If you’ve never read Screwtape Letters, but more specifically “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”, I suggest you do so. I think it can be found online. If it’s been a while, read it again.
I re-read it the other day and even though it was written in the late 1950s, it sounds like it was written recently.
You’ll thank me later.
Question for LDS friends.
How do you feel about Stake YM or Ward/Stake YW leaders called who don’t, and have never had, kids close to the ages of these groups?
So Sanderson is purchasing Evernote. Probably going to make it into a life sized fairy village. IYKYK
This looks good.
I’m proud to share the trailer for my new film, GHOST SOLDIER. See it exclusively in movie theaters this Veterans Day, 11/11.
#ghostsolidermovie
This is awesome!
I think I saw somewhere that this may end up being one of the lowest cost medical schools in the country.
I’ve had my frustrations with BYU in the last several years, and I still have concerns. But this is a good thing!
BREAKING: The BYU School of Medicine has received preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), authorizing the school to recruit and admit students and launch its MD program.
@byumedschool will welcome its first students in July 2027 and will begin accepting applications in the coming weeks following activation of its listing on the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS).
The BYU Board of Trustees has also approved plans for the school's future home, a 275,000-square-foot building on BYU's West Campus, just east of Intermountain Health's Utah Valley Hospital—the School of Medicine’s primary clinical affiliate. Construction is expected to begin in 2027.
I think we should talk about the “automatic security clearance” that elected representatives get. I think they should have to go through this same investigation and approval process as anyone else.
Sure I can think of reasons why this approval could be weaponized, but if you could mitigate that, what do you think?
Not sure if anyone can fill me in on the details of the Ukraine / Starlink drama.
I’ve seen two lines of comments from people defending Elon.
First, is that there is a branch of Starlink called Starshield that is operated by the US Government / Military and they can do whatever they want with this network. I am familiar with this already from work.
Second, is that Elon had stipulated that general Starlink terminals he provided were not allowed to be utilized for offensive military action.
The thing I haven’t seen is the specifics. Was Ukraine using these capabilities offensively and Starlink had to enforce terms of use? OR, did the US ask Ukraine to stop hitting refineries and they were going to do it anyway? Had we loaned them some Starshield terminals?
I’m actually good with either scenario, I’ve just seen different people arguing both explanations.
They keep on using that word. I do not believe it means what they think it means.
My dear American friends,
Someone just quoted my post saying "the anti-fascists are bringing more fascism." He's more right than he knows. Let me tell you the history of that word, because nobody teaches it to you.
"Fascism" comes from Mussolini, Italy, 1919. "Antifascism" was born there a few years later, among his opponents: socialists, liberals, Catholics, communists. At that moment, the word meant something real.
Then Moscow took it.
In the late 1920s, the Comintern, Stalin's international arm, adopted a doctrine called "social fascism." The idea was simple: the moderate left, the social democrats, were fascists too. If you weren't with the Communists, you were a fascist. The word stopped describing an ideology and became a label for enemies.
In 1932, the German Communist Party launched "Antifaschistische Aktion." Look at its logo: two flags in a circle. It's the same logo you see on Antifa banners in American cities today. Same symbol, almost a century later. Back then, that movement spent as much energy attacking the Social Democrats as attacking the Nazis. While the left tore itself apart, Hitler took power.
After the war, the Soviet bloc made "antifascism" its official state religion. East Germany officially named the Berlin Wall the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart." A wall built to keep its own people from escaping. Called antifascist.
That's the whole trick. Whoever controls the word "fascist" decides who is allowed to speak. Orwell saw it in 1946, when he wrote that "fascism" had come to mean little more than "something I don't like."
Real antifascists existed. The French Resistance. The soldiers who landed in Normandy. They fought fascism with their lives. They didn't need the word as a brand.
Today, you live in a world of inverted words. Censorship is "fighting misinformation." Burning cities is "mostly peaceful." Disagreement is "hate." And the person screaming "fascist" at everyone who disagrees with him is usually the one who wants power without debate.
So here's the test. When someone calls himself an antifascist, ignore the label and watch what he does. Does he want to silence opponents? Cancel speakers? Get people fired, banned, deplatformed? Then the label is a costume.
I'm French. We've lived this. For decades, anyone in France who questioned immigration, taxes, or the size of the state was called "far right" or "fascist." Half the country has been labeled that way. The result was no debate, only exclusion. And a country that stopped growing.
This vocabulary is now the vocabulary of the American left. Every Republican is "a threat to democracy." Every opponent is "fascist." And once your opponent is a fascist, everything becomes permitted against him. That's the logic of 1932, recycled.
So, my American friends, before you vote, ask yourself one question: who wants to argue with you, and who wants to silence you?
The answer tells you who the real fascist is.
It’s never enough.
I’m French. I want to talk to Americans who are about to vote Democrat. Not to insult you. To warn you.
I come from your future.
In France we did everything your progressive politicians promise. Free healthcare, free college, generous welfare, strong unions, heavy regulation, high taxes on the rich, a state that takes care of everything. Public spending close to 57% of GDP, one of the highest on the planet. On paper, it’s the dream.
