She is my female counter-part. This is how I think when I compose music too! Crazy.
18 September 2009
16 September 2009
12 September 2009
132 Libraries of Congress
"To our knowledge, there is no company that does the level of vital records preservation that FamilySearch does," said Brother Nauta. "The records FamilySearch contains currently, when digitized, would equal 132 Libraries of Congress or 18 petabytes of data---and that doesn't include our ongoing acquisition efforts."
What! 132 Libraries of Congress! I looked it up: 18 petabytes is 18,000 Terabytes! This is really an amazing work the LDS Church's Family History Department is engaged in:
03 September 2009
Principal apologizes for showing Obama video in school
The plot thickens. Shame on you Utah Eagle Forum for turning everything into polar issue. Lame.
Video Courtesy of KSL.com
Call it people's veiled racism
Call it people's veiled racism, call it complete paranoia. I don't know, but this is so ridiculous. "Don't indoctrinate my children with your brief speech Mr. Anti-America President!" I'm ashamed. Now to research whether this is happening in other states or just our conservative hotbed.
Video Courtesy of KSL.com
02 September 2009
30 August 2009
29 August 2009
28 August 2009
21 August 2009
19 August 2009
All of These Words
New song of mine. Lyrics:
I'M STILL TRYING TO GET THE MP3 UP. SORRY GOOGLE IS BEING A STONED DOG.
All of those words make me feel as if
I am floating through endless space, alone.
So I try to find those kinds of words
That I know when I play XBOX, alone at home.
I wrote it after told me a kid in her new class explained that reading a book with hard words seems like you're floating through space without any gravity. Ha.
I'M STILL TRYING TO GET THE MP3 UP. SORRY GOOGLE IS BEING A STONED DOG.
All of those words make me feel as if
I am floating through endless space, alone.
So I try to find those kinds of words
That I know when I play XBOX, alone at home.
I wrote it after told me a kid in her new class explained that reading a book with hard words seems like you're floating through space without any gravity. Ha.
18 August 2009
17 August 2009
Concerning this blog
I have noticed little activity on the blog recently. So I want to put it forward to the readership: are the posts not very interesting or do most of you prefer not to leave comments? I guess I'm just curious what the general feeling is among you.
Drop a comment, be not afraid.
Tod
Drop a comment, be not afraid.
Tod
14 August 2009
Awesome kid
Watch the whole thing. A really neat interview with President Obama and Damon Weaver from Pahokee, Florida:
13 August 2009
12 August 2009
11 August 2009
FLDS Crafts
I stumbled upon this wonderful site as I was researching Mormon fundamentalism. Very interesting stuff. They have a lot of diverse products from baby "hemlets" to nail gun belts to FLDS Hair Styling DVDs!
There surely are a lot of intense claims by all the Mormon fundamentalist factions that began to schism after the Manifestos of Wilford Woodruff. An interesting topic for me to research. Take a gander:
06 August 2009
21 July 2009
02 July 2009
24 June 2009
15 June 2009
09 June 2009
08 May 2009
04 May 2009
28 April 2009
Did You Know 3.0
I found this on the lovely blog of Eleanor Cleverly (mi hermana), and had to share it with those not familiar with her intriguing posts. Data is overflowing the earth, and what do we make of it?
27 April 2009
Swine flu: we're at Phase 4 now. Whoa.
Now this may not turn into a 1918 situation, but still: not cool. Let's all keep our eyes open and don't forget to cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Also: wash you hands frequently! Seriously, people.24 April 2009
My new blog: Water, Blood, & Oil
Love you all,
Tod
23 April 2009
16 April 2009
15 April 2009
07 April 2009
05 April 2009
General Conference: Shazam!
Elder Richard G. Scott's talk, in the Saturday Afternoon Session of General Conference, was a really moving account of his personal experience with God, especially his reckoning with the loss of his wife. Take a look, especially if you missed it. I was in the Conference Center for his talk and was moved very deeply in my heart.23 March 2009
20 March 2009
Drive (Reprise)
I know I posted this a while ago, but I still like it. This is a digital media poem I wrote/created after my experience in December 2007 concerning my mental health struggles.
