April 2004 @ 5:48 am

Many newspapers picked up on this story:

A couple on the Atkins Diet have a beef with a local restaurant after being booted from the buffet for eating too much meat.

Isabelle Leota, 29, and her husband Sui Amaama, 26, both on the no-carb diet, were dining Tuesday at a Chuck-A-Rama in the Salt Lake City suburb of Taylorsville when the manager cut them off because they’d eaten too much roast beef.

“It’s so embarrassing actually,” said Leota. “We went in to have dinner, we were under the impression Chuck-A-Rama was an all you can eat establishment.”

This recalls a Simpsons episode (of course) where Homer eats all the food at the all-you-can-eat The Frying Dutchman and still wants more. Of course, he sues its owner, Captain McAlister (“‘Tis no man. ‘Tis a remorseless eating machine.”).

Homer pays a visit to Lionel Hutz’s “I Can’t Believe It’s a Law Firm”
law firm.

Homer: All you can eat. Ha!
Hutz: Mr. Simpson, this is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising
since my suit against the film, “The Never-Ending Story”.
— “The New Kid on the Block”

Homer: So, do you think I have a case?
Hutz: I don’t use the word hero very often, but you are the greatest hero
in American history.
Homer: Woo-hoo!
— I’m sorry, did I say `hero’? I meant `zero’.

And later, at the trial:

During the proceedings, a Domino’s pizza is delivered for Homer.
Lionel Hutz draws out of Marge the fact that after being thrown
out of the restaurant, they drove around until 3am looking for
another all-you-can-eat fish restaurant, and failing that, they
went fishing. Marge collapses in tears. Hutz addresses the jury of
Homer’s peers (all overweight citizens). Captain McAlister
approaches Homer and offers a settlement.

Marge covers her face as Homer chows down heartily on all the food
he can eat, at the window table. A huge crowd of onlookers have
gathered, and Captain McAlister ushers them inside, barking, “Come for
the freak; stay for the food.”

(By the way this episode will be released in the Simpsons Fourth Season DVD set this June)

In other important Utah-related restaurant news, Kentucky Fried Chicken tore down their first restaurant which was located at 3300 South and State Street. Not to fear, they are going to rebuild the restaurant with an accompanying museum.

While I appreciate and identify with a lot of what of what the Religious Right do, I do resent (a little) that they don’t seem to do the same with me and other similarly-minded Mormons. I don’t know if Mormons are even on radar screen when it comes to politics, but when it comes to religion they want nothing to do with us, or worse.

I say this with a recent example in mind. Two prominent players in the discussion of same-sex marriage have been Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, and Utah Senator, Orrin Hatch. While Mitt Romney has received favorable press from the religious right, I have seen no mention among the Christian Right that he is LDS. On the other hand, Senator Hatch has proposed an alternative Federal Marriage Amendment that does not go far enough for many social conservatives. In that case, I have seen it mentioned that he is LDS and some have even suggested that the Senator?s motives include wanting to allow Utah to have a loophole to reinstate polygamy if it so chooses (this shows how little they know, not only is polygamy banned by the state constitution, I believe with polygamy?s residual stigma, Utah would likely be the last state to allow polygamy).

This just reinforces my arm’s length (dis)trust with the Religious Right. Hopefully, with time they may see Mormons as beneficial allies and not a religious threat. In the meanwhile, I plan on continuing to watch they do with at least one eye open.

Kaimi raised this issue ? coming from a different political perspective ? last year over at Times & Seasons.

Nicholas Kristoff, NY Times columnist, has an column that strikes a chord with me, a Mormon who more than not, identifies with the religious right.

If liberals demand that the Christian right show more tolerance for gays and lesbians, then liberals need to be more respectful of conservative Christians.

One of the most ferocious divides today is that between evangelical and secular America. Some conservative Christians are all too quick to sentence outsiders to hell. And liberals denounce stereotypes of Muslims but not of “Christian nuts.”

I was especially struck by this sentence:

And in polite society, conservative Christians ? especially Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses ? are among the last groups it’s still acceptable to mock.

I suppose it is gratifying that he singled out Mormons as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses, but I’m unsure why. Maybe I’m just oblivious, but I don’t see that much mocking of specifically Mormons in the mainstream (and none of the JW’s). But then again, I don’t hang out in the in what would be considered the “polite society” of the New York Times and its ilk.

