Freedom FROM Religion

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Many people I know believe that Jefferson was an opponent of church and state. Since I have read much of what Jefferson wrote, I know that what he actually opposed was a church OF the state. This is why I keep my politics and my religion separate, which is one thing that makes me so different from anyone else I know. I have what I believe, but I do not believe that any power or position gives me the right to impose my views on others.

The Founders wrote about a Creator in the Declaration of Independence. While they opposed interferance by a church in politics, they were never against religious views being held by politicians and statesmen. Most of them were believers in something. Remember that the Catholic church held hegemonic sway over many of the states of Europe, and they had a huge problem with that.

The true problem with this issue is that opponents of religious expression disagree with the amendments. They oppose freedom of religion. They want freedom FROM religion. If you have no law, there is no punishment, and whatsoever a man is becomes no crime. That is however the opposite of civil society. Alexis DeTocqueville wrote that America is great because her people are good, and when Americans cease to be good their nation will cease to be great. In Democracy in America he wrote that our strength was in our houses of worship.

Over the weekend, I saw this article. What bothers me about this is that there is no reason to oppose this. Not like most of the fans can see the writing on his cheeks, and I honestly had to look up the reference to see what it actually said, I am ashamed to admit. Some people propose bans religious things but not the obscene. You have to know what that verse says in order to have it offend you. They don't care what it says, they know it's religious, and they take the truth to be hard.

For my own part, I claim the right to live as I please and allow all men the same right. Let them worship how, when, and what they may, even if they choose to worship nothing at all.

From the US Army Training Division

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A good friend of mine is an army trainer in a Reserve Airborne unit. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan recently, and to Panama and other South American destinations previously, in order to train local troops to fight in our stead. Brian's biggest problem with the current administration is that they have unrealistic expectations of the people he has to train, and that the administration's opinion colors that of the populace at large.

The locals in these countries require a lot more effort than our own populace. Many of the people in the middle east are, for example, illiterate. How do they read orders, write reports, and communicate if they cannot read or write to begin with? There are many levels of military readiness, and even after they show a spiritual one, there is much left for our trainers and advisors to do.

Military trainers must build soldiers from the ground up. They educate them, get them physically fit, teach them leadership, customs and courtesies, and then and only then do they get to learn how to fight. Much of our arsenel is far beyond their technological savvy. Even though those countries have some of the amenities of the west, it is far more likely that our poor have access to TVs and Internet than it is for some of their middle class and rich. Explain the internet to a beduin.

Beyond the logistics of training an army that has perhaps no training at all beyond an agrarian level, there are cultural and local considerations as well. Many of these climes are foreign to our trainers, and many of the customs are not part of American military training. We don't usually interrupt our activities for religious or other cultural observance. Other nations, including Great Britain, do.

After all of that effort, the people who are trained take casualties. A great majority of the forces we train are green and inexperienced. When we went into Fallujah in Iraq, Iraqi forces took enormous casualties because they were not used to the guerilla tactics employed by insurgents.

Rebuilding a nation that far away geographically and culturally takes more time than anyone planned. People claim the Bush Administration didn't have an exit strategy or that the effort is wasted. I think it's more a problem of the fact that free people require a concerted education in order to constructively use their new freedom. Even when the USA was a fledgling nation, we had the same problem. That we survived the War of 1812 is little short of a standing miracle, and let's remember that the revolution itself lasted from 1776 to 1789, a span of 13 years. We're good at freedom, but we're not perfect.

Omitted, Deleted or Missing

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In my classes, I spend a significant amount of time on the scientific method. I hope the students leave my course with a comprehension of what separates good science from bad science. Today, I would like to share with you some of that as well as a powerful and current illustration of why this matters to me so much.

When I was in graduate school, I saw a lot of unethical behavior. In fact, I think it bothered my primary investigator when he saw me enrolled for the course Ethics in Scientific Research. For various reasons, some better than others, I saw data omitted, deleted, or missing from reports. Sometimes researchers do this to protect something so that they can study it before other people know about it. More often than not, it reveals weaknesses in their conclusions.