09 March 2009
The Publicity Dilemma
This is an excerpt from a commentary posted on the Church's Newsroom in response to recent buzz over the depiction of Mormon temple rites on an upcoming episode of HBO's Big Love. In a word: wordimus:"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution does not call for boycotts. Such a step would simply generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase audiences for the series. As Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder Robert D. Hales of the Council of the Twelve Apostles have both said recently, when expressing themselves in the public arena, Latter-day Saints should conduct themselves with dignity and thoughtfulness
Not only is this the model that Jesus Christ taught and demonstrated in his own life, but it also reflects the reality of the strength and maturity of Church members today. As someone recently said, “This isn’t 1830, and there aren’t just six of us anymore.” In other words, with a global membership of thirteen and a half million there is no need to feel defensive when the Church is moving forward so rapidly. The Church’s strength is in its faithful members in 170-plus countries, and there is no evidence that extreme misrepresentations in the media that appeal only to a narrow audience have any long-term negative effect on the Church...
Now comes another series of Big Love, and despite earlier assurances from HBO it once again blurs the distinctions between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the show’s fictional non-Mormon characters and their practices. Such things say much more about the insensitivities of writers, producers and TV executives than they say about Latter-day Saints.
If the Church allowed critics and opponents to choose the ground on which its battles are fought, it would risk being distracted from the focus and mission it has pursued successfully for nearly 180 years. Instead, the Church itself will determine its own course as it continues to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world."
Full statement here.
03 March 2009
02 March 2009
Bottled Water Drinkers Are The New Smokers
"A year ago we quoted Giles Coren of the London Times writing "Mineral water is a preposterous vanity." This modest and self-effacing food critic now takes credit for the government taking action about it. "For make no mistake, this is all my doing. Since I first made my stand against bottled water in 2006 – incorporating penalty points for serving it into my restaurant ratings, vilifying its producers and mocking its consumers – consumption of the stuff has plummeted (probably) Far more restaurants than ever before offer tap water first and then bottled only as the Bling-Bling alternative. Punters who opt for the Perrier or Badoit now do so with a blush and an apology to diners at the next table.
"In 2008 drinkers of bottled water are the new smokers."
Coren concludes, in his usual style:
"From the restaurants’ point of view it is just a clipping system. It’s more free money. The mark-ups are bigger even than they are on wine. You’ll pay £4 to £5 in most posh London restaurants for stuff no different, no different at all, from what you brushed your teeth in that morning (not leaving the tap on while doing so, I hope). The result is billions of unnecessary food miles, nonbiodegradable waste, millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases, more urban pollution, hell in a handcart." ::Times Online"
Also awesome:
"Mineral water is a preposterous vanity. It is flown and shipped around the world, from France and Norway at best, from Japan and Fiji at worst. It is bottled in glass that is mostly thrown away and is stupidly heavy to freight, or in plastic which never, ever, decomposes and just goes to landfill or ends up in one of the “plastic patches” the size of Texas currently gyring in our oceans.
Food snobs and restaurant critics make a big song and dance about mineral waters they like and don’t like. New York’s Ritz-Carlton even caters to the whim of abstemious punters with a dedicated water list and sommelier.
The vanity of it! While half the world dies of thirst or puts up with water you wouldn’t piss in, or already have, we have invested years and years, and vast amounts of money, into an ingenious system which cleanses water of all the nasties that most other humans and animals have always had to put up with, and delivers it, dirt-cheap, to our homes and workplaces in pipes, which we can access at a tap.
And yet last year we bought three billion litres of bottled water. 3,000,000,000 litres! I have no idea how much that is. But it seems a lot. Especially when we were fooled into buying it because of labels that said “pure as an alpine stream”, “bottled at the foot of a Mexican volcano” or “cleansed for three million years beneath a Siberian glacier”. What morons we are. ::Times online"
From treehugger.com24 February 2009
Warcopter
I based this work off a previous manipulation of a picture from some military site. This recent attempt is a piece depicting modern warfare.
