we dispute. This could serve as a ground for cooperation, dialogue, and increased tolerance and respect. . . .

How the Doctrine of Polygamy Affected My Modern Mormon Life#

Problems with analogies explained through Shrek#

The Tale of the Slave#

Software Engineers Who Don't Value Software#

(Hmm; perhaps an Ontology would be able to help with that.)

Does the Church have any obligation to "escapees" of modern polygamy?#

I don't think so at all, other than the general obligation to help our fellow man. The Church is in no way responsible for the actions of non-LDS polygamists, just like it is in no way responsible for the actions of Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.

Special-Interest Secret, by Bryan Caplan#

An Alternate Theory of Unions, by Paul Graham#

An Unusual Baptism#

Great Mormon Breeding Project#

On Avoiding Contention (Check out comment #2.)#

The Top Five Most Embarrassingly Mormon Ways of Meeting Your Spouse#

LOLnacle#

Interview with Christopher Hitchens#

Who cares what the neighbors think?#

Mormons at the University of Chicago Divinity School (Check out comment #5.)#

Why [He Doesn't] believe [the Many Worlds Interpretation] of Quantum Mechanics:#

First off let me 'fess up. Even though I often attack positions in philosophy as more a kind of wish fulfillment I fully admit I'm doing it here. That is I roll my eyes when people reject four dimensionalism because they want a certain kind of free will and openness of the future to be true. Yet here I'm definitely a hypocrite. In large measure I don't accept MWI because I don't want it to be true. (There's an old Larry Niven short story about a guy who thinks about MWI that really captures my feeling) If MWI is true then there is a copy of me out there that does horrible things. That really, really bothers me. The notion of "self," even if it is a problematic notion, is far, far more problematic in MWI.

Pew Forum Interview with Church Leaders#

Brain-eating zombies invade SF Apple Store#

Eric meets the Queen of England#

The difference between Marketing, PR, Advertising and Branding#

Awesome podcast with Robin Hanson on Heath#

Rapex: Rape Prevention through Fear#

On Praying to Mother in Heaven#

Should near death experiences change your life?#

I have no real data and only a few intuitions. I say use the experience to rationalize a change you wanted to make anyway.

Professional and Prolificating#

The Arabian Peninsula and the Book of Mormon: Jedidiah Morse Explains All?#

Jana on being a Mormon teen#

My opinion on Church discipline, from the mouth of another.#

Science and Mormonism#

Don't Buy Stuff (via New Cool Thang)#

France at the intersection of anthropology and economics#

Funny Colbert Reports Moments on Mormons#

Sexism#

Eating your own face#

Teh History of Israel#

Alternate Voices#

Biblical Curse Generator#

Eternal Marriage#

Interesting Women and Priesthood Post#

Craziest, by Liz Dubelman#

A good attitude in Hell#

Americans are NOT stupid#

Review of my talk in September#

"We are all cafeteria Mormons"#

PacTom#

Promotional Windows 95 Video, starring Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry#

Amazing pictures of China#

"The Singles Ward's" Double Standard Part 1 and Part 2.#

Ken Jennings#

Does he think modern Baptists and Catholics and Jews read scripture and think to themselves, “Wow, I’m sure glad my splintered, moderated religion doesn’t believe these nutty metaphorical miracles ever really happened”? I’ve always thought the modern American context of Mormonism’s story is what makes it special and uniquely fascinating. Weisberg et. al. just seem to think it makes it a better punchline.

YouTube Debut: Stick, First bite, A question, Another bite.#

Another take of discipline in the Church#

Interesting post on Marital Infatuations#

Awesome response to questions about LDS Doctrine#

The Amazing Colour Changing Card Trick#

The Book of Mormon Assignment:#

Here is an assignment which we like to give to classes of Oriental (mostly Moslem) students studying the Book of Mormon (it is required) at the Brigham Young University:

