The Oath

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Rebooting Christmas (and Life)

Mellow as I am these days, I gave in early to the Christmas music. My wife has been sneakily listening to it since Halloween. She asked me last night if I would make a couple of playlists on iTunes so she could plug in the iPod to the stereo receiver since we don't have a CD player hooked up to it anymore.

But technology comes with a price - a heavy price of frustration. I had finally given in to downloading iTunes 10.7 on my old netbook worried whether it would exceed its capabilities. I uninstalled Bonjour that comes with iTunes because I knew I didn't have any of those fancy devices that work with it anyway and an earlier version had given me a lot of trouble. I started to import the MoTab version of Christmas music and my dang iTunes wouldn't work! (I think I can say "dang" if I've already said "MoTab"). So I tried all kinds of things to get it going - trouble shooting this and that, re-installing "Bonjour," uninstalling iTunes 10.7 and installing 9.2.5 (which couldn't read my files since they'd already been read by a more "advanced" version, and all kinds of other stuff I'm not even sure I can explain (without embarrassing myself with my techie friends and family).

General Petraeus Did Us a Favor

The adultery and fallout are tragic events for the Petraeus Family and not helpful at the CIA. And then there's the whole Benghazi mess to straighten out only because the right has stirred the pot so badly and unnecessarily to discredit somehow the Obama Administration when it was their own presidential candidate who embarrassed himself so badly (the 47% tape, the night of the attacks, and Debate II).

General Petreaus accomplished great service to the country. Yet he proved himself human and resigned with the President's encouragement. Tragic, yes. But this helps restore and reinforce civilian control over the military - a very important part of our constitutional law and tradition.

Election Post-Mortem 2012 III - E Pluribus Purplum

OK, I wasn't going to do any more autopsies, but I found the best map ever showing the United States of Purple. It was from an Atlantic piece explaining why city voters tend Democratic and is a really good read. It's a little more complicated in the busy industrial, commercial, and population centers than lazy people sitting around waiting for free stuff.

One Week Later - The Union Endures!

Wanting to call this "Election Post-Mortem II" I read the first one and figured I didn't really need to say much more. Still trying really hard not to gloat especially with my own son making me feel a little guilty about being too prideful, I have to confess that I only slightly lost my cool last Sunday in High Priests' Group.

I have a really great ward that avoids politics for the most part. While I've only seen one other member at the Democratic Caucus, I know there are a few other sympathetic souls, more than even appear on the Democratic registration list I had when I was Precinct Chair. But sometimes, those old guys in HP Group can get a little crotchety so I have to respond.

Humility & Pride (Guest Post)

My BYU Freshman Son gave me permission to share the talk he gave in Sacrament Meeting today as a guest post. He had been asking me for a little advice not using what I thought was my best idea (perhaps he was appropriately inspired not to). I'll share it at the end so as not to detract from this excellent talk:

Good morning Brothers and Sisters, [introduces self], I am primarily from Centerville, Utah, but I used to live in New Mexico. I am majoring in physics with a minor in music, and I plan to go into acoustics. I would like to start off by sharing a quote from a talk by President Benson. It reads:

“Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion. I repeat: Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion.”

Election Post-Mortem 2012 (by Faith, nothing wavering)

A few days have passed, so it's time to share a few thoughts, and my thoughts alone, about what happened. And as I promised, no gloating. (At least I'll try really, really hard.)

Electoral College Map 2012

And here's another version from the University of Michigan (h/t HF & PB) with the geography contorted to represent population of states: