My views as gospel...

Nothing is easier than to identify one's own favorite political, economic, historical, and moral convictions with the gospel. That gives one a neat, convenient, but altogether too easy advantage over one's fellows. If my ideas are the true ones--and I certainly will not entertain them if I suspect for a moment that they are false!--then, all truth being one, they are also the gospel, and to oppose them is to play the role of Satan.

This is simply insisting that our way is God's way and therefore, the only way. It is the height of impertinence.

Nibley, "Beyond Politics", _BYU Studies_ 1974

2006 hurricanes?

What happened to all the disastrous hurricanes that were supposed to come this year? I haven't heard of a single one yet.

Here's the NOAA wrap-up of the 2006 hurricane season.

2006 Hurricane Season Summary

FOUR HURRICANES...FLORENCE...GORDON...HELENE...AND ISAAC DEVELOPED
IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN DURING SEPTEMBER.  ERNESTO...
WHICH DEVELOPED IN AUGUST...WAS STILL A TROPICAL CYCLONE AS THE
MONTH OF SEPTEMBER BEGAN.  TWO OF THE HURRICANES...GORDON AND
HELENE...BECAME MAJOR HURRICANES.  OVERALL...NEAR NORMAL LEVELS OF
TROPICAL CYCLONE ACTIVITY OCCURRED DURING SEPTEMBER.

SUMMARY TABLE

 

NAME             DATES        MAX WIND   DEATHS   U.S. DAMAGE
                                MPH                $MILLION
---------------------------------------------------------------
H ERNESTO     24 AUG-2 SEP       75         2          N/A
H FLORENCE     3-12 SEP          90         0          0
H GORDON      10-20 SEP         120         0          0
H HELENE      12-24 SEP         125         0          0
H ISAAC       27 SEP-            85         0          0
-------------------------------------------------------------- 

Here's a series of 2006 hurricane forecasts, starting from early in the
year and progressing to just a few weeks ago.

2006 Hurricane Forecasts

Last spring these guys were really excited that 2006 would be a huge hurricane season. But as the year passed, few of the major storms materialized. On that basis I think you could safely say that their
predictions are just about worthless.

Today in Sunday School we studied Jeremiah. My observation about Jeremiah was that if someone like that was around today, he would be some kind of cultist fanatic nut case.

The surprising thing was, in spite of all his kooky behavior, Jeremiah was very close with the Lord, and his dire prognostications were correct, and ultimately were all fulfilled.

Compare and contrast Jeremiah with some of the modern authors of the global warming jeremiad. (Algore, in particular.) I think these politicians and scientists are false prophets. Their predictions are accurate only as far as their egos can carry them. If they were honest, they would publish their forecasts with a bit more humility.

Another question that came up today in the discussion of hurricanes.

It seemed that George Bush got all kinds of flak last year associated with Hurricane Katrina. It was almost as if a lot of people blamed him personally for causing the storm.

Does he get credit this year for preventing hurricanes?

How to change things?

In his Messenger and Advocate blog, Guy Murray deplores the current situation in Iraq.

I Am Ashamed

In reply, I proposed that he suggest how he might change current circumstances, given that he could go back in time to a moment of his choice, retaining the knowledge he has of current circumstances.

I thought this might develop into an interesting way to examine current circumstances and how we feel about them.

I haven't collaborated with Guy Murray about this. He may decide it is a stupid idea.

We'll see what happens.

Single Mother oxymoron

In the human family there is really no such thing as a "single mother. The very idea is a nonsensical legal fiction, a semantic contradiction. "Single" and "mother" cannot complement each other, since they denote states that are mutually exclusive in terms of biological functions. Human females that are birth mothers always have a male partner, which means that these mothers cannot properly be termed "single".

More correctly, we might say there are "unmarried mothers", or perhaps elaborate further with "mothers who function absent fathers".

Polly's Peak fire

Instead of listening to General Conference this weekend, I worked on a fire. We got TV coverage and several newspaper stories. They got most of the details wrong, but you get the idea.

KSL

Deseret News

Salt Lake Tribune

Interesting weekend.