Since Joseph Smith was younger than most of you and not nearly so experienced or well-educated as any of you at the time he copyrighted the Book of Mormon, it should not be too much to ask you to hand in by the end of the semester (which will give you more time than he had) a paper of, say, five to six hundred pages in length. Call it a sacred book if you will, and give it the form of a history. Tell of a community of wandering Jews in ancient times; have all sorts of characters in your story, and involve them in all sorts of public and private vicissitudes; give them names--hundreds of them--pretending that they are real Hebrew and Egyptian names of circa 600 B.C.; be lavish with cultural and technical details--manners and customs, arts and industries, political and religious institutions, rites, and traditions, include long and complicated military and economic histories; have your narrative cover a thousand years without any large gaps; keep a number of interrelated local histories going at once; feel free to introduce religious controversy and philosophical discussion, but always in a plausible settings observe the appropriate literary conventions and explain the derivation and transmission of your varied historical materials. Above all, do not ever contradict yourself! For now we come to the really hard part of this little assignment. You and I know that you are making this all up--we have our little joke--but just the same you are going to be required to have your paper published when you finish it, not as fiction or romance, but as a true history! After you have handed it in you may make no changes in it (in this class we always use the first edition of the Book of Mormon); what is more, you are to invite any and all scholars to read and criticize your work freely, explaining to them that it is a sacred book on a par with the Bible. If they seem over-skeptical, you might tell them that you translated the book from original records by the aid of the Urim and Thummim--they will love that! Further to allay their misgivings, you might tell them that the original manuscript was on golden plates, and that you got the plates from an angel. Now go to work and good luck!

To date no student has carried out this assignment, which, of course, was not meant seriously. But why not? If anybody could write the Book of Mormon, as we have been so often assured, it is high time that somebody, some devoted and learned minister of the gospel, let us say, performed the invaluable public service of showing the world that it can be done.

Raising Hercules#

Very cool story about the use of a web application by an Apostle under inspired circumstances.#

LDS YouTube: One Two Three#

Hilary#

Biology and Priesthood#

Sleeping with the Bishop#

What if a famous violin player played in the subway?#

Cool Site#

Opening Your Mission Call in Finland#

I used the services of Cassettes2CDs. Very cool!#

Relief Society Sister Squad! Oh My Heck!#

Random Distance Run#

Out on a Limb#

Pants#

Indie Chicks: Check out the first video#

Walter Block - Consenting Capitalist Acts: The Tyranny of the Left (MP3)#

Great talk by President Monson#

The Mormon Temple and Other Facts about LDS Temples#

Cassettes2CDs provides a good service!#

The Psychosexual Development of a Mormon Girl#

Finders Kippahs#

Brave Mormons#

Is Mitt Romney Serious?, by Orson Scott Card#

Where Is the Church? (James E. Faust)#

Because of the complexity of the problem of drug and alcohol abuse, some may feel that it is an oversimplification to say that strong family leadership can solve the problem. Certainly not all families can, but I am persuaded that families with enough internal caring, discipline, commitment, and love somehow, someway, can handle the majority of their problems. However strong or weak the family may be, it can usually provide a better solution to most challenges than can any other institution in society or the government no matter how well intentioned it may be.

Gethsemane in Church teachings#

Exponent II: Faith and Blessings#

"Getting a Testimony of Motherhood": LDS Response to Changing Gender Norms, 1940-2006 (PDF)#

SIGBOVIK#

Ontological differences in divine and human properties#

Introducing the book#

Church Growth#

Career and Family#

Bono Knows How to Waste Money:#

According to Advertising Age, His RED campaign has spent $100 million on marketing to raise money for buying and distributing medicine in Africa. Total amount raised: $18 million.

Story of Sergey Brin#

A Mormon in the White House?#

"If it becomes permissible to question the tenets of Romney's faith, all religious people will be vulnerable," Dean argued. "All religions require a faith in the fantastic and a belief in the unbelievable. If Romney's faith in the Book of Mormon is used as evidence that he is a fool, a new kind of political attack will be legitimized. Christians who believe in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and the literal truths of Communion will be dismissed out of hand."

"It almost goes without saying that certain secularists already hold such views. But if members of other religious communities support the attacks on Romney's faith because of some animus towards Mormonism, the weapon they legitimize will in short order be turned against them." (p. 10)

On Prophets#

Best comment (wrt Brigham Young on race):

What will it be, 100 years from now that Presidency Hinckley should have known?

Nobody's Perfect:#

In my first book, the main character, Walt Stewart, is infatuated with the new girl in town. So when she shows up to church on Sunday, he naturally can't keep his eyes (and mind) off of her. Or, at least, he couldn't keep his mind off her until my publisher told him to pay attention and sit up straight. LDS novels, they told me, are very often read by youth, and the novels' main characters become role models. And, since the last thing we want is for our youth to think about girls during sacrament meeting, then Walt couldn't either. So, I changed a couple sentences to make him a little more upstanding, and thus the youth were saved!

