Downright Scary

The feds recently charged Brian Annoreno of Bartlett, IL of doing unthinkable acts to an infant.

The scary think is that I did a google search for this guy, and found some links indicating that he was trying to adopt a kid back in 1999. There are some pretty messed-up people out there!

On BYU

More than two years as an active participant in the Bloggernacle almost had me convinced that BYU was a bad thing.  This was based on so many negative posts and comments about BYU and the BYU experience (too many to link).  And I have been candid that in some contexts, having BYU on your resume could be a negative thing (but this minor criticism is entirely different from the criticisms of BYU in the Bloggernacle over the last couple of years to which I am referring).

But last week, Allison and I decided to take the kids to lunch and ice-cream in the Cougareat on our way down to a weekend in St. George.  Just eating lunch there with my family during a busy school day crowded with students of all kinds, and with the Cougareat crowded with booths for student elections and for other clubs and campus societies, including vocal groups standing around singing, etc., was enough to remind me that BYU is good.  I was proud to sit at a table with my young daughters next to a table of very loud and conspicuous Arabic-speakers (I thought Americans were supposed to be the loud conspicuous ones in public places), another table of Japanese girls speaking Japanese (much more familiar to my daughters since their aunt is Japanese), and a group of Spanish speakers.  I thought it was interesting that we randomly sat among such diversity at the supposedly jingoistic BYU campus. 

BYU is more than good.  It is a wonderful place to live and learn; it most certainly does not deserve the negative evaluations of it that are so common in the Bloggernacle.  The teachers (whom I know and experienced) are good; the students are good; the lifestyle is exceptionally good; the knowledge is wonderful; the means by which the knowledge is transmitted is enlightening and inspiring; and the common purpose is divinely authorized.  I am grateful I went there and experienced it.  I would be delighted if my daughters chose to do so as well.

Six Score and Ten Years Ago This Week

130 years ago this week, something happened that impacted the world in general, the direction of an important area of U.S. law, and the immediate temporal well-being of my family today.

Care to hazard a guess? (Hint: you’re probably going to be wrong.)

20 kids, 11 women, and 1 “dad”

Imagine having 20 children with 11 women, but having intimate relations with none of them! It’s happened, thanks to the "miracle" of modern science!

Cookies and Other Sweet Things in Life

Last week I went back to work full-time after a month of "paternity leave".  My month off left me contemplating the sweeter things in life- like making cookies with my children.

The Solomon Amendment Lives On

Today, the United States Supreme Court upheld the "Solomon Amendment" against a challenge from a group of law schools claiming that the "forced inclusion and equal treatment of military recruiters violated the law schools’ First Amendment freedoms of speech and association." Rumsfeld v. FAIR, 547 U.S. ____ (March 6, 2006), online version at 3.

Indeed, according to FAIR (Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights- the association of law school faculties who was the plaintiff in this case), "the Solomon Amendment was unconstitutional because it forced law schools to choose between exercising their First Amendment right to decide whether to disseminate or accommodate a military recruiter’s message, and ensuring the availability of federal funding for their universities."  Id.

So, what is the Solomon amendment, and why does it matter?