Tod
21 February 2009
19 February 2009
11 February 2009
08 February 2009
FrontRunner South Demo Using Google Earth 5.0
Here's a little demo I did using Google Earth 5.0 explaining where the University Ave Station for FrontRunner South will be. More to come later as I map out UTA's map of the whole project.
Click here to download the GE tour file (note: you will be GE 5.0 to view this).
Tod
Click here to download the GE tour file (note: you will be GE 5.0 to view this).
Tod
16 January 2009
'War on terror' was wrong
"Seven years on from 9/11 it is clear that we need to take a fundamental look at our efforts to prevent extremism and its terrible offspring, terrorist violence. Since 9/11, the notion of a "war on terror" has defined the terrain. The phrase had some merit: it captured the gravity of the threats, the need for solidarity, and the need to respond urgently - where necessary, with force. But ultimately, the notion is misleading and mistaken. The issue is not whether we need to attack the use of terror at its roots, with all the tools available. We must. The question is how."Read the rest of this great editorial by Foreign Secretary of the UK, David Miliband, by clicking here.
Just a Couple Awesome Videos
Talk about Millenial parallels here:
And of course I delight in Keifer Sutherland:
And of course I delight in Keifer Sutherland:
14 January 2009
Afghan Girls, Scarred by Acid, Defy Terror, Embracing School
Afghan Girls, Scarred by Acid, Defy Terror, Embracing School
Amazing stories of courage in this article on The New York Times website. Read it if you have a spare minute or two. The importance of girls and women receiving education is essential in combating terrorism throughout the world.
10 January 2009
Target Samples
Samples I "designed" while in the Produce Department at the Super Target in Orem, Utah.
Photos taken on my mobile phone.
Photos taken on my mobile phone.
09 January 2009
05 January 2009
19 December 2008
16 December 2008
08 December 2008
02 December 2008
It's an outrage! Mormon church donated $2,864 to Yes on 8 effort
... an in-kind donation to pay for plane fare for some of its members.
Wow. And there are still legal cases being waged to strip the Church of tax-exempt status for its $2,864 expense, even though a church can spend up to 20% of its budget on political activity. More here.
21 November 2008
17 November 2008
13 November 2008
Heroes and victims in Prop. 8 struggle by Orson Scott Card
Heroes and victims in Prop. 8 struggle by Orson Scott CardMany people worked to pass Proposition 8 in California. Those who wish to be our enemies are working hard to blame it all on the Mormons, but our votes alone could never have done the job of protecting marriage from a fatal redefinition.
If anyone doubts that, they should read the letter from Kevin Hamilton that has been circulating on the Internet.
Brother Hamilton, a seminary teacher, asked his students a couple of days after the election if any of them had been treated with hostility because they were Mormon.
Every hand went up.
So Brother Hamilton collected the statistics about who is to "blame" for passing Proposition 8 and gave it to his students, proving that we did no harm and certainly did not act alone. We were part of a coalition of people to whom marriage is not just a brand that can be put on any relationship. We did not and do not stand alone.
Then, thinking that others might be interested, Brother Hamilton wrote it into an e-mail and sent it to a couple of friends.
His friends sent it on. It spread through the church. You've probably already seen it.
When it reached me, I realized that Brother Hamilton had already done precisely the research that I intended to do for this column.
So I am posting the text of his letter at the end of this column on MormonTimes.com, and will move on to my own particular points.
There are many heroes in this struggle, but I want to call special attention to the young Saints in the singles wards of California. Outside the Church, most of their peers were against Proposition 8; inexperienced in marriage and child-rearing, they saw no harm in gay marriage.
So when our Latter-day Saint singles heeded the call of the church's leaders to take part in the defense of marriage, they, more than any other group of Saints, were swimming upstream.
