A Childish election

If you ever wondered if politicians were just too childish to be allowed I think this describes it quite well.

“Strong like the Hulk” is my favourite line in this one by the way.

Sweater kid – Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Conservatives)
French kid – Stephan Dion (Liberal)
Moustache kid – Jack Layton (NDP)
Glasses kid – Elizabeth May (Greens)

The Conservatives have the best Pokemon

This should be subtitled, how to explain politics to my kids.

My second eldest is doing a report for school on the Federal election here in Canada.  The Conservative party is currently in power and have been since January 2006.  We are now in a new election campaign as the governing party decided (as they can under Canadian convention and law) to call an election.  Though recent law inacted by the Government set fixed election dates when one has a minority parliament things are rather fluid.

Can a cultural Mormon believe in the Book of Mormon?

Tim Malone in his recent posting discussed various stages of Mormons who did not believe in the church any more and why they may have done so.

One point he brings up is the idea of Cultural Mormons, not originally his idea, the consept that people stay in the Church for reasons which no longer have anything to do with Doctrine.  They do not believe in the Gospel or the authority of the church but simply have reasons to still attend.

Now I have read enough of the blogosphere to know that some argue that they believe in the BOM as being from God as written by a 19th century man about issues of his day, no Mormon, no Moroni, just a clever, inspired writer.   I am dubious of that notion for several reasons but the chief among them being what the “writer” claimed about how he got them.  It is just a little to Fawn Brodie for me.

Nathan Eldon Tanner – the political years

During most of the last century Cardston, Raymond and Magrath Alberta made up the “Mormon Triangle” which dominated its own political riding (similar to District in US political terminology).   This riding was and is a creature of habit, with only a few exceptions once elected never rejected.

In 1935 during the height of the Great Depression one of the new political thoughts running through Britain and Canada was a concept put forward by Major Clifford Hugh Douglas called Social Credit.  This is a complex political idea which in practice never really worked.  Though practiced in only a few areas none made it work successfully.

landing with feet on the ground

So after arriving back in Edmonton, the largest most northern city in North America.  The place is all very familiar.  It is a nice sense of purpose to see that things while changing still have significant areas that remain the same.

Meanwhile, I have been speculating on a few ideas of which to study for my next history related project.  It is still a work in progress, mostly because I have only myself motivating me.  In the meantime I have still be reading and coming to grips with my old network up here.  An important part of any job search is connections, the more you have the better it is for you later on.  So thus I am working the phones among those I know.

It has meant that other things have taken a back seat but I finally have my old history books unpacked so I am hopeful of making some progress.  It is always nice to see your treasured paperbacks and hardcovers you acquire over the years after a move.  It is like meeting an old friend for me.

I am still considering the path I want to go down after this past summer but certainly one of my goals is to continue to approach a study of US 19th century religous history.  It is just far to fascinating a subject to let it go now.   So I will start posting some things I find on these subjects starting tomorrow.  But for now lets just say I am happy to have landed mostly feet on the ground.

Moving on up… to the northlands

Well tomorrow we move.

So this blog will not see any new posts before Monday (fingers and toes firmly crossed).  I will hopefully have some further updates next week and with my books available again I might have a few history related discussions to bring forward.
Meantime here is an observation I have made lately.

Read any good books lately?

So what are fellow readers reading?  For me I found a bit of a treasure trove of old books as I have been killing time at my Mother-in-law’s house (especially after my laptop cord broke leaving me internetless for the duration, except when I can steal my wife’s.

My most recent find was Joseph Fielding Smith’s Man, his origin and his destiny, which is fun to have for the history of the book if nothing else.  Right now however I am actually reading two books, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormonby John L. Sorenson.  Other than losing me in the middle of his discussions of walking distance and interminable math I found it an intriguing book.  It certainly places the Limited Geography Theory in context.