plagiarism on prop 8

There are only two other blogs that i follow outside my own blog.  one is "high ridiculousness" by Oliver Wallis, and the other is "in the name of the best within us" by Bryce Gessell.  today, after reading a post by Bryce about an article in the Deseret News about prop 8 in california and the reactions against the Mormon church, i thought that i would be worth restating what Bryce has said on his blog.  i'm not going to try and put into words the points and principles that he (Bryce) has eloquently laid out but i think it's important for people to see what he has written about.  so, without permission or further tactless writing on my part, i'm going to plagialristicly copy his post onto this one.  

THE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE "BUSINESS" 

In today's Deseret News, there is an article on the continued efforts of Proposition 8 opponents to vilify the LDS Church. Here is a passage from the article, written by Karl Vick:

"The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!" warned ads placed on newspaper Web sites in three Eastern states last month. The ad was rejected by sites in three other states, including Maine, where the Kennebec Journal informed Californians Against Hate that the copy "borders on insulting and denigrating a whole set of people based on their religion."
"I'm not intending to harm the religion. I think they do wonderful things. Nicest people," said Fred Karger, a former Republican campaign consultant who establised Californians Against Hate. "My single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the astonishing misunderstanding and inconsistency of Fred Karger and his group, Californians Against Hate. What century are we living in? The Web ads placed in the Eastern newspapers don't border on "insulting and denigrating" a whole set of people; this is because they do insult and denigrate a whole set of people. Imagine if an anti-Semite group wanted to run ads that said, "The Jews are coming! The Jews are coming!" or if the KKK had run ads during the last presidential election that said, "The blacks are coming! The blacks are coming!" That the LDS Church does not choose to be offended like every other minority group in America does not mean that they do not possess the same right to be free from persecution for their beliefs. This, however, is the contradiction on which Fred Karger and his associates thrive. They use the concept of "tolerance" as a means to destroy the concept of "tolerance." In the mind of Mr. Karger and others, there are two concepts in play here: tolerance (for us) and tolerance (for you). Tolerance (for us) has primacy over tolerance (for you), because if they were on equal standing, the tactics of the crusade for tolerance (for us) would have no foundation. However, tolerance is not two concepts; it is only one. It has the same application for everyone. Unfortunately, this singular nature of tolerance makes the concept difficult to accept when one wants to be tolerated but not to tolerate, so it's much easier to slash it up into two and pretend that one is more important than the other. A concept cannot be divided in this manner. It cannot be used to obliterate itself.

What about Mr. Karger's goal--to "get them [the LDS Church] out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims"? Here again we see an example of misunderstanding concepts, which leads to inappropriate conceptual divisions. The LDS Church's stand on same-sex marriage is based on principles--the same principles that give rise to their service to hurrican victims. These activities have the same root and must be carried out simultaneously or not at all. To Mr. Karger, the LDS Church is nothing more than a social organization that makes people feel good and brings them food when their houses have been destroyed. The degree of his ignorance of principled religion is only matched by the conceptual disintegration that has taken place in his mind, allowing for a crusade led by a group that is based on the very idea that their success demands they deny to others.

Anberlin Concert

Tonight is the Anberlin and Taking Back Sunday concert.  it's going on at the Venue in Salt Lake City.  i'm not so excited to see taking back sunday but anberlin is going to be amazing!  bryce and ollie are also coming tonight which takes the concert total to 2, only one more to see before the summer is over (the Fray/ Jack's Mannequin).  what makes me most excited about hearing anberlin live in concert is the chance that they might play the song "Breathe"  which was recently released just a couple of months ago on their newest CD named New Surrender.   For those of you who may not be familiar with Anberlin or the song Breathe here is a link to youtube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhfTAZVlVI4 Now, understand that this is not the music video, but it plays the song and gives you the lyrics.  other song that i hope they play are, Dismantle. Repair, Adelaide, Time and Confusion, and Young life.  luckily Anberlin has yet to come out with a song that sucks so even if they dont play any of these songs, the concert is still going to be incredible. Stay tuned for the post-concert review... 

party hearty

tonight is the real mocktail party.  as reported earlier in this blog the party was suppose to happen last week but because of procrastination and scheduling problems we postponed it until today.  we've purchased mixers, tonic water, ice, olives, cherries, lemons, limes, margarita salt, chips, crackers, lights...the whole 9 yards.  the party tonight is going to be a great one that i think a lot of people are looking forward to because lots of people have heard of mocktail parties but have never been to one.  i have specially organized a playlist that i'm listening to in right now and it rocks.  the only things that we have left to do is clean the house and wait until 9 o'clock for people to start showing up.  also, Katelyn Dot Scott is going to be attending this "rhythmic ceremonial ritual" and i'm very excited about that.  i'm excited to see her again and spend a little bit of time with her, even if it is in a crowded atmosphere.  it will be interesting to see how many people show up and come to the party.  it might be a good estimate at to our social status in amongst our friends.  just kidding, i'm really not that concerned with how we stand in the popularity contest.  so in short... tonight is going to be awesome and the first of several parties that hometheatre.org will be hosting, both in liberty square and at carriage cove.    This picture pretty much explains how i feel about the whole thing.

