A Curious Instrument

The Book of Mormon has so many jewels that help us deal with troubling times! One of the recent manifestations of troubles is the rise of Social Justice Warriors, sometimes known as SJWs, and their increasingly successful forays into many political and social institutions.  It is easy to think of an SJW as simply a high-spirited defender of various rights and peoples, but all too often we see such folks engage in riotous behavior and some of their more punitive proposals codified in regulation.  They seem nice and good in the beginning, but as they gain some influence, we see many of them taking a decidedly dark turn. I was reading today in 3 Nephi 3 :11-12, where the prophet Mormon give us some insight into a powerful political group called the Gadianton Robbers  (v.11) and how the established government and their supporters chose to deal with them (v.12). I highlight in red a phrase that should ring true of the SJW, who might be identified as one current incarna...

After all the elaborate writing of Paul, I always find the epistle of James to be a wonderful and understandable respite, except for the fact that James highlights many principles of behavior and living on which we need to be working! Here is a bit of a list that I came up with.  Surely, all of you could come up with better lists, given how "meaty" James is! It is better to be a "low" person with afflictions than a rich man living in ease. (1:9-11) Everyone is tempted (not just "bad" people) - it is how we endure temptations that matters (1:12-15) Actually being and doing good is much better than hearing and talking about doing good. (1:22-25) Pure Religion - visit the fatherless children and widows - sounds like ministering! (1:27) You shouldn't treat people differently, rich or poor. (2:1-9)  You can't pick and choose the laws you keep, you have to keep them all. (2:10-12) "...faith without works is dead..." (2:17-26) Be car...

Climate is changing all the time. In what records scientists have been able to develop, there have been things like ice ages and warming trends in the past, among all sort of variations. These seem to have been happening for the entire lifetime of the earth, which length of life there is all sorts of debate. Basically, experts can't definitively agree on much about how the earth works, much less something as basic as its age. A first painful question:  How do we know if the changes were are observing now in the Earth's climate are really anything that we can affect? I don't think the actions of humans created the last big ice age - either there were far too few of us or we were more like apes and therefore, by politically correct (pc) standards, totally benign. Why did the climate make a big change then and why?  All we can do is shrug and say "wasn't us!" Some painful follow-up questions:  What if our heroic efforts to suppress temperature rise actually...

I listen often to a psychologist and college professor named Jordan Peterson and his insights into our current social upheavels. I was strongly impressed to share this snippet of one of his lectures on masculinity .  In his own way, he describes the sort of responsibility that is particularly resonate with young men that have often been cast aside as worthless and destructive to an emasculated world desired by some. For my part, I encourage everyone to seek wisdom and they will often find themselves at the feet of Jesus Christ . If you get there through the words of a psychologist or at the hands of a priest, it matters little.  Christ will help you find the true masculinity and transcendence that your soul demands.  I don't pretend to be some paragon of virtue, but I have become acquainted with Jesus and his teachings from many sources  and I invite all to find the truth of God through his prophets .  It is a worthy pursuit for any who seeks the divine m...

As I look back on my life so far, I remember again that I am profoundly blessed and I thank God for his watch-care for me and my family. It can all be summed up in one word: gratitude . My mom generously gifted the house in Tucumcari to us and we were initially preparing it for sale until Lisa suggested living in it, her continuing love of the area coming through. After a huge downsizing, she is snuggly nesting in her new place. I still work my weekdays about a hundred miles away in Portales and spend time with her on the weekends. I am grateful for the generousity of my mother! Speaking of the job, I am blessed to continue my work at Eastern New Mexico University , administering some computer servers and applications. It can be a bit more pressure than I prefer and I will surely appreciate retirement when it comes, but it is fine employment that lets me provide well for my family. Few jobs pay as much in this area and I have friendly people to work with, so I hope I am not found...

Young people expect a lot and they are angry and vengeful toward previous generations and often toward God for not meeting their expectations . Some of my kids find me to be a poor father. I am actually quite a lot like my own father and I think he has been pretty good in the main. Mom was a fine mother as well despite the usual imperfections. My wife and I worked to make sure that we had a better relationship than any of our parents could manage - my parents divorced when I was just entering adolescence and I was determined that I wouldn't do that when it was my turn.  I haven't divorced and my children didn't have to deal with that damaging situation . We generated better circumstances than the previous generation but that just wasn't good enough as far as some of my children were concerned. It is like climate change.  Children lack any sense of history , especially if their parents never read them Grimm's fairy tales , so they don't understand that thing...

Socialism is an imaginary human management system that will not work until every human is under its management. In no case will *every* human submit to such a system without some external and absolute tyranny, which also won't work. Liberty is the state of mortal being that is ordained by God. Every human enjoys liberty insofar as they exercise it. Everyone exercises some liberty even if they have no intention of doing so. You cannot fully abdicate your liberty to others, no matter how much they or you desire it. Sometimes, people are tricked into the idea that Socialism can create Liberty, but this is not so.  Socialism only spreads responsibility among the group and allows others to attempt to regulate an individual's actions. Liberty insists on full individual responsibility and full consequences for individual choices. Liberty sounds good but few actually desire it fully - most people are allured by the fiction that one can do as they please and a family, community, or ...