Scientific research is primarily concentrated at the academic level in universities and their affiliated laboratories and in government institutions. All of these are funded at public expense, mostly with taxes and sometimes by philanthropic endeavors backed by regular people who buy the goods and services that provided the capital. Most of the researchers in academia are students without much expertise who are learning how to be scientists. Most of the scientists whose names are on the door spend their time in their offices writing grants, doing paperwork, and reviewing journal articles. Mine was one of the few who got out on the lab bench. As such, research is agenda driven, ALWAYS. They either have to justify money spent on supplies or money spent on personnel, many of whom work with hopes to graduate based on the research they do. Either way you slice it, either in money or in manpower, you pay for bad science, sometimes with your life.

Very little research has real end-user application. I know some researchers who do it for their career, who do it for personal interest, and who do it for money. I know fewer than five who care about how you can use it when they are done. All of those people are researchers in industry/commerce, or, gasp Big Business.

Data is not very reliable. They leave it out, they make it up, they make it fit, or they do without. I made myself quite a nuisance at conferences when I asked about statistical relevance and about poor controls. The take home message is that I could not rely on their data or reproduce it, and as such it was garbage.

On his radio show this morning, Rush Limbaugh reported how the Washington Times raised concerns about a firm at East Anglican University caught deleting information that would harm them and fighting the release. As far as the media is concerned, this did not happen. The scientists will move on to other jobs, other grants, other institutions, and the politicians will force us to conform to the consensus. They just want money. This is what I tell my students:

Science never proves anything. It removes all other possibilities until only the truth remains.

Said Rush, "There is no point in endorsing a piece of legislation aimed at reducing something that is not happening." I have seen this firsthand, but never on this scale. Most of the people I saw do it did it for their careers and their degrees. These scientists did so to advance their careers and their names and their pocketbooks. Unlike them, I would never fudge science for my own advancement, and I have paid the price for it. Unlike Senator John Ensign, who told me so in a personal letter, I would never do the wrong thing instead of doing nothing at all, no matter what price I pay for it.

What this means is that we now have reason to doubt anything a scientist says who receives public money. What this tells us about the scientists is that they know they are liars. I don't know where my cousin got this quote, but it's his status today and I agree: "No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar." If they were truly interested in the discovery of truth, they would be glad to be proven wrong. They care instead apparently about their career more than their field and its product- truth. Name names, call them out, just as we would those who have proven unfaithful to marital oaths or oaths of loyalty to the Constitution. Who knew it? When did they know it? What will they do about it? Nothing. The President doesn't care about truth. He cares about his agenda, regardless of the lies.

You cannot be hurt by something you do not do. GK Chesterton said that what's wrong with the world is that we do not ask what is right. I wish that the peer review process worried more about how much of what we publish in science is right and less on whether they happen to agree with it. Every time they ignore facts, people die.

Equated

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I was just equated as a "great guy" with a guy who fornicates. I am appalled. Anyone who knows anything about me at all knows that I have kept the law of chastity and my marriage vows. I will not tell you that it is easy, but I know it can be done. Don't you dare say that men like that are great men and then lump me with that ilk. I have lived all of my life as close to what is good and brave and true as any ordinary man can, and I take offense at that.

Great men do great things. It has never been great to use a woman, to abuse a woman, or to put a woman beneath you. I love the following poem that sums up how I feel about women:

Woman was created from the rib of man

She was not made from his head to top him

Nor from his feet, to be trampled on.

She was made from his side, to be equal to him

From under his arm to be protected by him

From near his heart to be loved by him.

This is my philosophy, but it is also that of Cervantes and Shakespeare. Just because those men are dead and the average male has descended in behavior doesn't mean the standard for manhood and chivalry has changed or should. Why should expectations of behavior change? Their coarse behavior may not make them bad, but it most certainly does not make them great.