First, Illinois “regrets” the way the Nauvoo settlers were treated, now the New York Times. I don’t mean to be ungrateful but I hope we don’t become too popular as a niche group. (I would especially hate it if some thought we were some vicitmized minority that needed special attention.)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s “Popularity and Principle”

Typically, President Brigham Young spoke sternly concerning popularity and what can be its ruining acclaim:

?I do not want ?Mormonism? to become popular. ? I would rather pass through all the misery and sorrow, the troubles and trials of the Saints, than to have the religion of Christ become popular with the world? (in Journal of Discourses, 10:297).

New York Region > Mormon Church Gets Ready to Open Its Newest Temple, Near Lincoln Center” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/nyregion/22mormon.html”>Mormon Church Gets Ready to Open Its Newest Temple, Near Lincoln Center

A legacy of misunderstanding and persecution has bred a keen instinct for public relations in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And so, in what has become something of a ritual itself, the Mormon church opens every newly built temple to the public. Then it shuts the doors. [Read More]

We’re looking forward to going up next month for tour ourselves. It looks like tickets are still available at www.lds.org/temples.

UPDATE: Check out “A Roman Catholic Inside a Mormon Temple. I find the tribute to the Statue of Liberty very interesting:

Each Mormon temple pays tribute in its design to the city in which it?s located.The New York temple has torch emblems on the doors symbolizing the Statue of Liberty.

While the temple portion of the building may be off limits to non-Mormons, the chapels where community gatherings such as Boy Scout meetings, dances, and instruction classes are held, are open to the general public. The sizable new gym with a nifty basketball court will be a welcome attraction to the area.

I love it how the “nifty” basketball court is a fundamental aspect of Mormon architecture.

I don’t know, but this story ran in many newspapers today.

[T]hey see Utah as repressive and intolerant.

Some employers and politicians ? mostly Democrats ? are warning that Utah?s Mormon conservatism is driving away business. They say Utah?s hard-line stands on such topics as gay rights, abortion and alcohol have given the state a reputation as an uptight, reactionary place where diversity is not welcome.

I’m skeptical but who knows what people take into account when moving? Regardless, if it’s true it seems very unfair and “intolerant” to have such a generalized judgment of an entire state. Living in Utah for three and half years (most of it spent at the University of Utah, which I considered to be a bastion of liberal and “progressive” ideas) there is certainly is a place for people of all kinds.

Let me offer some “reactionary” comments. Would anyone write a story about how liberal California, Massachusetts, or Washington state was? And how its politics was scaring away conservatives? How many people decide where to move based on the laws on homosexual marriage (Utah wants to uphold the status quo), abortion (wasn’t partial birth abortions only a tiny percentage of those performed?), or alcohol (okay, maybe but they are not as restrictive as it is commonly hyped)? The story just seems to be a strange and uncalled for.

However, I did enjoy the conclusion:

And not all minorities feel out of place.

?It?s an absolute stunning, beautiful state. We had no idea,? says Rabbi Ari Galandauer, who arrived from Montreal in September to head up an Orthodox synagogue.

Salt Lake City has 6,000 Jews, who fascinate Mormons: They believe they are descended from an ancient tribe of Israelites.

?We find Utah very open to having a Jewish community,? Galandauer says. ?Religion, so to speak, is in the air here.?

On my mission in Costa Rica, I fell in love with the art of Gustave Dore. I don’t know if it was the former comic book geek within me, or just the detailed and reverent treatment of so many poignant stories from the Bible.

I first noticed his work in one of the wonderful, huge family heirloom editions that a “Tico” family had. Despite my efforts I was never able to find one for sale.

Happily, I came across a great galley of his work that includes nice high quality images (suitable for downloading as a desktop background).

This may not be new to many as I recall a General Conference Enign issue featuring his work.

Not like you can tell, but I got around to putting this image of a doorknob from the Salt Lake Temple as my favicon. If you can do this on your server, this page offers a great web-based utility to convert any graphic image into a favicon file with instructions on how to do the rest. If I can do it well, you know . . .

If you care to see the newest additions to the Mormon Blogosphere, please see this page or syndicate it here. Thanks for the submissions and sorry for being in remiss in posting updates.

