Itadakimasu

My sister just started a new food blog and I am deciding to advertise it. It is here:

http://itadakimasu.harmontopia.net/

Despite the name, and several entries, it is not an Asian cooking site. But Asian food is really good and will probably be written about there a lot. Tonight I'm trying the Kale with Tofu. I went to an oriental market to get some ingredients and came back with ingredients for Yakisoba and Pad Thai as well so I guess I'll be having an oriental week!

My sister did talk about having me as a guest blogger so I might write there from time to time.

Check the site out. It is interesting.

Embracing Technological Change

New things can usually be used for both good and evil. Sometimes we get frustrated with new technologies because of their evils and condemn them instead of seeking out the good from technology.

I got an mp3 player for Christmas. In the past I have heard (and read) people complain about how these get people to tune out and become isolated. I don't think CD players and tape players got the same complaint but I could be wrong. I even had one church leader make it seem like mp3 players were completely evil and corrupting youth. Well I put the scriptures on my mp3 player (you can download chapters in mp3 form on lds.org) and have been listening to them on the way to work and back each day. It is great.

What about the internet? It can certainly be used for evil, yet the church has lds.org, mormon.org and a few other sites for members and non-members of the church. They put videos on YouTube and use the internet in many ways to help us. This is embracing new technology.

This blog was created after I read a talk by an apostle encouraging us to use new technology such as blogs to help the church. So I decided to start a blog. I use it for many things including defending the church when I find a subject that needs discussing. I hope to influence people for good. I have also started The Trumpet Stone, a blog about LDS temples.

I'm glad the church is embracing changes. Sure there are bad parts to new technologies, but the good they can provide is incredible and should be embraced.

New Blog

I have recently created a new blog called The Trumpet Stone. This blog will be limited to discussions about LDS temples and these will mainly be about temple architecture. I will basically be reviewing temples as I attend them. I have decided to place these posts on a separate blog because this blog (Scott's Blog) can get political and is really open ended. I wanted a more limited blog for my temple reviews. You can read this blog at http://TheTrumpetStone.blogspot.com/

Civil Discourse

I find it deeply ironic that Dallin H. Oaks (member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) gave a talk at BYU-Idaho in part about the decline in civil conversation and was then uncivilly mocked, ridiculed and insulted for speaking. Here is the entire speech. It is really good and not the least bit controversial despite what Keith Olbermann and others may say.

Most of the controversy comes because of this quote:

It is important to note that while this aggressive intimidation in connection with the Proposition 8 election was primarily directed at religious persons and symbols, it was not anti-religious as such. These incidents were expressions of outrage against those who disagreed with the gay-rights position and had prevailed in a public contest. As such, these incidents of "violence and intimidation" are not so much anti-religious as anti-democratic. In their effect they are like the well-known and widely condemned voter-intimidation of blacks in the South that produced corrective federal civil-rights legislation.

People have been making all sorts of comments since about how Mormons haven't been murdered over Proposition 8 while blacks were and other things because of this quote. You'll note that I emphasized exactly what Oaks said, not that we were treated exactly like blacks but that the effect of targeting people who spoke out on proposition 8 and firing them, vandalizing property, etc. to keep them from voting to end gay marriage was the same. The people were using intimidation to stop a group from voting in a way the intimidators didn't like. This is what was done against the blacks to stop them from voting for people who would end racism. Certainly the tactics were more harsh against the blacks, but the effect is the same. It was an effort to keep religious people (or anyone opposed to gay marriage for that matter) from voting or speaking up on this issue.

So Keith Olberman spoke out and put Dallin Oaks on his list of worst people. He said that Elder Oaks needed to "Shut the ---- up!" and ridiculed him. You should watch this. It is funny. It is really a Saturday Night Live skit but it is really not far from how Countdown with Keith Olbermann really is.

Read the talk. Dallin H. Oaks clearly knows what he is talking about and is not offensive. He even spends a good portion of it talking about not reviling against those who revile against you, respecting other people's rights to vote, even if it is against our viewpoint, etc.

It is also good to note that Elder Oaks was a justice on the Utah Supreme Court, and a law professor at the University of Chicago among his other qualifications. His talk is obviously well reasoned - so much in fact that those who ridicule what he said are in danger of knowingly lying when they express outrage. If anyone has seriously read the talk they couldn't make the arguments they are making.