I hold myself to a relatively high standard. My best friend regularly tells me to relax because he fears I will burn out. I am a mortal, and as such I am subject to infirmities of mortality. However, I have to live with myself, and I set out each day to be at peace with myself when my head hits the pillow. I hold no other man to my standard. Let them do how and what they may, so long as it is legal and leaves me out of it. If you tell me your standard, I will hold you to your standard, but I do not expect other people to live like me. I of all people know full well how it taxes my willpower and strength.

I have been hurt by women. Every woman I have ever loved has taken what I gave her and rended me. That is no justification to denigrate other women and project onto the many the sins of the few or the one. I am honestly sorry for time and effort wasted on them, for the fact that I may have overestimated their maturity and virtue. I will however continue to treat women as the precious creatures they are, daughters of a God.

Gentlemanly behavior once checked the occurance of coarse behavior. You may count on me for the former as a defense against the latter.

One Man's Trash...

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I couldn't resist it, because this is one of the funniest craigslist ads I've ever seen and it made me laugh.

Gee, I was just telling my friends today how much I could really use some random concrete fragments with which to decorate my yard. How convenient that this man was giving some away at precisely the moment I needed!

It's your trash sir. Dispose of it yourself.

Picks and Shovels

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Back in August, I injured my wrist digging holes for an orchard in Southern Utah. I am probably not the best person in the state, the country, or the world to do this work, but as I have told the project manager, I am the most qualified person who will put boots on the ground and pitch in.

There are many people with great talents and abilities all around us. Good leaders are able both to identify them as well as motivate them to put their talents to use. One of the few lessons I learned from "The Fountainhead" is that sometimes great people hold out for great work and hold back their talents. It is however much more common that greatly talented people hide their talents because of fear or because they are lazy.

All of my life, I have striven to be available for God to use me. He has in fact requested that I so do. As a missionary, I traveled in my "uniform", changed for the activity, and then changed back after it was over. I intended to be ready for whatever he might need. God does not really care about your capability; what matters more to him is your availability. Neal A Maxwell wrote: “God gives the picks and shovels to the ‘chosen’ because they are willing to go to work and get callouses on their hands. They may not be the best or most capable, but they are the most available” ( Deposition of a Disciple [1976], 54).

God's work is hard work. Some people get lucky and cast down their nets and draw in a great harvest. Even in that instance, they must have nets, have nets that work, cast them out, and have strength to draw them back in. Even that is hard work.

For those who have to till a more difficult ground, there is backbreaking work with tools ahead. As I dug those holes in Utah with a pick and shovel, I injured my wrist. There was nobody else to do it. The harvest is great and the laborers are few. I was available, so in that moment, I was the best and most capable person in the universe for the task at hand. If you do today what others won't, tomorrow you will be able to do what others can't. Where more capable or talented individuals might have done so, they hid their talent and therefore they have no increase.

Be not weary of hard work. Sweat equity is one of my favorite things, and I love to work. I like the rewards, but I would rather be anxiously engaged than accidentally.

Aristocracy and Leadership

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Someone once told me that an aristocrat is he who controls more than one vote. Historically, this has been the basis for all forms of representative government, and it is both the boon and the bane of participatory governance.

Aristocrats often governed the land. That meant they governed all that arose therefrom, and we all know that the feudal law rephrased the Golden Rule to "whoever has the gold makes the rules". To a degree that trend continues today, as in order to make money or gain office, you must generally be possessed of large means in order to mount any kind of effective campaign, particularly against an incumbent.

However, I learned at the polls last year and as I went into the election that I have the power of an aristocrat by virtue of riches I possess that no man can take from me. If aristocracy is the seat of power, and if aristocrats were once the only ones to be educated, he who is truly educated has power now, his material status notwithstanding. So, where others read Twilight, Harry Potter, ad infinitum, I read Locke, Montesquie, Smith, von Mises, Jefferson, et al., and possess a wealth of knowledge that counters any specie.

