Mormons in the News

First up is a great video of Harvard Junior Rachel Esplin participating in a Day of Faith program, in which students of several faiths discuss their beliefs. This is making the rounds because of her incredible poise and presentation, even getting a mention in the Boston Herald.

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

Chad Hardy, the creator of the Men on a Mission calendar, met with BYU to discuss getting his degree - Denied! I guess Chad finished school in 2002 and left, but unfortunately he was still a few religion class credits short of a degree. Away from campus he also left the church and everything went quiet out there, until he came up with the concept of a Mormon missionary calendar. So he rushed to get the religion class done through Independent study. The calendar came out and he was consequently excommunicated. Then BYU got involved and denied him his degree for behaviour unbecoming a student or something close. So the question is can a private university deny a degree to a student they do not want to be associated with even though he has completed the coursework? Well I predict we will find out as this is probably heading to court. Example news article from The Houston ChronicleFull disclosure, I totally looked like this off of my mission.

On the more fun side, Reed Harris decided to propose to his girlfriend Kaitlin after Institute class at the local Wendy's - totally romantic I know. So he invites their friends and then gets everyone Frosty's (ummmm - frosty!!). Then he hides the ring in hers and they hold an eating contest. Bottom of the cup and no ring - that's right, she swallowed it and never noticed. Off to the ER for X-rays to verify she "had" the ring and the engagement was on, and so was the worldwide publicity. This site even has the phone cam video of the swallowing.

McKay Hatch, and can I say that is almost the perfect Mormon name; to be a winner his middle name needs to be Orson or something similar. Anyways he started a No Cussing club which got a lot bigger notice than it probably should have. Now his local city council has implemented a citywide no cussing week. Cute, but do not read the comments to any of the hundreds of stories out there, unless you want to learn some really creative profanity - Lord bless the anonymity of the internet. Please visit the website to become one of the 20,000 bloody members worldwide!

Last and least is the Illinois member and Bishop in the Nauvoo Stake who took it upon themselves to write a very charged email to the general area membership stating that a gay civil unions bill in the state congress would destroy life as we know it. Of course this got out and the kid hit the fan. Why do extremely political people believe we all feel the exact same way they do about the issues, and thus they feel it okay to share there views whenever they want? Just stop annoying us with your emails, start a blog and then everyone can ignore it and not think you a total tool.

To be fair to the men, Chad Hardy is also releasing his Hot Mormon Muffins calendar this year, featuring LDS mothers.

Blind Faith

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche
by Haruki Murakami

Fast approaching the 14th anniversary on March 20, the religious terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo released Sarin gas on the Tokyo subway system in 1995. Officially they were following a doctrine that the sooner they bring about the end the sooner salvation would come; unofficially it shows the danger when religious fervor meets mental illness unchecked.
Murakami, a novelist, had recently returned to Japan after spending 8 years abroad, and was living two hours south of the city at the time of the attack. In hearing the news reports he became interested in the stories of the victims and undertook to interview as many as would let him. Given the do not cause problems, do not talk nature of the Japanese this proved quite challenging, but he eventually got approximately 200 people to consent. The English translation only contains a sampling of them. After the book came out it was seen as one sided so he endeavored to interview current or past members of Aum Shinrikyo, and eight of those are contained in the English version.
As with any account of victims of terrorist actions (see Love from Greg and Lauren) or violence (see I am the Central Park Jogger) you come away with a great sense of waste. The overwhelming delusion of what the perpetrators were trying to accomplish, and the futility of their results. It just brings devastating sadness to a few, and destroys whatever they had. Books like this (see Massacre at Mountain Meadows) need to be read so we the silent majority don't become sheep to the few megalomaniacs out there. The sad fact of life is people will just go along to go along, even if they really don't want to be where ever it was they ended up. And by the time they get there it is too late.
Most poignant to me was the story of Tatsuo Akashi, whose vibrant younger sister Shizuko was paralyzed on one side of her body and had her mind reduced to a toddler without any memories of her past. Because his parents are elderly, he is the head of the family and as such he travels an hour by train after work every other day to sit with her until visiting hours are over, then travels an hour back to work where he can then spend another hour going home. He has kept this schedule up since the attack. The day before she had spent the night at his house with his family and was going to ride the train into work in the morning. Seeing how long that would take he offered to drive her to the local underground line so she would not have to travel as much. This is what he lives with now, saying "Looking back on it now, if I hadn't suggested that to Shizuko, she would probably never have suffered like this." How did this or any attack bring anyone closer to their God?
Well worth the read so these people are not forgotten and so you can inoculate your own soul, because regardless of what you tell yourself, we are all susceptible to performing great evil; especially if we do not we could.