The Miraculous Mormon Marine Mafia#

On the Grapevine:#

Dick Morris looks at the four leading GOP presidential contenders in 2008 -- John McCain, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani -- and notes "the only one of these guys who hasn't had multiple wives is the Mormon."

Which bum should get the money?#

Interview with Penn Jillette -- Very funny.#

The Church is Sexist (Read it.)#

H. J. Res. 23: Proposing an amendment the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens.#

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Let's Get Married Really Fast#

Top 10 Nintendo Romances of All Time#

There’s a lot to be said for romance as metaphor, and nowhere is that metaphor stronger than in Tetris. The game series that represents the sum total of all Russian creation — past, present and future — is won and lost based on the player’s ability to fit differently shaped blocks together. It’s a task that seems insurmountable, especially as things keep moving faster and faster but it, like love in the face of a world that will not stop, somehow happens. The pieces do fit, different as they all may seem, just as love endures.

Fashionably Late:#

If I believed in betting,
I’d bet a silver dime
God doesn’t operate
On Mormon Standard Time.

Radical Feminist Mormon Manifesto#

The most beautiful love letters ever written#

Those Who Can Program...#

I find his insistence that each shape is constructed by hand very amusing. Those who can program do, and those who can't spend 2 years monkeying around in Illustrator.

Little Manhattan is AMAZING!#

Brigham Young requests a kiss#

Science is not God#

Parley P. Pratt: A dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil#

For Time and All Eternity, by Elder Boyd K. Packer#

Great post on polygamy#

Hanson on the suicide rock:#

Imagine you are walking in the wild and come across what looks like a big rock painted with the following words:

I may look like an ordinary painted rock, but I'm actually a conscious mind. I know about you and your life, and I want to tell you: from the point of view of your values, you should commit suicide. You may have good arguments against your suicide, and I will listen to any arguments you offer, but I know of very good arguments in favor of suicide. I will listen, but if these words have not changed, then my conclusion has not changed.

Interview with Anne B. Wilde: Part I, Part 2#

Wii Sports Experiment#

Hillary Clinton is scary. David Boaz:#

For more than 15 years now, Hillary has been the incarnation of Big Government. She votes with taxpayers only 9 percent of the time, according to the National Taxpayers Union. She calls herself a “government junkie.” She says, “There is no such thing as other people’s children” and calls for ”a consensus of values and a common vision” for 300 million people. She was best known in her White House years for heading a team of 500 bureaucrats organized into 15 committees and 34 working groups to recreate in 100 days one-seventh of the American economy. After health care, she told the New York Times, her next project would be “redefining who we are as human beings in the post-modern age.” Or, as the Times put it, “She wants to make things right.”

Non-Mormon Guide to Success in Utah#

3. Guilt is a powerful tool — use it. Mormons believe they live in a guilt-ridden society. Actually, they are rank amateurs when compared to Irish Catholics and Jewish mothers. Because of their history, Mormons hope to be a tolerant and understanding people. This provides opportunities of fun and mischief for those of us who are experienced players, and victims, of the guilt game. By using the right tone and demeanor ("I guess because I'm not of the faith, you're unwilling to understand my position"), you can drive almost any LDS member into despondency and some acquiescence to your request.

8. Accept the compliment. Some nonmembers are angered over the attempts by their Mormon associates to convert them. So what? Every day billions are spent to change our preferences for toothpaste, automobiles, clothing, etc. LDS faithful do not receive commissions for conversions — their willingness to share the faith is genuine. I'm always honored when a member courts an obnoxious heathen like me.

10. Always remember, this is a great place to live. Obviously, there are lots of scenic and recreational opportunities in the state. But without Mormons, there would be no Utah, and the I-15 corridor would be a string of mediocre communities. Utah is a thriving region for education and the arts because of its people. This dynamic is a real boon for us Gentiles. We get a metropolitan lifestyle and yet no crowds on Sunday at the ski resorts or Costco.

Ron Paul:#

The conflict in Gaza and the West Bank is almost like a schoolyard fight: when America and the world stand watching, neither side will give an inch for fear of appearing weak. But deep down, the people who actually have to live there desperately want an end to the violence. They don’t need solutions imposed by outsiders. It’s easy to sit here safe in America and talk tough, but we’re not the ones suffering.

