Avoiding hatred in the war on terror

This is a fascinating story, one I haven’t seen elsewhere. To sum up: an Iraqi insurgent sniper shoots a U.S. private, who goes down. The scene is being filmed by the insurgents so they can create a morale-boosting video to send out. The private is saved by his body armor and gets on his feet. Other US troops follow and capture the man who shot the private. The private who had been shot cuffs the insurgent and applies medical attention to him.

The story tells us the difference in the moral attitude of U.S. troops and the terrorists. But I have also noted some worrisome signs that, we, as a society, are beginning to encourage hatred against our enemies. The Book of Mormon has warned us against this.

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Off Topic: My Open Source Project

This has nothing to do with LDS issues, but since my co-bloggers haven’t had much to say this week, and there are plenty of you LDS bloggers out there who are interested in web development, I thought I’d post about my very first open source project. Most of you have probably seen and used the javascript commenting hacks I wrote for blogger-based blogs last year under the name Ebenezer Orthodoxy. Well, my latest project is more abstract and widely applicable, and has potential to revolutionize PHP based web sites, including blogging software like WordPress and b2evolution. And it is free.

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Mathemagical Power vs Priesthood Power

I finished the latest Harry Potter book Sunday afternoon, and while I have my complaints, by the last two hundred pages, it had become an enjoyable read. Considering that the book is just over six hundred and fifty pages long, I’m not sure if that is a compliment or a complaint. And while my thoughts that follow were prompted by my reading of Harry Potter, this is not a book review.

We often think the Mathematical and Magical as polar opposites, but it seems to me that in some significant ways they are mirror images.

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The state of marriage

I’ve seen lots of figures bandied about on the issue of the institution of marriage these days. I’ve discovered a study on marriage that appears to have the most extensive data I’ve seen anywhere. The primary conclusion: marriage is continuing to decline in the United States. The secondary conclusion: so is divorce (fewer marriages means fewer divorces). Another result: many worrisome societal trends. It turns out the Proclamation on the Family was right after all.

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