NBA playoffs

as the NBA playoffs are starting to show forth the teams that really want to win as well as those who simply think they could waltz in and beat everyone (Boston) i would like to make some predictions as to what's really going to happen.  first off, allow me to say that if you log on to inthenameofthebestwithinus.blogspot.com you will also see some playoff predictions.  unfortunately, being the expert that i am, i happen to know that those predictions, while correctly stating that the Cleveland Cavaliers would win the NBA playoffs, is terribly mistaken as to who will win the Western Conference Finals.  in the western conference, the Lakers are getting ready to face the Denver Nuggets.  "inthenameofthebestwithinus" has Denver beating the LA Lakers in six games, whereas my predictions are that the Lakers are going to beat down Denver and the Bird Man in six games.  the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals are going to beat orlando in 6 games as well. making the NBA finals between the LA Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers.  i think the match will be an intense one but i see LeBron James showing up Kobe Bryant as they take the Lakers in 6 games.  with Cleveland beating up on the Lakers, i think we will safely be able to place King James as #1 in the NBA with the arrogant Kobe Bryant in 2nd.   mark my words ladies and gentleman, because what i have written, i have written and i excuse not myself.  yes, write it in the history books because no matter what any ESPN announcer thinks, or what any polls may believe, lakers vs cavaliers and LeBron in 6.

Mocktail

Concord 4 (Hometheater.org) is having a mocktail party this friday.  this is going to be the first of it's kind.  i say the first, because it definitely  wont be the last.  drinks, cute girls from arch house, friends, and everything else that comes with a mocktail party.  Here's what the invitation looks like. 

parallel tracks

as the short break between winter semester and  spring term continues, i have pushed myself to read more and more. right now i'm still reading C.S Lewis' Mere Christianity which has been quite the adventure.  it's somewhat strange reading a book on theology written by a non-LDS author (although his books have practically been quoted enough in general conference to be added to canonized scripture).  today i read a paragraph that was very interesting, and although i've heard it quoted before by LDS authorities i would like to quote it here again because it makes a great point as to what living the gospel is really all about. 

     "Christ says, 'Give me all.  i don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much or your work: I want you.  I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.  no half-measures are any good.  i don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, i want to have the whole tree down.  i don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked- the whole outfit.  i will give you a new self instead. in fact i will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.'"

C.S. Lewis, although he belonged to the church of england, was a pretty smart guy.  and though he didn't have the fullness of the gospel, he understood it very well.  reading this book has been great and i highly recommend it to anyone.  only one disclaimer to those who might venture the effort.  make sure that you understand the LDS gospel well before because his book will make more sense and there are parts of his book that, although good analogies or interesting doctrines, run parallel to the true revealed gospel.  i use the word "parallel" because it is close to the truth and it's going in the right direction but slightly off, like train tracks running close to each other are not the same, but lead ultimately to the same destination.  try it for yourself, i recommend it.

a day with C.S. Lewis

today is the first day in months that really, i've had nothing to do.  no papers, no assignments, no reading or physiology labs to make up....nothing!  in celebration of this awesome yet somewhat awkward day, i've decided to dedicate it to reading the books that i've wanted to read for sometime now but hadn't gotten the chance to.  today's book is Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  the goal is to finish it before tuesday class gives me a headache with organic chemistry. 

did we skip spring?

yesterday, Bryce and I drove up to Salt Lake City to buy our season tickets and watch the Bee's play baseball (the great american sport) only to be disappointed with rain.  the weather report gave us a 30% chance of rainfall, but soon after driving up, not only was it raining, but it was pouring cats an dogs.  we were still able to buy the season tickets, but the game was rescheduled for the next day (today).   to my wonderful surprise it continued to rain through the night, into the next morning and then wonderfully it began to snow.  it's now mid april and it's not only snowing, but it's really coming down hard.  i think i remember there being a scripture in Isaiah that says something about the weather in the last days would be so weird that you would only be able to tell the seasons by the leaves on the trees.  perhaps i'm mistaken about the scripture, or perhaps someone more knowledgeable than i can correct me or give me the reference, but one thing that i'm not mistaken about is that the weather sucks, baseball has been delayed, golf season hasn't started yet and summer term is about to start despite the snow falling all around. where is spring?

dating: the new extreme sport

Today i walked home from Cori Hoffman from crown 4.  we talked about why dating at BYU is an extreme sport.  people, after going on a first date with a girl or boy (although more girls tend to do this than boys) start praying about whether "it" is right.  why cant people just date in a really relaxed way? have all the mormons lost their minds?  just get to know each other, settle down, and quit worrying if this person is "the one." some people have a very mistaken view as to whether we have "soul mates"  (or from an LDS perspective, a "foreordained" companion).  when it gets serious and you're deciding if you should get married to the person, than bring your decision to the lord through prayer.  why people want to jump the gun and make dating such an intense process approaching that of an extreme sport is why dating at BYU sucks. 

education...i'm confused

in trying to decide what i need to be taking, as far as future classes go, i have to say that the decisions are confusing.  i know all the classes that i'm suppose to take but how i want to organize them, how many each semester, and which ones first is getting hard to decide.  i wish i could just be a genius and have this all over with.