Best Condom Ad#

Shriram's report of Edinburgh:#

Even if Wadler weren't there, being in Edinburgh would be a magnificent intellectual experience. We had a right royal bean-feast there. Edinburgh is one of the world's centers of what I call Volume B theory, i.e., material that appears in Volume B of the Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science (to wit, Logic and Semantics). The numerous theoreticians in my own department, singly and jointly, actively ignore the very existence of this half of theory. Indeed, there were more logicians in the hallway of my secondary office there than there are at all of Brown.

This wealth of foci means some adventitious discoveries are almost inevitable. The most exciting will undoubtedly be the work of Keith Stenning, who studies the logics behind human interpretation and understanding as determined by experimental psychologists. This is fascinating work that immediately teaches me many things relevant to our work on security policies and opens up several radical new avenues we may choose to explore.

New Cool Thang on Open Theism:#

The most common approach of those who reject the Open Theist’s conclusions is to argue that the language of scripture in these instances in merely anthropomorphic and should not be taken literally.

The most obvious problem with such a view is that there is no principled basis for distinguishing non-literal or metaphoric readings from those that should be taken as literal. All language is “anthropomorphic” in the sense that it is the tool we use to express, refer and communicate. So all and any language is to some extent “anthropomorphic” or irredeemably limited by our own epistemic horizons and linguistic usages and practices. We cannot escape our own skin. Yet limiting the scripture by denying any conclusion that could be drawn that is not expressed in the very quoting of scripture itself without any grasp of what is asserted makes reading scripture rather pointless. We can read the words, but not grasp or understand in any way what is being said by those words. Thus, all language is metaphoric since the sign is not what is pointed to by the sign or words used. To that extent, this objection is over-broad. Moreover, it would rule out the possibility not only of the deductive conclusions of open theists but also certainly the classical view which is, if anything, even more far removed from the scriptural language.

New Republic debate about Mormonism in politics.#

Richard Bushman had a diary about Rough Stone Rolling:#

The diaries are much more than simply a record of what Bushman calls “pre-review jitters.” There are also some facinating facts about the book’s writing and its reception. For example, Bushman records, “I sought a blessing from Elder Packer before getting started, and insofar as I was worthy, I think the blessing was fufilled.” Elder Holland sent Bushman a letter (reproduced in the diary) praising the book, but one unidentified emeritus general authority suggested that RSR would undermine the faith of new converts and provide ammunition for the enemies of the church.

Outrageous Quotations from an Early Church Leader#

Interview with Richard Bushman about Rough Stone Rolling#

How To Give A Sacrament Meeting Talk: An Open Letter to Converts#

The Origin and Nature of International Conflict, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe (MP3)#

The King Follett Discourse#

Amazing video of blind kid#

The Best Three Hours of the Week: Getting the Most From Your Sunday Meetings, by John Bytheway#

April 6th Discussion#

Sergey Ryupin & Elena Khvorova - Paso Doble#

God's Inbox#

Religious Gender Gap#

Do you help, being a doctor?#

Mormon Stories: "Only the Gospel" video.#

Mormon Stories: Steve Jones. (Wikipedia)#

To the Parents of Teenagers: Avoiding Five Oft-Made Mistakes (Randal A. Wright)#

I am mentioned in the October 1st episode of the Iron Rod. Woah!#

Interesting case on Polygamy#

Erik Luna comments on the case:

But what about the policy issue? Before we condemn polygamy with the force of law, we might ask ourselves: Is it really anyone else's business when consenting adults want to form a domestic union? And does the criminalization of plural marriage merely push the practice underground, making it far more difficult to investigate and prosecute the undeniable acts of violence that may be occurring in polygamist communities?

Personally, I find it a mystery why anyone would enter into a plural marriage. But I also would not bet my paycheck at the blackjack table each month, or damage my health by drinking a case of beer or smoking a couple packs of cigarettes daily. And my viewpoint need not be imposed on everyone else: As long as the participants are above the age of consent and cause no harm to others, it is far from obvious that any of these fact-patterns -- including polygamy -- warrant government intervention. Moreover, when the state bans consensual, nonviolent behavior among adults -- whether it's plural marriage or vice crimes like prostitution -- the participants are driven from public view, and as a result, genuine crimes of force and fraud often go unreported and undetected.

