On the Amerika.org blog… it is very flattering!

http://www.amerika.org/politics/interview-with-bruce-charlton/

Excerpt, of JG-relevance:

I discovered Mormonism via an interest in the social aspects of religion – in particular an interest in how Mormons lived in a modern way, yet sustained above-replacement fertility.The superficial and social aspects of Mormonism are reasonably well known; but when I read Mormon theology in some depth, I found a beautiful and deeply congenial world understanding that I could wholly assent to; indeed nothing less than an entire alternative metaphysics. Following a period of study and meditation I was rewarded with a solid experience of the reality of Mormon metaphysical theology – which has stayed with me since.

Two nights ago, my little daughter had a fever. She asked me if I could say “a boy prayer.”

“What’s a boy prayer?” I asked.

“It’s where you put your hands on my head and you say a prayer for me. Only boys can do them.”

I’m grateful for the restored power and authority to give boy prayers for my family.

If we do not cherish life, then most assuredly, we will cherish something else.

If we do not cherish the life of the most innocent, do not think for a moment, that they will cherish yours.

EU puts a baby to death, in spite of parents wishes

Once Government takes power, it is almost impossible to take it back.

The caption of the above photo by Gabrielle Shiowzawa in the Moapa Valley Progress reads, “Sierra Bunker works to start a fire with flint and steel while Micaela Leavitt looks on at LDS Logandale Stake Girl’s Camp last week.” That made me smile for reasons that may need a little explaining. (more…)

Signs of the times.

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The Moapa Valley Progress reports on a stake young men’s activity:

“The group, organized by the LDS Logandale Stake, traveled via mountain bike cross-country from Caliente, Nevada, over and through the Mormon Mountain range, and ended near the Carp/Elgin exit at I-15.

“The bicyclists, and support staff in following trucks, traveled along an old mining road covering about 88 miles, and traversed an impressive total of about 6,969 climbing feet. Medical support and mechanical support were also provided the entire distance as the group accomplished the trip over three intense days.” (more…)

This part of Peter Beinart’s attempt to bring liberals to sanity on immigration stood out to me:

Between 2008 and 2016, Democrats became more and more confident that the country’s growing Latino population gave the party an electoral edge. To win the presidency, Democrats convinced themselves, they didn’t need to reassure white people skeptical of immigration so long as they turned out their Latino base. “The fastest-growing sector of the American electorate stampeded toward the Democrats this November,” Salon declared after Obama’s 2008 win. “If that pattern continues, the GOP is doomed to 40 years of wandering in a desert.”

The increasing aggression and stridency of the Left is not monocausal, but surely the sense that the Left didn’t need white voters anymore (specifically, white Christians) helps explain why even supposedly moderate lefties did almost nothing to rein in or dissociate themselves from the extremists on campus, in Black Lives Matter, etc.

I’ve mentioned before how the very possibility of divorce makes marriage itself worse. Marriage requires total dedication, a lot of compromise, and self-denial. And fidelity in marriage requires us not to even acknowledge that there are options besides sticking around. Once you commit to be with someone, you think of every reason why you should be with them. You cultivate the love that you have; you see your spouse through Marriage Goggles.

But once you start thinking about divorce, you take the Marriage Goggles off. You may even put Divorce Goggles on. This is how marriages end.

The Left and Right in this country used to at least try to live with one another. But then the Left’s eye began to wander to those younger, more exotic and exciting immigrants. They work so hard for such low wages! They appreciate the Left’s ideas in a way the Right never could! They make such delicious sandwiches!

But what happens when bringing someone new into the home doesn’t result in the eviction of the old spouse?

Out early this morning, I was fortunate to see a beautiful thin old moon. I first saw it before 4:30, three quarters of an hour after it rose, and an hour and a quarter before sunrise. The moon should be an aid to navigation, but I found it quite a distraction working my way through the roads leaving Dulles airport. Its shadowed side was centered at 2:30 relative to the horizon, and Venus was at the moon’s 1 o’clock. They were also striking in a different way at 5:20, after the sky had begun dawning.

Seeing the moon two days before its new phase of course brought the thought, “Only two more orbits until the eclipse.” So, any plans to catch some shade under the path of totality? For myself, I will spend the weekend camped on the shore of Lake Greenwood in South Carolina, five miles south of the central line. Lake Greenwood is also twenty-five miles from I-26 which crosses the state on a bearing remarkably close to that of the eclipse’s path, so depending on cloud forecasts, we may set out Monday morning for the coast near Charleston or the other way toward Tennessee. Totality reaches South Carolina in the afternoon 2:36:10 and departs her coast at 2:49:01.

For any thinking about what they want to do on Monday, August 21, here is a link to NASA’s helpful webpage: link and alternate link.

(*Americanized version of a Dr. Charlton post’s title.)

So a lot of addicts have died recently because there’s too much fentanyl or carfentanyl  mixed  in the heroin that they are injecting or otherwise ingesting.

Heroin has always needed to be diluted or “cut” with an inert filler.  Pure heroin kills. At least according to the TV shows and movies I’ve seen. So, when adding the cheaper and more powerful synthetic opiod fentanyl to heroin, it would need  to be diluted even more. 

Some heroin addicts die every year just taking  “standard” concentration heroin. In their stupor or desperation, they carelessly just take too much.  But when dozens or hundreds of people in a geographic area all overdose in the same day or two, something else is in play. (more…)

Ponder this:

“Consider the musical ‘Grease’, where Sandy sheds her goody-goody persona to become a leather-clad, pelvis-thrusting bad girl. Surely all this smokiness and gyration is Sandy. But just as surely, this is a performance designed to gain the approval of her peers, not the ‘real’ Sandy.” (more…)

Friend of the Junior Ganymede, Kent Budge, seems to have had a wonderful vacation combining temple marriage with sedimentary geology.

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Here’s a clip from ABC’s early 80’s weekly late-night comedy show called Fridays.  (ABC’s answer to NBC’s SNL.)

It starts with the comedy sketch, then has a performance by featured music group Devo.

The sketch writers were either prescient, or extreeeeemely insensitive.  No way would a major network air something like that now. 

They’re even considering letting people shoot back.

Of course, in the grand Eastern sense of the word, we don’t believe in Reincarnation. This life is what you have, and you make the best of it, so don’t plan on infinite do-overs. Still, I wonder if things could be more messy, if we could see them better.

One interesting example, so called Pre-Birth Experiences, which are the premortal equivalent of After Death Experiences. That certainly suggests a less strict interpretation. 1 2

Still, is there anything that forbids having a second go around, if in rare circumstances, you really didn’t get the chance to fulfill your life mission? For instance, if you were a child who died in infancy when you should have had more life experiences.

This list of short experiences has had me thinking. It doesn’t fit with a very literal interpretation, but nor do I see a strict way to refute the possibility of occasional multiple mortal lives. Of course, if you are postponing repentance, banking on infinite other lives, you have likely already made the crucial choice, and not in your own favor.

I do think there are “more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of” in most reductive philosophies. If this life is complicated, I would expect nothing less of a realm of greater intelligence.

Free for a day or so at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Skills-19th-Century-practical-ebook/dp/B06X93ZLHJ

This is in Kindle format. Free Kindle reading apps are available for Windows, ios, and Android.

The title struck me as very Junior Ganymede-ish.  The bit on how to cook a buffalo hump in the “traditional manner” sounded even Pecos Bill-ish.

This book contains mere snippets from a wide selection of free online source material.  Links are given to the full publications. Therefore it will be a multi-step process to get the particulars.

Yee-Haw, pardners.