Happy Thanksgiving

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my wonderful wife. I'm so grateful that I have her in my life. She's the one who keeps me going.

Another thing I'm grateful for is the chance to live here in Utah. But not only that, the Ranches in Eagle Mountain. It's a wonderful place to live, to have a family, and to enjoy life.

As we head into this holiday season I'm so excited. We've made a decision to have a much more humble holidays. For the last several years I've probably spent too much trying to buy a perfect Christmas. But this year we are not going to spend very much money, and we are planning on doing a lot more of the traditional events, like visiting Temple Square, and viewing the lights.

One exciting thing we are doing this year is the Festival of Trees. We will be making a tree for our niece Kaleya. (More on that to come).

I urge everyone to enjoy the holiday for what it is, don't be fooled into thinking that good deals and large presents are what make this a special time.

Rivalry Week Videos

As you can tell, I enjoy the rivalry we Brigham Young fans have with the University of Utah. What I really enjoy is that there are two teams who lay it all out on the line on a Saturday afternoon.

Rivalry week should be fun natured competition, and even a few light hearted pranks, as evidenced in this video:

 

 

Ultimately it’s decided on the field, so here’s a video from the 2000 season, LaVells last miracle.

and from the 2006 BYU/Utah game (though it starts with the end of the 2005 game).

And last year’s game…

Rivalry Week, cont…

A lot of people don’t understand the rivalry between Brigham Young University (BYU) and the University of Utah. This is an extremely hard fought game between the successful, intelligent and beautiful BYU Cougars and their redneck cousin’s who couldn’t get into a private school.

In order to show the differences between the two schools I have taken two pictures which I feel fairly contrasts the two schools.

Rivalry Week

It’s the start of Rivalry Week, so in honor of that, I thought I would post a few pictures.

Go Cougars!

Hatred Rears its Ugly Head on Prop-8 Supporters

I just read an amazing article about the hatred that is spewing forth from the so called open-minded, ultra progressives. The article is found in the Meridian, and you can link to it here. I've borrowed heavily from it, because it is so well written. The pictures all come from the article.

As you all know, conservative and liberal Californians came together to define marriage as a union only between man and wife. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, along with countless other churches and groups urged their members to support this cause. Many Mormons (and members of other faiths) followed that council and supported Proposition 8.

Those who disagree with Proposition 8 however are not content to leave it up to the majority to decide and are violently opposing those they feel brought this on. The group they have singled out to punish? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

According to their rhetoric, the church should be banned and outlawed. At the very least, their tax-exempt status should be revoked, all because they had a difference of opinion. But it's not just attacks on the church, it's personal, violent, hate-crimes being perpetrated against individuals, and it's largely going unpunished. An LDS detective supervisor in the LAPD reports this:

I learned at the rally several of our ward members had received hate mail after their names, religious affiliation, contribution amounts, and addresses were published on a website inciting No On 8 supporters to target the listed individuals. Their houses and cars had been vandalized, their campaign support signs stolen, and opposition signs planted in their place.

Websites of families, corporations and others are repeatedly being hacked and the contents changed to show homosexual pornographic films. Clearly these actions are winning the hearts and minds of the people who supported Proposition 8.

The LDS temple in Los Angeles has been the site of numerous large, confrontational, violent, and illegal protests by angry mobs.

Protesters have defaced gates and walls protecting the temple. According to the LAPD when several Hispanic women, who were not members of the LDS church, began removing the hate-filled banners "the mob exploded and began beating the individuals to the ground."

Over the last several years members of the Church have had it pretty easy in terms of violent opposition. But many of our progenitors faced this and much worse every day. What I find amazing is just how prophetic our leaders are. They knew this day was coming, and have even taught us how we are to respond to our hate filled neighbors.

Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote, “I would say that one of mortality's great tests comes when our beliefs are questioned or criticized. In such moments, we may want to respond aggressively – to put up our dukes . But these are important opportunities to step back, pray, and follow the Savior's example. Remember, Jesus Himself was despised and rejected by the world. And in Lehi's dream, those coming to the Savior also endured ‘mocking and pointing … fingers' (1 Nephi 8:27). ‘The world hath hated [my disciples],' Jesus said, ‘because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world' (John 17:14). But when we respond to our accusers as the Savior did, we not only become more Christlike, we invite others to feel His love and follow Him as well.

I hope that we can respond to this hate with love. Yet we must always stand firm and true in what we believe. It wont always be easy in this life to do what is right, but it will always be worth it.

Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day, to all those who read this blog and are veterans, and if there are one or two other veterans out there who don't read this blog, happy Veterans Day to you too, and I hope you stop by.

It's an amazing thing what young men and women do here, to volunteer their time to go and serve for something greater. It would be a difficult life, so rewarding and so costly. I'm forever in your gratitude.

Since today is Veteran's Day, I thought I'd share an article I found the other day. It talks about the booming sales in the gun industry since Obama was elected. Apparently some feel like Obama's hard-line stance against the 2nd Amendment will cause guns to become more difficult and costly to acquire, if they are still allowed at all. Here is a link to the article.

Will the 2nd Amendment be limited in the upcoming years? It's hard to say. I hope not, but a liberty lost is nearly impossible to restore.

Cartoon Crush

I heard an interesting conversation on the radio the other day about cartoon crushes. You know, those gals, or guys for the ladies, that you just fell in love with when you were a kid. For some people, it is Bugs Bunny in a dress, for others it's not so creepy. Actually, it is a little bit creepy no matter what, but I think just about everyone has a cartoon crush.

I thought for a long time about this subject, ok, not really, but I've decided to break it down a little. As a note, I am not including any of the Japanese Anime type stuff, one, because I'm not into it, and B, it's can devolve into some really weird stuff that goes beyond what I want to do here.

So... First, one that I think would be most common would be Jessica Rabbit, from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I think we all remember this seductress. But you know, she never really did it for me. It's just too much, can you imagine how many hours a day she spends on her ears each morning?

Next, there is Tinkerbell, but I think she is really more popular with the ladies than with the guys. Why? Because she's too sassy and emotional for guys to really want to put up with her, but she does have that cute fairy-like frame. It just seems like she would always be totting around too much baggage.

Now we get to some real possibilities, I'm going to skip over most of the Disney Princesses, because I always found them too stiff, plus, they were old when I was a kid, so it never would have worked out. But, Ariel, of the Little Mermaid, now there's another story. She's sweet and innocent, but pretty hot too. She doesn't talk back a lot either, of course that's usually when the sea urchin has stolen her voice, so Ariel is a strong candidate.

But, best of all Disney Princesses is none other than Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She is the ultimate cartoon crush. She's down-to-earth, polite, can obviously see the inner beauty of others, she likes to read, she's low maintenance - which is so nice, but she also cleans up really well. You really get the best of both worlds.

So, who is your cartoon crush?