Nonetheless, some acts cause the precise type of harm that justifies state-imposed punishment even if they are part of bona fide religious practices. The question of whether plural marriage remains one of them, however, will not be answered by the Jeffs case. That's because the polygamist prophet is on trial for rape, not polygamy--and it's a good thing, too.

Dance Dance Revolution#

• Do It All Night
• Young DDR Player
• Freestyle
• Lil'B

Amazing sketch software from MIT#

The JST of Mark 14:8, by Julie M. Smith#

Batman and Robin in chalk#

Dean L. Larsen on Personal Accountability (MP3):#

In our relationships with others, we must be careful not to prevent them from acting accountably. This is especially significant when we are given positions of leadership or responsibility which place others under our charge. The Lord's concern about this sensitive area in human relations called forth the excellent counsel that we find in section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants. The Lord warns us against exercising unrighteous dominion. He cautions against compulsion and controls. The proper way to influence the behavior of others, he says, is

by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;

By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile. [D&C 121:41 42]

The Lord acknowledges the need to occasionally reprove with sharpness when inspired to do so, but counsels that even this reproof should be delivered in a spirit of love.

Manipulation, programming, and regimentation are destructive to personal accountability. It does not matter how benevolent the motive of a parent or leader who compels his children or his subordinates to follow his precise prescriptions. The motive does not prevent unfortunate results from occurring and the development of a conditioned dependency.

And:

It was for this reason that President John Taylor once made the following declaration subsequent to an experience in which someone had attempted to compel him unrighteously:

I was not born a slave! I cannot, will not be a slave. I would not be slave to God! I'd be His servant, friend, His son. I'd go at His behest; but would not be His slave. I'd rather be extinct than be a slave. His friend I feel I am, and He is mine:--a slave! The manacles would pierce my very bones--the clanking chains would grate upon my soul--a poor, lost, servile, crawling wretch to lick the dust and fawn and smile upon the thing who gave the lash! . . . But stop! I'm God's free man: I will not, cannot be a slave! Living, I'll be free here, or free in life above--free with the Gods, for they are free. [B. H. Roberts, The Life of John Taylor, Bookcraft, 1963, p. 424]

LDS Homosexuality: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.#

How Kissing Works#

Drug Fueled TV Appearances#

Elder Oaks on homosexuality#

Mormonism and Pop Culture (Featuring South Park)#

Fare on the Middle Way between Socialism and Capitalism.#

John Bytheway: Gospel Values for Youth#

Nethack and Eternal Progression#

Funniest post ever.

LDS Music Today : Show #26 - The first song is amazing.#

Donny Osmond's testimony#

Cute#

Vader Sessions#

Parents and Self-Worth, by James D. MacArthur#

An amazing talk.

j#

Rabbi Shmuley writes about Israel. Very interesting.#

Mormons and Muslims (DOC)#

Monk stands on finger#

Best card trick in the world#

PI#

Kathleen on Polygamy in the modern church...#

So we are left with the question, What was polygamy all about, anyway? Maybe Gene England was right: it was the Abrahamic test for that generation. What then, is ours?

Read the comments also.

Finite Simple Group of Order Two#

OK GO ON TREADMILLS#

Top 20 Most Cited LDS Scriptures#

Everything You Wanted to Know About Getting a Job in Silicon Valley But Didn't Know Who to Ask#

Intellectual Gladiators#

Merrimack TV (And Sequel)#

Air Hockey Champion - Loser Boyfriend#

My United States of Whateva (Liam Lynch)#

Skrilla is a super model.#

Dave writes about Mormonism and Communism.#

Paul Graham: The Power of the Marginal#

Times and Seasons on the socialization of males in the LDS priesthood.#

The Cthulhu Circus#

Fare writes about governmental of statistics.#

Alex Tabarrok's open letter on immigration.#

Wii Hide, You Seek!#

Over The Hedge was awesome!#

Awesome times one million#

Kill Bill 1 & 2 in 120 seconds#

The Education of Ali Al-Timimi, by Milton Viorst, makes me furious at the United States federal government.#

Funny Cats#

Romances: More than meets the eye#

The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn#

The Unfunny Truth of Scientology#

Jesus' Female Ancestors#

A More Human Jesus#

Keith and the Girl: 290: Making Girls Cry#

Rabbi Shmuley writes about what women want:#

What a woman wants is to be chosen.