Many people came into the polls completely ignorant. A man of integrity myself, I refrained from the opportunity to sway them at that juncture. Prior to the election, I took the opportunity in my sphere of influence to share my thoughts. One coworker wrote: "Your patriotism is infectious; I have never before fully understood what it means to be an American...You are equally inspiring as the great people in history that you admire." Talk to people about what you believe and why. Get informed. Read. Don't let other people tell you what you think, and tell as many people as you can why you think the way you do.

Become the person to whom your friends, family and associates turn when political, economical, and social topics arise. You may think they are joking when they come to you and seriously ask you what's wrong with socialism. They really don't know. Be that person who can explain it to them.

Aristocrats were believed to be superior. At one point it was for their money. Let it now be for the knowledge we possess that surpasses the average understanding.

That being said, there are two kinds of aristocracy. In the first, by virtue of the truncheon or in promise for pelf, a man exerts power and control via unrighteous dominion over those who know no better. In the latter, a man educates, informs, and expounds, teaching correct principles and lets the people govern themselves. Let it flow without compulsory means and be a true leader.

Apparently Not a Parent

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Last Tuesday night while I waited for the meeting to start that I attend every week, I overheard a conversation that made my blood boil. Although I held my tongue, I came this -- close to speaking my mind to the women immediately adjacent.

I know none of them personally and only one of them by name. Despite being no more than six feet away from me, they made no attempt to hush their comments or keep it to themselves. Immediately prior to the comment, the youngest of the women remarked that she would of course be able to make it to such-and-such because she had no children, to which the eldest among them (and the only one whose name I knew) quipped, "I wish I could say that."

To be fair, this woman was previously married in an abusive relationship. However, I have always been struck by how stern she seems, even when she is "happiest", born apparently of bitterness towards a previous relationship. It also manifests in misogynistic comments she makes denigrating her current husband whom she ostensibly loves. Some people have no interest having children.

Her children are not responsible for the way her husband treated her. A close friend of mine was physically abused by her mother because she reminded her mother of the father who cheated on her mother. When innocents bear the brunt, there is no excuse for that.

How could any woman wish she had not had her children? They are a part of her. She is a part of them. I have about a dozen friends who consider me their surrogate parent because their parents admitted in a moment of weakness that they were accidents. How can you accidentally have a child? I admit abstinence isn't easy, but I am proud to say there are no illegitimate children of mine out there and that any woman who claims I had sex with her or anything like unto it who is not my former wife is a liar.

I would give all that I have for a family. I wish this woman would realize how blessed she is. Any biological can donate a gamete, but it takes a human being to be a parent.

God Bless Our Troops

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Anyone who knows me knows that my patriotism is real. Three generations alive of my family have served in arms.

I know that not all veterans are created equal. However, I know that you went out and made sacrifices for us. Some of you I know intimately and I know that you gave up your life and your livelihood for something greater than yourself. At the polls last year, I met a man who stormed Normandy over 60 years ago. When I thanked him for his sacrifice, he cried.

May God grant unto us an early peace and victory found in injustice and instill into the hearts and minds of men everywhere a firm purpose to live in peace with good will toward all.

For all the Veterans who have, or are now, serving in our military: words really cannot do justice for all that you've sacrificed for the people of our country. As humble as it is, please accept our heartfelt THANKS!! To all the men and women who are out in the fields tonight, please, BE SAFE and GOD BLESS YOU!

God knows I would like to be over there in your stead.

JD Buyright

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My dad and I went out in search of a replacement for my 1995 Saturn SL1 "Car2-D2". After an entire morning on the hunt, the only place with a car I liked refused to sell it to me under the terms I like.

Warned by another dealer, we stopped at JD Buyright anyway. The salesman wasted no time and informed us that he would not sell me a car unless I took their finance terms. I ran the numbers...a 3-year loan at 21% interest for $350/month means that over the life of the loan I will pay $12000 for a car worth less than $4000, or almost sticker price for the car as if it were brand new.