My wife and I vote the same way these days.  We have decided to work together as a couple in political matters. The same philosophy holds for families as well - only as we work together can the family have any power.  It is a bit tricky with me being a classical liberal of the Jefferson flavor and Lisa being a Reagan conservative, but I typically give in and vote her way because I love her more than I love my personal politics.  Besides, my candidates always lose anyway. The womens' rights movements was not really an attack on the notions of toxic masculinity or domineering patriarchy, it ended up being an attack on the family as a cohesive unit.  The best families of the past would come together and cast the one vote of the father after deciding what the husband and wife thought on the question.  Far more likely, the wife would tell her husband how to vote, threaten to deny him her bed if he didn't comply, and the man would say he voted as she demanded, no ma...

There has been a lot of downsizing going on in my world.  We are selling our Portales home after moving a portion of our stuff to our house in Tucumcari and dumping the rest.  Although physically tired (I really never want to move again, but I have a reputation for doing it anyway), I have been working diligently to move my stories and writing to a new server and got nutty about creating a lot more content.  You can see the beginnings of the results at https://xenos.quix.us.  I call it the QuayLand Interchange Xenagogy, because it is fun to play with words that contain Qu, I, and X in them (you know, the domain name is quix.us).  You will just want to click on the link and see what is happening over there rather than leaving comments that I will never read here.  My "signature" writing can now be found at  https://quix.us:70 and I have even revealed some lost tomes of mine that have recently been uncovered, such as 1998's Godsend and The Sto...

[This essay is included as an addendum to a Mesalands Community College employment application.] In any endeavor, one must put forth some effort to stand out from the crowd. There is always limited resources and limited time and both must be used to best effect to accomplish one’s goals. It is vital to gain experience and, ultimately, mastery of both resources and time in relation to yourself and others so that you may be in control of your life and influence others, rather than be controlled by others or simply by circumstances. My first job was at a movie theater.  There were any number of fifteen-year-olds that could have vied for the position I won, but I put forth extra effort and took advantage of the social connections of my family. I started out as a doorman, basically cleaning the theater between movie showings.  The guy who ran the film projectors hated working the “midnight movies” on weekends and I offered to learn his job and be his backup and soon became a u...

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints , I affirm my personal belief that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and this was how I learned it . Joseph Smith was very poignant about what latter-day saints like me should do: 11 And also it is an imperative duty that we owe to all the rising generation, and to all the pure in heart— 12 For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it— 13 Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven— 14 These should then be attended to with great earnestness. Doctrine and Covenants 123 :11-14 This is how I read these verses: point out where to find the truth ; bring to light things of darkness as God poi...

For the last few years, I have been given the lofty title of "professor" at Eastern New Mexico University and led a college-level course in Information Technology Management. You might find my choice of wording strange, but it more accurately reflects how I tend to approach the learning process and what it is meant to accomplish. Some guiding principles in teaching and learning that I find universally applicable: Being Productive rather than Consumptive When you see a need (market opportunity), your tendency should be to create a new solution to address that need, rather than only complaining and waiting for someone else to address it for you.  This applies to curriculum creation, learning opportunities, entrepreneurship, parenting - basically any facet of life. I encourage those taking my courses to produce work that is worthy of publication in a professional journal or blog.  There is little sense in spending time writing a paper that only one person will ever read...

I love liberty, including the liberty to see my money go into causes that I choose to support. Alida Brown is a wonderful person. We didn't agree on much politically, but I don't question her kindness and generosity. I know she cared about me and my family and was mindful of time that was needed together when she and I worked some long hours on county health council needs. I remember that she had taken a single mother and child in need into her home for many months, helping them access opportunities. Alida is a great woman and I never would want to dissuade her or those like her from performing the wonderful service they render. I remember some work that we were doing on a Saturday morning at the office. Our talk wandered onto the political and I recall vaguely that our ideological differences were laid bare. She struggled to understand how some libertarian-leaning person such as myself, who are so often cast of drug-addled, "anything-goes" ne'er-do-wells, wou...

As I move slowly through the Book of Mormon , I have reached Helaman 13 , which is the first part of a prophecy from the prophet Samuel, a Lamanite .  This is a tough chapter, as it brings to light what could be considered by many to be some of God's more unsavory attributes. As I shared what I was reading with my wife, for example, she was expressing her own concerns that I was becoming critical to prevalent attitudes about God and what I was seeing as the projection of a kinder, gentler, somewhat ineffective God that can readily be ignored or simply dismissed. The God that Samuel speaks of here would likely be described in modern terms as harsh, demanding, and even hateful and vengeful when unheeded.  It is not surprising that many people choose to reject God because: they see steadily declining evidence of God's influence on people; or they only see God as a fictional character in some ancient morality story from a cruel age; or they find their own modern virtues and wa...

Many people have a mistaken idea that, because God loves them, they can do as they wish with their lives and plead for mercy later through demands that "love conquers all". This concept of laziness flies in the face of God's work to develop us into people who can become like himself. "Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:  But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." - Acts 10:34-35 God is not a respecter of persons.  He must judge us in an impartial way and he cannot make special exceptions for anyone. All must be judged by the same set of rules - this is the nature of justice. Also, God cannot abdicate his role as judge because he loves you - he will not throw aside required repentance and growth through appeals to his love. Under earthly circumstances, a judge with a close personal relationship with the litigants would have to recuse themselves. God...