They worked hard. They took risks. And many of them paid a price that is heavy indeed.
Many of them lost dear friends -- sometimes with bitter, angry recriminations from people they had once been close to.
It seems ironic that these young Mormons were open-minded enough to be friends with people whose lives were so different from their own; but their friends, in the name of tolerance, could not remain friends with Mormons who merely stood up for their faith.
If the situation had been reversed, if Prop. 8 had failed, these LDS young people would not have rejected their friends who voted to repudiate the meaning of marriage. And if they had, would they not have been condemned as bigots, for being unable to tolerate someone else voting his conscience?
I have been more fortunate. All my gay friends who might have repudiated me for supporting Prop. 8 had already condemned me long ago for standing by a Christ-centered, prophet-led church. The gay friends who remained at the time of the vote already knew my views, and our relationship continues.
(Not that I lack for hate mail and death threats from the "tolerant," mind you. It just didn't come from my friends.)
I suspect that the young Saints from those California singles wards felt the cost -- socially and in their hearts -- more keenly than anyone.
But as one of them pointed out to me in a conversation soon after the vote, "Now we know what it was like for believers in the Book of Mormon." So many times, the division between the followers of Christ and their opponents and persecutors was not geographical or national or cultural -- it was their own friends and neighbors who turned on them.
Reading the end of the book of Helaman, we can hear the voices of those who attack the church (and all religions) today.
They accuse us of continuing a "wicked tradition, which has been handed down unto us by our fathers, to cause us that we should believe in some great and marvelous thing?therefore they can keep us in ignorance, for we cannot witness with our own eyes."
They accuse the church of wanting to "keep us down to be servants to their words, and also servants unto them?and thus will they keep us in ignorance if we will yield ourselves unto them, all the days of our lives" (Hel. 16:20-21).
Their story is that we Mormons somehow oppress them and force them; they claim to be our victims. And yet they are the ones who tried to force us to accept their radical change through judicial edict, rejecting a clear majority vote only a few years before.
All we did was tell the truth, and try to persuade other people to act on that truth by voting for the proposition. We forced no one. We deceived no one?It was democracy.
Out here in the East and South, many of our young men and women are serving missions in California. When a particularly vicious and bigoted ad showed Mormon missionaries bursting into the homes of gay couples, wresting the rings from their fingers and tearing up their marriage licenses, we feared that this might make people feel justified in acts of violence and hostility toward our missionaries.
If we had put out an ad showing gay activists forcing their views on unwilling citizens, it would have actually been true -- since that is exactly what happened to make Prop. 8 necessary in the first place.
But we were careful never to do or say anything that might seem to condone violence against individual gay people. They took no such care for our missionaries.
Here is where the Savior's admonition to Peter comes into play. We can see that they would not bear it if we treated them as they have treated us -- but we will not treat them that way.
This victory in California was by a shockingly slim margin. The forces arrayed against us depend on concealing actual scientific and historical evidence from the voters -- it is frightening how close they came to blinding a majority.
Our opponents will move on to other states -- Massachusetts and Connecticut, for instance. And they will make us their targets and whipping boys. By painting us as the group trying to "force" our beliefs on unwilling people -- falsely accusing us, in short, of doing exactly what they really are doing -- they hope to arouse hatred and rage toward Mormons and use that as a means of prevailing in the political contest.
We must be prepared to be the victims of lies. We may also see acts of violence and persecution by individuals and governments against Mormons, individually and as a church.
What we must not do, what we must not tolerate, is the slightest action by any member of the church to harm or persecute others. They declare themselves our enemies, but we refuse to recognize that declaration.
We know that we are in fact the friends of all; that a society that organizes itself to promote traditional marriage is the one most likely to promote the general happiness -- even of those who choose not to enter into such a marriage.
We are not fighting a war, we are liberating people by telling them the truth. Only when they know the truth can they be free.
