“That advice doesn’t apply to me”

In Sacrament meeting recently the speakers were a young couple fairly new to our ward. They both spoke on the topic, “From small things come that which is great.” What caught my attention, though, was that neither of them wore protective face masks. The practice in our ward has been for speakers at the podium … Read more

Law creates freedom

When I was young, I thought (like all children) that rules limited my freedom. I was told when and what to eat, when to sleep, what to wear, and how to behave. I was powerless in the world of the tall people and sometimes I rebelled the only way I could — by crying, yelling, … Read more

The straw man

Republicans frequently employ the informal fallacy. This category of faulty reasoning includes such problems as ad hominem (personal) attacks, begging the question, equivocation, false dilemma, faulty analogy, inconsistency and more. (Here is an interesting list). Informal fallacies are not fallacies of logic (those are called formal fallacies). Rather, they are fallacies caused by faulty premises … Read more

Brute Facticity

The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s center. Winston Smith (in the book 1984 by George Orwell) As an amateur rock climber in my younger days, I can tell you from personal experience that climbers are highly aware of gravity. The … Read more

Words without meaning

Words are important. They not only record and explain reality, they actually create reality. In fact, words are so important that “the Word” is actually one of the names of Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.The same was in the beginning with … Read more

Beyond true and false

As a blogger in the Mormon Democrat space, I have recently realized that I may have been seeing the struggle through too narrow a lens. I had thought that Trumpism, and the even more radically fascist post-presidency Trumpism, was primarily a problem of lies versus truth. My response has been to relentlessly tell the truth … Read more

A consistent standard

In the library (and on the internet) in Heaven, all questions of fact will be answered completely truthfully. Those who write the books and post the data will be Celestial beings who have passed this Earthly test of character and who will never lie or have cause to deceive. When it comes to matters of … Read more

The counterfeit Iron Rod

Hey! You people over there in the mist of darkness! Can you hear me? I can hear you. You keep bragging about how you are following the true leader to a glorious future after “the storm.” You seem to believe that you are holding on to some infallible guide. Watch out! Whatever you are clinging … Read more