I have a new reason to dislike the NASCAR driver affiliated with this program. Predation on the desparate for cars makes for unethical business practice. I could never bring myself to contract this kind of commerce. That's partly why I became a teacher. Research science resembled practical science which resembles the rest of the corporate world- it focuses too much on self-aggrandizement. I will never patronize this establishment or endorse the driver who owns a major stake in it.

They could have made a sale. The irony is that the particular car I liked has an extremely limited demographic to which it appeals. I seek a manual transmission Saturn with cruise control. How many people do you know who like Saturns? How many people do you know who can drive a stick? Good luck with the sale of that car. It was perfect for me.

The Bottom Line of Life

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My friend came up with this, and I really like it, so I posted it here to remember.

Live with awareness

Opine with caution

Decide with knowledge

Doubt with reason

Judge with empathy

Teach with patience

Guide with compassion

Lead with wisdom

Support with hope

Achieve with humility

Serenity Prayer

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When I first heard about the Ft. Hood shooting, it made me angry. I wanted to do something about it. By that time, however, there was of course nothing I personally could do to change anything about what happened. So, I came to accept the fact that although tragic there was nothing I could do about that particular event and I let it go. I have applied as much as I am able that same principle to other things in my life over which I have no control.

The Year of Our Lord 2009 has challenged me in many ways, and although I have grown the growth has sometimes come at great cost and pain. My one consolation through all of the perterbations and usurpations has been that I did the best I could with what I had and that I acted on promptings from God. I did what I controlled, and then every day I hand the ruins to him and ask him to make something of them.

May God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I opine missed opportunities this year, but not those that I missed. I seized upon every opportunity to do the things in my life that really mattered to me. That other people elected to stay at the station or board another train entirely is up to them. During some of my darkest days and from some of the most unlikely and unexpected places, God has brought people into my life to buoy up my faith and speak comfort and hope to me. I thank him for those tender mercies. I thank those people that they were the miracle for me.

I know where I am headed. Maybe the route changes from time to time, but I make the connections, hold the conversations, go to the places, do the work, and assimilate the concepts to which I feel inspired, and I have the proud consolation that God approves of what I do with my life. I echo the sentiments of Abraham Lincoln who, of his own literal fight, said:

But if, after all, we shall fall, be it so. We shall have the proud consolation of saying to our conscience, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that 'the course approved of our judgments and adored our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, and in death, we never faltered in defending.

It takes a great man to face great obstacles, to run where the brave dare not go. It takes a great man to do what is right even when, at least in a Newtonian way, he sees no fruit of his labors. I will die doing what is right. I know my place. It is time you learned yours.

Part of the Solution

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On the way to work this morning, I was slowed down quickly by a huge wreck just after I entered the freeway. About a half dozen cars were involved, and although it had happened relatively recently, some of the cars still sat in the lanes, despite the fact that they could be moved to allow for the flow of traffic.

I knew that the NHP would clear the road as soon as they arrive. I also know that they don't have to see the scene in order to evaluate the incident. I also knew that hundreds of cars depended on the flow of traffic and that as long as these cars sat here more people ran the risk of accident, delay of arrival at work, and other frustrations. So, I pulled over and helped clear the road.

When I told a friend of mine about this, he praised me. I could either go by and let other people suffer the wait as I had or get out and eliminate the constraint.
Most people would rather sit in their cars honking the horn, but if I help clean it up then some people would never know there had ever been a problem.

You can either be part of the solution or contribute to the continuity of the problem. There is no spectator section.

How I Learned to Love France

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There was a time when I didn't care much for France or the French. I have never actually met a frenchman I liked or with whom I got along well. I've met some French people who are decent and average. I have learned over time that France is full of our Heavenly Father's children who warrant my concern, compassion and charity just as much as those whom I consider to be my closest friends and associates.


