Monthly Archives: November 2013

Forgetting history again

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“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
George Santayana

History is a patient teacher. If we do not learn its lesson the first time, it will gladly provide additional opportunities in the future to learn the same lesson.

History teaches us brutal truths, if we but pay attention to more than just dates, places, names and holidays.  Economic history shows that LBJ’s war on poverty has failed, as we have more people on food stamps and welfare than at any time since he began his war.  Economic bubbles are bound to burst and destroy many peoples’ lives and livelihood. Medicare has become a giant program that will soon go bankrupt, along with Medicaid and Social Security. The National Dept of Education has failed to improve student education, as it has focused more on feel good programs and supporting unions than on saving children.

Yet, we do not learn. Continue reading →

Get drunk, have casual sex because Obamacare has you covered

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If there is any doubt that progressivism is progressing to someplace very ugly indeed, I present to you the pro-Obamacare ads put together by a Colorado group. I know, I know, these ads are so bad they seem like they must have been created by a right-wing hit squad, but no, they are actually the production of Colorado progressives led by ProgressNow Colorado and the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.

The Denver Post actually talked to a representative from ProgressNow who said the ads are awesome and stuff.

Without further ado, I present to you modern-day progressivism in all its glory:

20131112__obamacare-ad~p1_300

Yes, you too can now get “free” birth control by paying $2000 a year more in insurance premiums! Who said millennials cannot add?

And how about that portrayal of women? Yes, all women just want to hook up with random guys and get them “under the covers” because the guy is hot!

Continue reading →

Unrealistic Expectations of Mormon Miltons and Shakespeares

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Every now and then those contemplating the literary aspirations of Mormonism will quote Orson F. Whitney, “we will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own,” and then ask when or how that can become possible. That musing has now gone national thanks to an article in the New York Times with interviews of current and former Mormon writers about why this hasn’t happened yet. The result is condescension toward both Mormon literature and popular genre fiction. The answer, even by some of the Mormon writers, seems to show the usual academic bias in favor of the nebulous literary fiction.

Although artists should stretch the talent given to them, Mormon Miltons and Shakespeares are not going to exist. That dream needs to be retired. This is not because Mormons are incapable of great literature, but because the expectations are ridiculous. The New York Times article said it best while ignoring the implications, “In the United States, Jews, blacks and South Asians, while they have produced no Milton or Shakespeare — who has, lately? — have all had literary renaissances.” The nearest to the two contemporary “Bards” in prestige is Homer who lived about a thousand years before them. By that reckoning, time is on the Mormon side. Continue reading →

Book Review: Death and the Afterlife, Samuel Scheffler et al.

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Review
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Title: Death and the Afterlifezzzz
Author: Samuel Scheffler
Editor: Niko Kolodny
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Genre: Philosophy
Year Published: 2013
Number of Pages: 224
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN10: 0199982503
ISBN13: 978-0199982509
Price: $29.95

Reviewed by Ivan Wolfe for the Association for Mormon Letters

A book like this really requires a lengthy, long form book review, preferably at least as long as the shortest essay in the book (12 pages). Given the constraints of the review process at AML, and leaning on my minor in philosophy in college, I trust that I can let interested readers know if they would enjoy reading this book. Continue reading →