Kevin Hamilton's Letter on Proposition 8 and the Mormon Church
Dear Friends,
In the aftermath of the recent election, we may find ourselves oddly on the defensive regarding our support for the Yes on Proposition 8 cause. Our young people have been especially subject to mean-spirited comments by high school friends and teachers. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We did nothing wrong. In fact, we did everything that a civic-minded American can and should do. I have put together a few facts that help me to appreciate our position better. For example:
1. Mormons make up less than 2 percent of the population of California. There are approximately 800,000 LDS out of a total population of approximately 34 million.Mormon voters were less than 5 percent of the yes vote.
2. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6 percent of the yes vote and 2.4 percent of the total Proposition 8 vote.
3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.
4. The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in the country.
5. Advertising messages for the Yes on 8 campaign are based on case law and real-life situations. The No on 8 supporters have insisted that the Yes on 8 messaging is based on lies. Every Yes on 8 claim is supported.
6. The majority of our friends and neighbors voted Yes on 8. Los Angeles County voted in favor of Yes on 8. Ventura County voted in favor of Yes on 8.
7. African-Americans overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70 percent of black voters chose Yes on 8. This was interesting because the majority of these voters voted for President-elect Obama. No on 8 supporters had assumed that Obama voters would vote No on 8.
8. The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8 and cited religious beliefs (assumed to be primarily Catholic).
9. The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims -- all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California. Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.
10. Not all Mormons voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for him or herself. Church leaders have asked members to treat other members with "civility, respect and love," despite their differing views.
11. The church did not violate the principal of separation of church and state. This principle is derived from the First Amendment to the United States' Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof?" The phrase "separation of church and state", which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, although it has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court in recent years. The LDS Church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process to the extent permitted by law. U.S. election law is very clear that churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The church as always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it feels to be of a moral nature.
12. Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair and civil way. Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars and worse. The fact is, we simply did what Americans do -- we spoke up, we campaigned and we voted.
Hold your heads up high -- you did a great job on this most important cause. We will have more opportunities in the future to participate in our democratic process. Let's remember the lessons learned and do an even better job next time.
These are my personal opinions and thoughts; any errors are mine and in no way reflect official church policy or doctrine.
Thanks,
Kevin Hamilton
If anyone doubts that, they should read the letter from Kevin Hamilton that has been circulating on the Internet.
Brother Hamilton, a seminary teacher, asked his students a couple of days after the election if any of them had been treated with hostility because they were Mormon.
Every hand went up.
So Brother Hamilton collected the statistics about who is to "blame" for passing Proposition 8 and gave it to his students, proving that we did no harm and certainly did not act alone. We were part of a coalition of people to whom marriage is not just a brand that can be put on any relationship. We did not and do not stand alone.
Then, thinking that others might be interested, Brother Hamilton wrote it into an e-mail and sent it to a couple of friends.
His friends sent it on. It spread through the church. You've probably already seen it.
When it reached me, I realized that Brother Hamilton had already done precisely the research that I intended to do for this column.
So I am posting the text of his letter at the end of this column on MormonTimes.com, and will move on to my own particular points.
There are many heroes in this struggle, but I want to call special attention to the young Saints in the singles wards of California. Outside the Church, most of their peers were against Proposition 8; inexperienced in marriage and child-rearing, they saw no harm in gay marriage.
So when our Latter-day Saint singles heeded the call of the church's leaders to take part in the defense of marriage, they, more than any other group of Saints, were swimming upstream.
They worked hard. They took risks. And many of them paid a price that is heavy indeed.
Many of them lost dear friends -- sometimes with bitter, angry recriminations from people they had once been close to.
It seems ironic that these young Mormons were open-minded enough to be friends with people whose lives were so different from their own; but their friends, in the name of tolerance, could not remain friends with Mormons who merely stood up for their faith.If the situation had been reversed, if Prop. 8 had failed, these LDS young people would not have rejected their friends who voted to repudiate the meaning of marriage. And if they had, would they not have been condemned as bigots, for being unable to tolerate someone else voting his conscience?