Don't you wish your puppy was a poodle

Oh the fun you can have.



Sandy Paws Creative Grooming

From the files

Rick Astley is more popular now than he ever was singing.

Just Don't Think About It - Your Puppy Needs The Love
A Great Idea for your next cupcakes


Just made me laugh when I saw it.

Though - cute when the kid does it, but if I was to hold a sign like that I would be considered a creepy pervert.

Two Down, One To Go

The Confusion
by Neal Stephenson
Book II of The Baroque Cycle

Massive in size and massive in detail. As I have mentioned I finally committed to reading this 2700+ page three book series after avoiding it for years. Lisa asks me why I would read something I would avoid. On the surface I realize that it doesn't make sense, but Stephenson's books are so detailed and rich there is no such thing as skimming them; and they are not an easy read. It is work, but also very rewarding. The cost of that commitment is the realization of all the things I can't be reading, like the quick and easy stories, like the new John Grisham, which take me a day or two to get through. Grisham equals a one hour TV drama, Stephenson is a mutli-day mini series.
Anyways I finished book two today having reached the turning point on Monday. The turning point is in a really long book where I have read enough pages I want to charge to the finish. Prior to that I am usually just trying to read to a page goal for the day. I have been picking up books every time I have gone to the library while reading this, and now I literally have 16 books on my nightstand to read before starting book 3.

It Is All True – Keep looking!!

When I saw this headline:

Fired prosecutor denies leaking Doll House info

It totally made me think of the new Josh Whedon show on
Fox. I have been watching it on Hulu and while it is okay, I haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid yet.

I wonder if FOX paid the Salt Lake Tribune to write the headline that way, or at least the writer is a fan of the show.

Magnificent Indeed

No Line On The Horizon
U2

At one time in my life I had a problem with music CD’s, specifically I bought them to excess. But being mature enough to recognize this, I stopped buying them with one exception – anything that came out from U2. When that happens, I always buy it on release day, as early as possible. Five years ago when they released their last album – How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb – I showed up at the store so early I helped the clerk unpack her shipment boxes to get to it. This time around our community has a 24 hour Super Wal-Mart so I figured I would stop by before work at 6:30am and pick it up. Even though they were open, and the record had been technically released over 6 hours early, there were no employees in the department and it wasn’t out on display yet. So I went to work disappointed. About 9am I took a break from work and drove over to Target and got it for 10 dollars.
So how is the music – Simply Awesome!! While no one song jumps out as “this is a hit”, say like Elevation, Beautiful Day, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, etc., the entire album is listenable. More than that, the songs seem to grow on you with each successive run through, with music being very subtle and pervasive. This is what I love about U2 albums – you can listen to the whole thing. It’s not just a couple of catchy tunes and a whole bunch of filler crap that most bands seem to put out. Every song has merit; every song has its hook. After 30 years of making music, they still know how it’s done and this record is solid throughout.
The song that has initially hooked me is track 3 Moment of Surrender. The others that are scoring well for me are Magnificent, Unknown Caller, I’ll go crazy if I don’t go crazy tonight, Stand Up Comedy, White As Snow, and Breathe. The most experimental song of the lot is FEZ-Being Born, and even that once it gets going is pretty good. I like track 1 No Line on the Horizon and the first single Get on Your Boots (which ironically seems out of place on the album). More of a poem set to a simple rhythm is the closing song Cedars of Lebanon, it is a great finisher. I am really looking forward to how they play these songs live, because for the most
part I am betting they will highlight unique aspects of the songs rather than a straightforward playing, especially if they are going to be doing bigger venues (this album would play well in a smoky 50 seat club).
But the biggest news is the fact a second album of the more experimental stuff is supposed to be released later this year, including some alleged tracks with a reggae flavor.