It is also interesting that Elder Oaks posted additional information online after the talk. Among the things he says is that his analogy about the efforts to get blacks not to vote works although the intimidation of Proposition 8 supporters is obviously not as extreeme.

Read the talk, watch the additional information and realize that the controversy is made up.

Comrad Obama

Don't let the title of this entry fool you. I am not an Obama hater, a birther, etc. I got the title from an episode of 30 Rock where the character Jack refers to Obama as Comrad Obama.

I want to talk about Obama's recent attacks on Fox News. White house spokesmen have started going around on the record stating that Fox News isn't really a news station. White house communications director Anita Dunn called Fox "the research arm . . . of the republican party" and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said that Fox was not a news organization. You can read more here.

Everyone knows that Fox is conservative. The main news isn't so bad, but editorial shows such as Glen Beck and Sean Hannity certainly are hyper conservative republican. But by the same token MSNBC and CNN have liberal biases and have many hyper liberal democratic shows. The White House is only bashing/boycotting Fox because it disagrees with them.

This raises two questions.

First: Isn't this press boycott (the White House is talking about not giving interviews etc. to Fox reporters/shows) is a bit like censorship. It seems awfully un-american and would be the type of thing that I would expect liberals and democrats to normally speak out against and oppose.

Second: Doesn't this violate Obama's policies of bipartizanship and listening to opposing viewpoints and working together. Fox is being boycotted and belittled by the White House primarily because they have been critical of the President's policies and appointments. Apparently crticisms cannot be tolerated (see question 1 and censorship)

I did support Obama and I still support a lot that he does; however, this battle against Fox News is troubling to me and I think it is a losing hand for the White House. I expect more that talk about bipartisanship and listening to differing views - I actually want bipartisanship and listening to differing views. These recent attacks reek of censorship.

The Patience of Job

I recently thought that I should start writing on my blog and luckily I have come up with 3 things to write about. I'll start with Job, then move to the other items in later posts.

I have been reading the Book of Job in the Bible again recently. I've noticed some things about Job's patience and what it means. About a month ago I was also sitting in a Sunday School class in church and we were discussing Doctrine and Covenants Section 121. In this section Joseph Smith prays to God and pleads for help and asks "O God, where art thou?" (v1) etc. God then answers him. Well in class some people said that the Lord was gently chastising Joseph. They said that God says "Thou art not yet as Job.." v10 in a rebuke, basically saying that Job took his persecutions without complaining and questioning so so should Joseph Smith. I didn't and don't like this interpretation and in re-reading Job I have a very good reason for my belief.

I don't think those who made comments about D&C 121 had read Job or at least not recently. Job loses everything in the first two chapters and then he does a lot of questioning. Here are some examples:

Why died I not from the womb?.. ch3 v11

Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I longed for! Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!" ch 6 v 8-9

Job clearly wants to die and he asks God why he has to go through these things. It isn't faithless. He doesn't curse God. But Job knows he is righteous and asks why these things are then happening to him.

Those people who said that God was rebuking Joseph Smith might want to be careful in what they say. God says that JS is not yet as Job because his friends still stand by him. What did Job's friends do? They criticized him for complaining or pleading with God.

Job's patience wasn't that he kept quiet when going through trials. He questioned and pleaded and struggled and suffered through his afflictions. He tried to understand why God would allow such things to happen to him. This wasn't faithless asking. He cursed the day he was born but didn't curse God. He asked why but didn't turn away from God. If we are to have the patience of Job we can do the deep thinking, soul searching, pondering and pleading that Job did. Job questions a lot but he also says "I know that my redeemer liveth" ch19 v25 and asserts that even after his sicknesses destroy his body, he dies and worms destroy his corpse that he will be resurrected and see God. This isn't wrong. Joseph Smith's pleadings weren't impatient or wicked. God's answer was a merciful answer, not a soft rebuke. Saying that JS was not yet as Job was giving comfort that although it certainly was bad, God wasn't going to let it get that bad.

Charge Man

I thought I'd post on a ridiculous Mega Man villain. Charge man. I'm not sure what the programmers were smoking when they came up with this boss in Mega Man V. He is basically a train, only one that for unknown reasons stands on feet so the train parts of him aren't used. Then his lair is on another significantly larger train. So we have a train robot riding on a train (instead of himself). You've got to love mega man. From robotic chickens that lay robotic eggs that attack you, to a robotic dog that turns into a platform, spring, balloon and some other silly things, this game hasn't made much sense in any of its many versions.

It sure is fun to play though.