“A driver exited his vehicle with a knife and charged another man, who was critical of his driving, police said. The man who didn’t like the driving pulled a gun and shot the man who had the knife.” (link)

A former stake president explained once that in his calling he was supposed to recommend potential mission presidents to his leaders. Mission presidents needed to be under 60, or up to 65 in cases of exceptionally robust health and vigor.

When the ages for young missionaries were lowered, and thousands more made themselves available for service, and dozens of new missions opened, that required finding more mission presidents than before. One of those tasked was Stephen Hansen, 71 at the time of his call to preside the Utah Salt Lake City Mission. Wednesday, Sister Carol Hansen, his 69-year-old wife died quite unexpectedly, though naturally. It seems likely that President Hansen will be released early.

A few nights ago, in the sleepy haze that follows nightly prayer but precedes full unconsciousness, Mrs. MC and I discussed how we discipline our kids, what we might change, etc. Nowadays, no right-thinking parent ever defends corporal punishment, even if they sometimes practice it. It’s time outs, privileges withheld, that’s it.  (more…)

I just realized the connection between two independent ideas, neither completely original, that have been bouncing around in my head for a while.

The first time I really thought about possible racial differences in intelligence was when I picked up my parents’ Newsweek and read the feature on “The Bell Curve,” which had just been released. My thoughts were 1) I wouldn’t really be too surprised if there were IQ differences between races, and 2) why rub it in? What could possibly be the benefit of pointing out such differences? (more…)

“An Alabama middle school principal wants to stockpile cans of corn and peas in classrooms for students to hurl at possible intruders as a last resort defense.”

“‘The canned food item will give the students a sense of empowerment to protect themselves and will make them feel secure in case an intruder enters their classroom.'” (link) I hope the kids get to practice chucking the cans during PE.

“Now Jason’s getting married in the blink of an eye. / I got an invitation but I didn’t reply. / Tell your little brother that we put down the gloves. / And give him all of my love.”

(more…)

Someone someday will celebrate the last Christmas. (more…)

Let’s talk about signaling and countersignaling.

Signaling is behavior that shows your attachment to some group or cause or other, or that shows how much status you have.   The best signals are fairly visible and maybe have some cost associated with them (like Mormons not drinking, for instance).  Practically everything human includes at least a little bit of signaling.

Some people in some situations don’t have to signal, because their commitment and their reputation is secure enough already.  Imagine a serious war going on, and some guy walks up to you on the street. “Will you join the army?” he says, and he hands you a clipboard with a sheet of notebook paper on it. He’s scrawled LIST OF RECRUITS across the top. “Sign here,” he says.   If you sign, you sign to humor the guy. A real recruiter would have the signals of uniform, an army haircut and military bearing, a chiseled physique, and official pamphlets and forms. In fact, in the old days he would have come into town marching with other soldiers behind him, with a military drum and maybe a military band. All signals.   On the other hand—lets be fanciful here—if a trusted friend told you that George Washington had risen from his sleep to rescue his country in his hour of need and was recruiting a new army from the bed of a pickup in the Wal-Mart parking lot, you might at least go check it out. And if the man there had the aura, the voice, the face, the command presence, you might be willing to sign a clipboard with a sheet of notebook paper on it, on which was scrawled LIST OF RECRUITS.   Some people don’t need to signal. (more…)

As a youth there were two things that turned my mind toward attending Brigham Young University. The first was a personal story my 9th-grade seminary teacher recounted that involved him as a BYU student teaching missionaries at the Missionary Training Center. The part that stuck with me, the incidental setting for his story, was that BYU is a place that serves the missionaries. That is a holy thing that wouldn’t be found at other colleges.

The second thing was learning that there were weekly devotionals where General Authorities spoke to the entire student body. If there was one school that included teaching from the mouths of prophets and apostles, in addition to the physics and literature classes that all schools have, then I wanted in. (more…)