About a week ago, I started re-reading Bushman’s classic Joseph Smith biography “Rough Stone Rolling.”  I figured this would be a great way to get some good background for the gospel doctine lessons we will be participating in this year as we study Church history and the Doctrine & Covenants.

Re-reading “Rough Stone Rolling” is a mind-blowing experience:  there are things I want to blog about on virtually every page.  So, I will probably be referring to the book a lot this year.  But one subject needs to be addressed right away, it seems to me:  the early Saints’ view of nationalism vis-a-vis the United States.  As Bushman says:  “The United States figured only as one of the unnamed nations that were to suffer in the last days.” (p. 191)

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As you may know, the Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe in Christmas.  A JW co-worker and I once had a very pleasant discussion about how Christ was almost certainly not born in December.  I believe he claimed the evidence indicates Christ was born in October, while I said it may have been in April.

So, this morning I got a visit from our local Jehovah’s Witnesses (I live right next door to a Kingdom Hall).  It was 15 degrees out, so they were not doing the usual tracting.  One guy came to the door and rang the doorbell and handed me a pamphlet.  I did not catch all of his pitch, but he said something to the effect of “did you know that the world is ending, and we have a message for you?”

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Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times examines the evidence and determines it really is true that liberals give to the needy much less than conservatives.  Sounds like a good reminder to our liberal friends for the holidays.

If you scroll down this page a bit, you’ll see a whimsical post about Las Vegas and the rest of Nevada.  Timely given a rare snow in Las Vegas just a few days ago.

I moved to Colorado this summer after living in a tropical climate for 22 years.  Yes, you read that right.  Twenty-two years.  And I am never going back to the tropics.  I have sweated my last day in humid 92-degree weather.  Give me snow, and snow and more snow.  I guess I would never have made it as a Nephite or a Lamanite.

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