Just think about this for a moment. Why do women want to get married? Looked at logically marriage is a seemingly bad proposition for a woman. She has to have another man's children (up until the 20th century 1 in 3 women died in childbirth). She has to take his last name, and make him a home. Even in an egalitarian age where men are supposed to share the responsibilities it is still the women who end up doing most of the work.

And all this for what? To make dinner for a man and generally accommodate his tastes?

But a Woman wants to get married because it caters to the one need that most defines her essence, the desire to be chosen and have her uniqueness established in the confines of a loving relationship. A woman is chosen whenever a man makes her the center of his world, when she becomes the sun around which he, the planet, revolves, where a man basks in a woman's light. That is what every woman searches for in life, and very few find it because men today are uniquely incapable of giving to women the two ingredients of chosenness, namely, primacy and exclusivity, to make a woman the one and the only.

Live Action Punch Out!#

How's Your Faith in Science?#

Kim is an awesome partner.#

Tyler Cowen on prediction markets.#

Professor Bloggy McHerman on observing differences in reduction strategy.#

Bryan Caplan on the two totalitarian states of the century.#

Michael Greenspan quotes about social obligation in Africa.#

Strong Bad Email #36: Guitar#

Strong Bad Email #99: Different Town#

Strong Bad Email #117: Montage#

Strong Bad Email #118: Virus#

Will Wilkinson on happiness research.#

Bryan Caplan on the common sense of scapegoating.#

AIDS in Africa Overstated#

I was on the Brown site.#

The Last Ninja#

Hot Chicks With Douchebags#

Mario: LIVE!#

Books as Software#

Ridiculous#

Ted's 101 List#

Ryan Culpepper on metaprogramming and `fibered syntax objects.'#

Knowledge may have its purposes, but guessing is always more fun than knowing. -- W. H. Auden#

Alex Tabarrok defends polygamy.#

Polygny could be very well suited to a modern society in which women work. Working women already contract out child care services - a second, stay at home wife, is not that different.

Polygny will be bad for poor men who lose out in the competition for first wives to rich men who are on their second. This already happens, by the way, because of serial polygamy - older men divorce their older wives and marry younger ones leaving older women unmarried and some younger men without young wives. Bad for the young men but not necessarily bad for the young wives. For this reason it's probably true that polygny cannot be countenanced in a democracy. At least not until the supply of young men is reduced enough so that every many can have at least one wife even if some can have two.

Russell Roberts on Freedom of Speech:#

As a Jew, it never ceases to amaze me that people think the most important lesson of the Holocaust is that anyone, even civilized Germans who love Bach and Beethoven, can become murderers. Or that the most important lesson is that hatred is wrong. Hatred is immortal. People say, "never again" as if saying it is sufficient to prevent future holocausts. But saying it is not sufficient without limiting the power of government to imprison and kill people.

To me, the most important lesson of the Holocaust is that only governments can kill millions of people. Murdering millions requires absolute power. So I want governments to be weaker rather than stronger. That's why I like the First and the Second Amendments. And why I'm glad I don't live in Austria.

Vladimir Bukovksy, the 63-year old former Soviet dissident, fears that the European Union is on its way to becoming another Soviet Union. In a speech he delivered in Brussels last week Mr Bukovsky called the EU a "monster" that must be destroyed, the sooner the better, before it develops into a fullfledged totalitarian state.#

Dave Herman: The call stack is the future, not the past.#

Wafah Dufour is beautiful.#

Amazing Lightsaber Fight#

More familiar walks seem longer#

Meanest Valentine's Day ever#

Bryan Caplan writes about something I think about a lot:#

Match Point, yet another Woody Allen movie about adultery, reminds me of a question I've often wondered about: Why hasn't the lemons problem killed adultery? To be more specific, why would any women want to steal a man who lies to, cheats on, and then dumps his wife? This is particularly clear in Match Point - the mistress angrily insists that her boyfriend leave his wife, even though he's shown her in a hundred ways that he's a lying, cheating parasite.