Here’s what it looks like from the inside. France hasn’t passed a balanced budget since 1974. Our debt is above 3,300 billion euros. Interest on that debt is becoming one of the biggest items in the national budget. Our hospitals are collapsing despite record funding. Our schools rank lower every year. Young people with degrees can’t afford an apartment in the city they were born in. Our best engineers leave for London, Zurich and San Francisco. And the rich you wanted to tax? They left too, and took the jobs with them.
The promise was protection. The result is stagnation.
The worst part is that nobody in France voted for decline. Every single step sounded generous, compassionate, reasonable. One more program. One more regulation. One more tax to fund it. Each step alone makes sense. Fifty years of them, and you wake up in a country that can no longer build a nuclear plant on time or keep its streets safe.
I love America because it’s the one place on earth where people still believe they can build something from nothing. I came to Silicon Valley as a self-taught kid and it changed my life. That spirit is the most precious thing your country has.
Before you vote, ask yourself one question: is the program you’re voting for making America more like America, or more like France?
Trust me. You don’t want to be France.
Happy 251st Birthday to the United States Navy!
On October 13, 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the purchase and arming of two vessels to intercept British supply ships. That resolution was the birth certificate of the Continental Navy—and of the sea service that has carried the fight forward ever since.
From wooden frigates and “I have not yet begun to fight” to steel carriers and the modern fleet, Sailors have kept the watch.
To every shipmate who has ever answered the call—whether you crossed the Line as a slimy Pollywog and came out a Trusty Shellback (or even a Golden Shellback or Bluenose), stood your watches, spent time cranking,, swabbed decks, swept water, manned battle stations, or simply kept the ship running shipshape and Bristol fashion—thank you.
To the active duty, the reserves, the veterans, the families who held down the home front, and every rate from the newest boot to the saltiest Chief: Bravo Zulu. You’ve written the next chapters of the same story that started with those two small ships.
Fair winds and following seas. Non sibi sed patriae.
I don’t know who this is, but it’s pretty clear they have been subjected to American education in the last 20 years, because that is where this has originated from.
During the 2016 cycle when this was a Ted Cruz campaign issue I mentioned this to a friend that was a VP at a bank. He didn’t think the tax industry would ever allow filing taxes to become easy. They would lobby against simple taxes till the end of time.
Remember there is always another “x industrial complex”, and we should be aware these industries have their own motivations and goals. But that also doesn’t mean we can’t argue for common sense things like a simple tax code and tax filing process.
Congratulations to Robert Hall on winning the 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics!
Let’s pass the flat tax he helped pioneer: 18%, the first $60,000 tax-free, no deductions, no loopholes.
Want to see this economy on fire? Give Americans a postcard tax return!
I previously say 350k thrown around. Curious why the number got bigger.
Also, curious on an update of how many they think they have found and what is the general outcome of those situations? Who were they with? Were they being abused? What is next for these children?
Five years ago: Under the Biden Administration, over 450,000 unaccompanied migrant children went missing in the United States, many of them victims of human and sex trafficking.
President Trump has put an end to that madness and restored control of our borders. DHS continues to find these missing and exploited children.
This isn’t exactly related, but the comment about retail reminded me.
I asked my wife why it seems most stores that many people shop at are stores that sell the rejects from “better” stores, and who shops at those other stores.
With the exception of like Walmart, when my kids needed school clothes or church clothes we are often at ROSS or TJ Maxx. We do pretty well, but when I see the prices on some of these clothes items before they make it to these stores, I wonder who buys them at that price?
We had a short discussion in Elders Quorum yesterday about President Christofferson’s talk about gambling.
I referenced his comment about how the goal of gambling is ultimately, “something for nothing”, and then compared this to other things we should avoid. Pornography for example is, in a way, the idea of getting the “fruits” of a healthy relationship, without any of the work that goes with it. Obviously in this case it will be an empty fruit.
The same goes for gambling. Often people joke about people who inherit wealth or win something that if they haven’t developed the right skills, in the end it generally wont do them any good.
I think you can make the same comparison to socialism / communism. People start thinking that it is “the government’s” job to take care of them, and your life will be empty.
All things we receive in life should be things that we struggled for, worked for, endured for, and ultimately, earned.
This is important.
During Covid I was amazed at the number of things I heard mentioned, sometimes in passing, that China could potentially use as leverage. One of them was aspirin and one was antibiotics. I didn’t understand how a country could get like this.
Now I work in an industry where the IT hardware we operate must have an approval that generically means, not made in China. Even still, it’s often a joke. The main hardware will be certified, but then components that get used don’t go through the process.
Listening to Uncommon Knowledge episode and they talked about focusing on things that are important for national defense should be the focus. I think there is a challenge though where like Palmer mentions below, in a true supply chain, you’ll end up tracing various pieces back to China or other source we should avoid.
Palmer Luckey warns America must break its dependence on Chinese supply chains before it’s too late 🇺🇸🇨🇳
“We have to get off of Chinese supply chains. And not just things that are literally made in China, but even things that are dependent on China.
So if it’s dependent on Chinese precursor chemicals, or Chinese equipment for machinery or processing, we have to make very aggressive moves to stay away from that and keep a U.S. and allied supply chain to the absolute greatest extent possible.
Anduril’s not even really what I’m concerned about. It’s the broader economy, and maybe some other defense companies.
If you can believe it, there are lots of U.S. defense companies buying from China, and they haven’t had the foresight to go and build it, as we are in Ohio.”