This is a guest post by IDIAT, who describes himself as “just an old guy who’s been trying to figure out plural sealings for 30 years.”

Consider the example of the young couple, Andy and Amy, who date their last year of high school, but then, as mission time approaches, Andy works and readies himself for his mission, while Amy goes to BYU. Their long distance romance fizzles, Andy leaves on his mission, and Amy is sealed to an RM. Andy returns home, marries a young lady, and continues on with life. Happens every day. But then, Andy and Amy happened to be widowed by the time of their 30th high school reunion, at which point they are re-introduced.

The old flames are fanned. And within 6 months of meeting one another again, they remarry. Of course, because Amy’s previously sealed and living, they can’t be sealed in the temple. But at the relatively young age of about 48, they both have plenty of marriage in mortality time left, so that their marriage endures for another 35 years. Now, to put more spin on the facts. When Amy’s husband died, he left her in such good financial shape that she could live well and provide for their kids. When Andy’s wife died, he also got a sizable amount of life insurance. Andy works until he’s 55, then retires because of all the money they have. Their children are now either finishing college or off missions and some grandchildren have been born to the older children. They spend their time visiting adult children, hosting large family holiday dinners and so forth. Then they make time to start serving missions together, and are both healthy well into their late ’70’s. Then, as they wind down to their early ’80’s, children, grandchildren and now great grandchildren call them blessed. They ask their children to seal them together after the appropriate time has passed. They pass away around age 85, having been married to each other about 35 years. Per their parents’ request, Amy is sealed to Andy vicariously.

Now, is there anyone who would say that Andy and Amy’s remarriage to one another was “immoral” or somehow along the line of breaking the covenants of their first sealings? I doubt it. Continue reading →

The Senate has, for now, turned down any new federal gun control legislation. Still, Democratic politicians say they will try again later this year. Discussions on this issue are frustratingly fact-free. People who support gun control appear unable to muster any actual evidence or logic. Their arguments are based on dubious assertions of fact (read on) and illogical emotional appeals. This post will try to take on some of these assertions. Feel free to pass this on to your logic-free gun control supporting friends, but don’t expect them to actually consider your arguments dispassionately. Sadly, gun control advocates are all about passion, not reason.

1)40 percent of guns are bought without background checks. False by every possible measurement. Even the Washington Post has repeatedly given the president three Pinocchios. This assertion is based on a two-decade old survey that showed that 35.7 percent of people did not get guns from a licensed gun dealer. So, the 40 percent number is rounded up from 35.7 percent. The survey size was tiny, and the questions asked were vague. The Post comes to the conclusion that the real number is somewhere in the teens.

But even this number is high. Check out a survey of prison inmates, the presumed bad guys we want to prevent from getting guns. They say they get guns from the following sources:

Friends or family members: 39.5%

Street or black market suppliers: 37.5%

Licensed gun dealers: 11.4%

Theft: 9.9%

Gun shows or flea markets: 1.7%

Remember that the Senate legislation would exempt most of the people in the first category, family and friends. It is aimed at the supposed “gun show loophole.” So, in effect, the Senate legislation is really aimed at less than 2 percent of the cases.

And it is even worse than this. Anybody who has gone to a gun show knows that the vast majority of actual sales at gun shows involve licensed dealers, who *already must perform background checks.* So the 1.7 percent number already includes people who are buying guns with a background check. The truth is that the legislation is aimed at a tiny number of potential sales.

Continue reading →

One chart says it all:

It is emotionally satisfying for various liberal hacks and politicians to blame ideology and pressure groups for the failure of gun control in the Senate. But the reality is that Americans increasingly feel safe with a gun in the home and see it as a viable means of self-defense. Gun control bills are seen as potentially threatening that freedom. In addition, it is worth pointing out as I did in this post that crime is way, way down overall despite the increase in guns, so any attempt to limit law-abiding people from buying guns will not be popular.

And by the way, the claim that 90 percent of people favor background checks is highly misleading. As in every poll, it depends on how you ask the question, and it is also worth pointing out that the vast majority of legal gun sales already involve background checks.

Let me start this post by saying I sell internet fiber for a living. Mostly international fiber on undersea cables. So, anytime people are getting faster internet links, I think, “ka-ching” (you know, the cash register sound).

Big-time ka-ching every time Google expands somewhere, which is what is going on in Provo.

Google announced that Provo would be the third city to become a “Google Fiber City.”

What this means in practice is that people in Provo will get (according to Google):

if the deal is approved and the acquisition closes, we’d offer our Free Internet service (5 Mbps speeds) to every home along the existing Provo network, for a $30 activation fee and no monthly charge for at least seven years. We would also offer Google Fiber Gigabit Internet—up to 100x faster Internet than today’s average broadband speeds—and the option for Google Fiber TV service with hundreds of your favorite channels. We’d also provide free Gigabit Internet service to 25 local public institutions like schools, hospitals and libraries.

Continue reading →

By Kathryn Skaggs

I don’t recall ever feeling to cherish a General Conference more than this latest one, because this one caused an epiphany beyond former realizations as to the dire necessity of our need to have prophets upon the earth; that they should speak and we must act.

That they did their part was glorious to me and tremendously faith reaffirming; giving me such a renewal of strength which, although I knew I was in need of going into conference, as we all generally feel, but when the injection came, it overwhelmed me in such a way that the strength of its force took me off guard; in that only after the fact did I realized just how deficient I had become; yet amazed that in discovering myself in such a weakened stated, even so I had miraculously, and unbeknownst, been sustained by His strong and mighty Hands; a humbling revelation.

Breaking away from past conference reporting…