Fire fighting is not a public good.#

Dr. Williams#

Planet Sara#

I should go back to the blog group soon to say hi to people like Jessica. Ever since I changed my language class to Friday, I haven't been there. Sad.#

Rails Rant#

The Gift#

Mr. Allyson on C. S. Lewis.#

Politics and Ballooning#

The economist's advice column#

Natalia on Islam.#

Stateless in Somalia#

Natalia on men:#

Since I'm on the quixotic quest for self-perfectibility — which I highly recommend, by the way, though I warn it's much harder than it sounds — I've recently been thinking about trends in my social relationships since about Middle School. Before you say anything, yes, I said trends, and yes, I think about them because you just can't beat trends. Anyway, I was thinking and thinking as I am wont to do and I came to the realization that men basically only listen to the things I have to say and/or spend any notable amount of time with me because they are interested in me sexually or romantically. No straight male wants a platonic girl friend as anything closer than someone to hang around in a group. I also realized that as a side effect I have far less capacity to interest men in my intellectual pursuits than I had once believed.

It bugs me when women take this observation to the point of not having opinions, or at least the desire to express them.

How Users Read on the Web#

Chuck Norris#

The Signaling Theory of Education#

n+1 on dating.#

Maxim on women:#

66. They can't live without tension. Every once in a while she's gonna pick a fight with you for no reason. Accept this as a running, inevitable theme and your relationship will make a lot more sense.

36. "At one point or another, I've gone through your things looking for any evidence from past relationships. I'm talking photographs, postcards, mementos, address books, diaries. If you don't like it, get rid of this stuff before letting me in your apartment. It's not about trust; it's about curiosity, and it drives us crazy till it's been satiated."—Caroline, 28

I'm surprised when girls don't do this.

35. Like you, girls hate nothing more than a clingy partner who needs them every eight seconds.

Terrible Ad for Legend of Zelda#

Jessica is awesome#

The Art of Detouch#

Fake JDate entries#

JDate one-liners#

Tyler Cowen's advice column.#

An interesting article on Arranged Marriage.#

I think the thing to learn from Arranged Marriage is that thinking seriously about practical issues of marriage is importannt and have the attitude that a marriage is something you have to work at it is essential.

Fare on Civilization:#

Civilization exists through creation and freedom. Barbarianism exists through destruction and oppression. Barbarianism may clash. It simply cannot win. The possibility of Barbarianism winning is a logical contradiction. If Barbarianism could be stronger than Civilization, then the former would be Civilization and the latter Barbarianism. If destruction could be more powerful and creation, then there would be nothing to destroy, and never would have been. Civilization can build armies and defense systems based on cooperation and trust; Barbarianism can only build mobs loosely kept together by mutual fear and distrust. The limit of Civilization is human entreprise, based on will, imagination and reason. Barbarianism can but walk back towards nothingness using scraps stolen from Civilization. A given form of barbarianism can only succeed so far as it won't be taken over by a more civilized form of barbarianism. Civilization might not advance in a uniformly progressive way, there is a limit to how much it can possibly regress. There is no possible equilibrium. And the only exit from the equilibrium of universal death is more Civilization.

God Wrote In Lisp#

Nintendo Acappella#

Bryan Caplan on media bias.#

Michael Williams got married. =)#

Doug Nagy liked The Matador. I did too.#

Chewy#

Alex Tabarrok quotes someone: "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to it."#

Markets in Everything#

Match Point#

Snake loves Hamster#

Andrew Moroz links Hillary.#

Best#

Bryan Caplan likes Tsunami Bomb. Hah. That's great.#

Brokeback to the Future#

Egg Song#

Branding brilliance from Apple#

New Brain Training Video Game#

Waiters and Critics trade places#

Chip and others on why women like Brokeback Mountain.#

Tyler Cowen on the economics of relativity.#

ESR quotes Glenn Reynolds:#

You know, to me Wal-Mart is a lot like George W. Bush. It's not that I'm that big a fan in the abstract, really, it's just that the viciousness and stupidity revealed in its enemies tends to make me view it more favorably than I otherwise would.

Match Point was great, although I don't think it was at all political.#

How To Make Jessica Alba Hot in 11 Steps#

I've been added to something.#

Diane Francis#

The Trachtenberg System of Speed Arithmetic#

Michael Williams poses the very difficult question of, "what five questions I will ask Jesus when I meet him in Heaven."#

There are so many directions one could go in a conversation with Jesus, it is difficult to think of where to start. I could ask things that would enlighten my understanding of my earthly life, or about His plan, or about my new life in Heaven. I may ask a bit of all of them.

1. Was it better to have taught my children about You directly and rigorously, rather than leaving them to find You as I did, without my parents?
2. Why are there so many disagreein