A life in words

  • Pip pip! Cheerio!

    Well, the Profile Picture Contest drew to a close with little fanfare on Saturday. And the winner received his prize of a box of brownie mix with even less fanfare in the bottom floor of the library next to my locker a few days ago! And the winner is: “Sir Josh, Lord of Schmedbury” (my…

  • “That Evil May Be Done Away”

    The most recent issue of BYU Political Review is well worth reading. In particular, I suggest that you read Why Europe is Losing the Fight Against Trafficking, Technology and the Rise of Modern Slavery, and Adoption and Corruption in Guatemala. Against Secret Combinations “Secret combinations” is a term used by the Book of Mormon to…

  • The Endorsement You’ve All Been Waiting For!

    Endorsements, endorsements, endorsements! Everybody’s getting into the endorsement business these days: Romney just endorsed McCain[1], Oprah’s all for Obama[2], Bill Clinton endorsed Hillary Clinton[3], and my sources tell me even Oscar the Grouch is on the verge of endorsing somebody![4] So what the heck, why not jump into the fray and endorse somebody myself? I’ve…

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion…. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations…. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form….John Stuart Mill, On LIberty