No coroner has ever really examined the corpse of an Imperial officer choked by the so-called “force.” It might take some of the shine off the mystique otherwise. Consider for example, recent million dollar lottery winner Urooj Khan who died the day after receiving his winnings. (more…)

One afternoon twenty-odd years ago, a strange paranoid mood was upon me. (more…)

From Science News:

“The study, led by Cory Burghy of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, drew from the Wisconsin Study of Family and Work, which in 1990 recruited pregnant women in southern Wisconsin at prenatal visits. Three times during the first year of their babies’ lives, the mothers reported whether they were experiencing stressful situations such as depression, marital conflict, money woes or parenting stress. Researchers assumed that women who reported higher stress levels created a more stressful situation for their baby.

“Four and a half years later, daughters whose moms reported higher levels of stress had more of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood. That observation suggests the girls had trouble shutting down a hyperactive stress response. The same effect wasn’t found in boys.

“Fourteen years later, effects of that high cortisol also turned up in the daughters’ brains: The behavior of two brain regions involved in regulating emotions — the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala — were out of sync in women who had high cortisol levels as children, brain scans revealed. Usually, the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala operate in tandem, a joint effort that seems to be involved in shutting down negative emotions. But in these women, those two brain areas lost that connection. And the weaker this connection, the more likely a daughter was to have problems with anxiety, the researchers found.”

So, fathers be good to your daughters.

“Russian woman attacked by wolf, axes it to death.”

Oh, that I were an attacking-wolf axer, but I do sin in my wish.

Alcohol sales had been illegal in Damascus since 1884, and referendums to change that were rejected by the town’s residents in 1933, 1976, 1984, 1992, and 1996. This time the vote was 2-1 in favor of alcohol sales. The owners of the three liquor stores a couple miles out on the roads out to the south, east and northwest and the bar further out on the road north to Mt. Airy must be pondering future sales forecasts. (link)

Hurricane Sandy is wending her way towards the U.S.’s Atlantic coast. Storms have knocked out power to my house and most of those in my county for multiple days twice in the last couple years, so we look at these things coming with a bit of aprehension. I expect the predicted Monday night/Tuesday morning landfall is going to be disruptive, but I regret it is arriving a week early. Not quite an answer to prayer, I guess.

Four years ago I started paying attention to a rock band from my home state fronted by someone who shares my religion. One of my favorite things I’ve written came out of that, “Nevada and the Killers.” Back then Brother Flowers was open about being a Mormon, but not a good one. (more…)

The radio was playing highlights from convention speeches by First Lady Michele Obama and some guy named Castro, and one running theme is that unlike Mitt Romney and the rest of the mean-spirited Republicans, the Democrats are all for love, supporting all in whatever sort of romantic quests fire their hearts. Politicians are a scummy bunch of philanderers, speaking generally and not indiviudually, but has any party been so vocal before about its belief in adultery?

Maryland’s Secretary of State released ballot questions that will be voted on in November, and the referendum on the Civil Marriage Protection Act passed by the legislature earlier this year has been designated Question 6. We didn’t know until the wording of the question was released whether the correct response would be yes or no. That question number set me off on a Prisoner riff though.

(more…)

What I want to know is: How many overdue books and videos have since been turned in by patrons of the Portales Public Library? If any of the Twilight stuff is still out, another example may be needed. (KRQE)

In case you missed it a couple summers ago, or in case you didn’t and enjoyed it as I did, here’s Brandon Flowers singly a fatherly song from his Flamingo album.

The front page of our community weekly, The Gazette, had short paragraphs from some of our Maryland county’s 10,000 graduating high school seniors as they face the future. Here are some of the responses to the question “Where do you see yourself in 20 years?”:

“In 20 years, I see myself with a stable job and working with people about an important project. I also see myself surrounded by a core group of people who I truly care about that support me throughout all of my actions and events.”

“In 20 years I see myself living somewhere out west with a wife and three kids. Not sure as far as work goes.”

“I hope to be employed as an Occupational Therapist. My ideal focus would be [toward] young children with developmental disabilities. I want to be able to help improve their quality of life.”

“In 20 years, I would have completed an MD/Ph.D program, and I see myself as a primary care physician with my own medical practice. I also see myself doing genetic research of inherited diseases. In the future, I would also like to give back to the community by helping out at Blake, and possibly building a clinic in Sierra Leone, West Africa.”

One of those responses, you may have noticed, is of a different sort than the others, enough so that I looked to see who had said or written it. And what do you know! The author is one of my LDS ward’s youth. The other students’ answers are fine, but that focus on being a future husband and father was great to see.

At the Washington Post website, self-styled Mormon Girl Joanna Brooks has a piece on what progressive Mormon women want in context of the upcoming presidential contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. (link) She pulls into it a First Presidency Message by Spencer Kimball, “The False Gods We Worship,” which appeared in the Ensign 36 years ago:
(more…)

Steve Sailer points out “The Life of Julia,” an infographic-style “look at how President Obama’s policies help one woman over her lifetime—and how Mitt Romney would change her story.” Like last week’s airing of President Obama’s views on marriage, it is hard to see this swaying any voters, but it is nice to have matters laid out so plainly. Perhaps it will shake loose another $15 million Hollywood fundraiser. It is a little sad to think, though, that Obama can be some voters’ imaginary boyfriend in the Oval Office for at most four more years. Hopefully some of America’s Julias will grow out of such needs by then.

Various members of the administration, such as Vice-President Biden, have been telling the press this week that any-sex marriage is good for America. In North Carolina, which yesterday became the 30th state to pass an amendment declaring marriage a strictly mixed-sex arrangement, an Obama campaign said the President was disappointed that the amendment passed. “The President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples.”

Last I remember reading in Barack Obama’s own words, though, he didn’t support adoption of any-sex marriage. (more…)