Some people I know have lately taken to obscene criticism of the French. I reminded them that without the French America might not have ever come into existence. It was LaFayette who helped Washington train, equip, and lead his army. Without that service, the third of the colonists who supported revolution would scarce been able to even by weight of numbers overturn the Benedict Arnolds, the Torries, and the Redcoats who overran the land.

I have a new French hero. Current French President Sarkozy has impressed me with his rhetoric, his politics, and his stalwart defense of all that is good and brave and true. If all Frenchmen were like him, France might well become our staunchest ally. They have been so before. They may be so again.

There are many good and brave Frenchmen. There are good and brave and true men in every nation and every culture and every clime. There is weakness there too, but if we look for the good in mankind and expect to find it we will. Vive la France!

Join the Navy

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A close friend of mine recently set about a serious effort to join the Navy. He has met with the normal diatribe of accusations about him being a baby-killer, notwithstanding the fact that the people who slander him so know him better than that. When he asked my opinion, he knowing about my affinity for the military, I said, "the Navy, like any other organization, is only as good as the officers and men who people it".

If you find an organization bereft of the kind of people of whom you think it best comprised, the best way to fix it is to fill it with people of that moral fiber. If you are one of them, lead the way.

Our soldiers are great men and women. There are people there true who go for the scholarhips, the training, discipline, or to see thw world, but the large majority of them are willing to give their lives, even if they survive and serve as a career, so that we can live in peace and freedom. As we consider on those rare stories that transcend the media firewalls and make the front pages of the news, remember that millions of nameless, faceless youth have fought and bled and died on soils far from their homes for the idea that man has value and that what man does is valuable.

Always remember them. And if you feel so inclined, join and serve with them.

Tender Mercies

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Over the past few weeks, I have been struck by a particular and favorite verse of mine. At the end of 1 Nephi 1, Nephi tells us the theme for his entire record that he will write, and he says, "I Nephi will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are on all those whom he hath chosen because of their faith to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance." As I think about my own journeys, privations and trials, I think of the times when I have seen the Lord's hand and felt his Love in my own life as I struggle across the wilderness. Although there may not be Labans, brothers who beat us with a stick, broken bows, or storms while we sail on ships, there are plenty of rough seas, adversarial people, and dashed dreams that combine in our minds to hedge up our way and dampen our faith. In those times, I remember Nephi.

There are tender mercies. I cannot tell you how many times I have been spared from what I wanted and discovered that if I had received what i wanted it would have made my happiness harder, if it was in the aftermath even possible. Sometimes, I have been sent help in the nick of time. Sometimes, I have had doors open which I did not expect and miracles happen for which I did not ask and of which I was not worthy. Yet, they came anyway because of faith. What times in your life have you seen the Lord bless you with tender mercy in spite of the choices you have made? Write about them in your journal.

Faith is more than just a declaration of belief. Faith is a lifestyle. Like Nephi, I have often "been led of the Lord, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do". Yet, like Nephi, I went and did, for "I know the Lord God giveth no commandments unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them whereby they may accomplish the thing he commands of them." You show your faith in the choices you make every minute of every hour of every day.

Out of faith comes might and deliverance. I recently read about how Alma and Amulek broke their bonds and the prison tumbled to the ground. Then there's Jericho. This past summer, I had several Courageous Conversations with friends that on the surface seemed to end badly for me. In the end, they flatly rejected my words and concern. I said what I felt led to say anyway, for I considered to do anything else a betrayal of friendship. As I watch where they take their lives, I realize that I was "cursed for my sake", cut off from their lives as a means to spare me from the consequences of their choices until they learn for themselves to know good from evil.

In the end, no matter what storms you may face, the Lord has a land of promise for you. If you remember my last message, Elder Holland promises in his talk that you will inherit your goodly land as you remain true to the truths that your parents have cherished and for which martyrs have perished. May you find strength and comfort in Christ as you cross the wildernesses of life. May you recognize his hand and feel his love always. Godspeed, and all my best wishes.