I have been more fortunate. All my gay friends who might have repudiated me for supporting Prop. 8 had already condemned me long ago for standing by a Christ-centered, prophet-led church. The gay friends who remained at the time of the vote already knew my views, and our relationship continues.
(Not that I lack for hate mail and death threats from the "tolerant," mind you. It just didn't come from my friends.)
I suspect that the young Saints from those California singles wards felt the cost -- socially and in their hearts -- more keenly than anyone.
But as one of them pointed out to me in a conversation soon after the vote, "Now we know what it was like for believers in the Book of Mormon." So many times, the division between the followers of Christ and their opponents and persecutors was not geographical or national or cultural -- it was their own friends and neighbors who turned on them.
Reading the end of the book of Helaman, we can hear the voices of those who attack the church (and all religions) today.
They accuse us of continuing a "wicked tradition, which has been handed down unto us by our fathers, to cause us that we should believe in some great and marvelous thing?therefore they can keep us in ignorance, for we cannot witness with our own eyes."
They accuse the church of wanting to "keep us down to be servants to their words, and also servants unto them?and thus will they keep us in ignorance if we will yield ourselves unto them, all the days of our lives" (Hel. 16:20-21).
Their story is that we Mormons somehow oppress them and force them; they claim to be our victims. And yet they are the ones who tried to force us to accept their radical change through judicial edict, rejecting a clear majority vote only a few years before.
All we did was tell the truth, and try to persuade other people to act on that truth by voting for the proposition. We forced no one. We deceived no one?It was democracy.
Out here in the East and South, many of our young men and women are serving missions in California. When a particularly vicious and bigoted ad showed Mormon missionaries bursting into the homes of gay couples, wresting the rings from their fingers and tearing up their marriage licenses, we feared that this might make people feel justified in acts of violence and hostility toward our missionaries.
If we had put out an ad showing gay activists forcing their views on unwilling citizens, it would have actually been true -- since that is exactly what happened to make Prop. 8 necessary in the first place.
But we were careful never to do or say anything that might seem to condone violence against individual gay people. They took no such care for our missionaries.
Here is where the Savior's admonition to Peter comes into play. We can see that they would not bear it if we treated them as they have treated us -- but we will not treat them that way.
This victory in California was by a shockingly slim margin. The forces arrayed against us depend on concealing actual scientific and historical evidence from the voters -- it is frightening how close they came to blinding a majority.
Our opponents will move on to other states -- Massachusetts and Connecticut, for instance. And they will make us their targets and whipping boys. By painting us as the group trying to "force" our beliefs on unwilling people -- falsely accusing us, in short, of doing exactly what they really are doing -- they hope to arouse hatred and rage toward Mormons and use that as a means of prevailing in the political contest.
We must be prepared to be the victims of lies. We may also see acts of violence and persecution by individuals and governments against Mormons, individually and as a church.
What we must not do, what we must not tolerate, is the slightest action by any member of the church to harm or persecute others. They declare themselves our enemies, but we refuse to recognize that declaration.
We know that we are in fact the friends of all; that a society that organizes itself to promote traditional marriage is the one most likely to promote the general happiness -- even of those who choose not to enter into such a marriage.
We are not fighting a war, we are liberating people by telling them the truth. Only when they know the truth can they be free.
Kevin Hamilton's Letter on Proposition 8 and the Mormon Church
Dear Friends,
In the aftermath of the recent election, we may find ourselves oddly on the defensive regarding our support for the Yes on Proposition 8 cause. Our young people have been especially subject to mean-spirited comments by high school friends and teachers. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We did nothing wrong. In fact, we did everything that a civic-minded American can and should do. I have put together a few facts that help me to appreciate our position better. For example:
1. Mormons make up less than 2 percent of the population of California. There are approximately 800,000 LDS out of a total population of approximately 34 million.Mormon voters were less than 5 percent of the yes vote.
2. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6 percent of the yes vote and 2.4 percent of the total Proposition 8 vote.
3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.
4. The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in the country.
5. Advertising messages for the Yes on 8 campaign are based on case law and real-life situations. The No on 8 supporters have insisted that the Yes on 8 messaging is based on lies. Every Yes on 8 claim is supported.
6. The majority of our friends and neighbors voted Yes on 8. Los Angeles County voted in favor of Yes on 8. Ventura County voted in favor of Yes on 8.
7. African-Americans overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70 percent of black voters chose Yes on 8. This was interesting because the majority of these voters voted for President-elect Obama. No on 8 supporters had assumed that Obama voters would vote No on 8.
8. The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8 and cited religious beliefs (assumed to be primarily Catholic).
9. The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims -- all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California. Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.
10. Not all Mormons voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for him or herself. Church leaders have asked members to treat other members with "civility, respect and love," despite their differing views.
11. The church did not violate the principal of separation of church and state. This principle is derived from the First Amendment to the United States' Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof?" The phrase "separation of church and state", which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, although it has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court in recent years. The LDS Church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process to the extent permitted by law. U.S. election law is very clear that churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The church as always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it feels to be of a moral nature.
12. Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair and civil way. Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars and worse. The fact is, we simply did what Americans do -- we spoke up, we campaigned and we voted.
Hold your heads up high -- you did a great job on this most important cause. We will have more opportunities in the future to participate in our democratic process. Let's remember the lessons learned and do an even better job next time.
These are my personal opinions and thoughts; any errors are mine and in no way reflect official church policy or doctrine.
Thanks,
Kevin Hamilton
What are your thoughts Yummies (ps---My dad tells me this is what the developers in Utah are calling us young urban Mormons, yuck...)?
11 November 2008
07 November 2008
05 November 2008
27 October 2008
A Statement about God
C.S. Lewis once wrote:
“What would really satisfy us would be a god who said of anything we happened to be doing, ‘What does it matter so long as they are contented?’ We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, liked to see young people enjoying themselves’, and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all.’ ”
Application to the gay-marriage movement?
24 October 2008
Thirteen Years of House Arrest for The Lady
I realize this picture is gigantic, and that is with good reason. As of today, October 24, 2008, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been a prisoner in her own home for thirteen years now. Suu Kyi is still silenced by tyrants and we must pray and work to get her out. We must free her and every other soul that has been denied the use of moral agency for the benefit of their brothers and sisters.
God be with you Mrs. Suu Kyi.
15 October 2008
Bearding the Loss of Files
I have lost all my school files for this semester, aside from a few older versions of files that I emailed people. Basically, I am all messed up and grumped. I have been spending the last half-day trying to recreate all the stuff I lost and I found that the definition of bearding coincides for both my traumatic effort to "recover" my losses and the growth of said hair on my face.
I need a hug.
13 October 2008
17 September 2008
I'm in the process of changing
Yes, I am changing, my being, and also the site is going through a constructive phase as I learn more JavaScript. Anyhow, I want you all to know that I know you don't know what is going on either.
Ha.
27 August 2008
First Day of Fall 2008 Semester
I'm just hanging out in the new "Digital Learning Center" here on campus. Funny thing that this school cannot even call this place a library, but at least they're providing me with free Wi-Fi. I'm waiting for Wendi Cheney, my archiving buddy, to work on a collection in the UVU Archives. Looking forward to a day of rummaging through papers and I'm hoping to find some goods. Anyhow, I should be posting more often as I will be around more hotspots to get on the blog and get to work.Hope all of you are feeling some peace in your hearts this day,
----Tod
PS--- I'm trying to grow a mustache, but it's not working out very well. I will remain valiant though (a month?).
29 May 2008
Doctrine and Covenants Eighty-Eight
Artworks based on Doctrine and Covenants Eighty-Eight
by: Tod Robbins
Verse 68
Verse 73
More to come shortly, as it is an ongoing series of mine.
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