I try to be a focused on my narrow purview here, but I couldn’t resist.

In this morning’s Washington Post, I noticed that Vanilla Ice is performing here tomorrow night at Gallaudet University, the nation’s preeminent college for the deaf and hard of hearing.

One unfortunate thing about the Presidential election is that it overshadows so much of the other elections which can be just as important. With the Presidential race becoming more established and a little tiresome, it’s nice that other races are starting to get some if not all the attention they deserve.

Hopefully, my more liberal friends will take heart that Democrat Bryan Kennedy (who – get ready for this – is LDS! ) is challenging James Sensenbrenner for his House seat in Wisconsin. While I may not agree with a lot of his platform, you have to feel for him. Sensenbrenner is in his thirteenth term having won his last election with 86% of the vote.

Of course, most LDS politicians are from Utah, but it is interesting to consult the The Political Graveyard website to see how many Mormon politicians there have been and where they were from.

As for Utah itself, the governor’s race is startingto heat up with the party conventions next month, followed by primaries (if necessary), and culminating in November. The Deseret News takes a look at the perennial issue of politicians who “happen” to mention that they belong to the predominant religion of the state. I don’t think it’s too big of a deal unless someone starts to infer an endorsement or a suggestion of righteousness. I actually found the article interesting because as a former Utah state GOP delegate, I have followed Lampropoulos for a year and never knew he was LDS until I saw this article.

Other interesting tidbits (for me at least) is the preemptive search for the lieutenant governor candidate running mate. Perhaps to combat incumbent Olene Walker or just emulate Mike Leavitt, but it seems like it has to be a woman.

More interesting from this last article, I learned that in the 1992 campaign Merrill Cook ran with Senator Hatch’s sister as his running mate. And this year, Fred Lampropoulos has selected Brigham City mayor, Lou Ann Christensen, who also happens to be the sister of Lloyd Newell, the voice of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s “Spoken Word.”

Check out the State candidates here with links to their own sites.

My wife was asked last night to speak in church this Sunday, so I went to the BYU Speeches site and was momentarily chagrined to see the following:

Speeches.byu.edu will be offline until April 16, 2004, as we prepare to launch the new site. Hundreds of individual speeches will then be downloadable for free, with over a thousand available in the next couple of weeks. Also, books, DVDs, CDs, MP3CDs, and more will be available for your personal library.

Cool!

I am not in a race to post first when General Conference transcripts are up, which they are (I was just looking for something simple to post on today since I am swamped).

But I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge as to why they do not post Priesthood session audio or video. I understand the rationale at the time of the broadcast to encourage the brethren to gather together to hear it live. But they sell CDs and DVDs of all the sessions as well as publish all the sessions, so why can’t they do the same on the internet.

I do not mean to grouse, just curious.

Marjorie Hinckley dies

Local Leaders Pay respects

Every bit His Equal

Dave makes a good summation of the weekend’s Conference in that “it was quiet, reassuring, and encouraging. There were no ‘tough love’ talks and precious little about The Passion or same-sex marriages.” Kim’s post got me thinking again on something that struck me over the weekend, that despite the observations of grievous problems with society, the general authorities were not very specific. To me, too often a reactionary conservative, I was a expecting some comment on same-sex marriage.

I hope the following is not to act like a “Liberal Mormon, and second-guess the ‘politics’ behind some of the Church’s actions. But I thought there may be an interesting dynamic going on. First, there is no doubt as to the Church’s stance on same-sex marriage. It has been heavily involved in states’ action in the years before to prevent it. Second, a high-profile member of the Church is governor of the of the state that is the epicenter of the same-sex marriage debate (no accident in my view).

Although it may have seemed that the elephant in the room was ignored, I wonder if the reasons not to directly address same-sex marriage in Conference was among the following: (1) avoid the perception of being reactive to an extremely emotional and polarizing debate – where the Church has already made it clear what its position is; (2) avoid putting further pressure on Mitt Romney who is already in a bind to seek a resolution to the state legislature’s pending marriage amendment (which still needs two more years to be ratified) while the court mandated marriages are to go in effect next month. It would have been untenable for Governor Romney to try to delay the court mandate if his church made wide-sweeping proclamations in its world conference to members. Who knows what, if any, he can do as he can’t get his own attorney general to petiton for the delay.

In my relatively brief time of following the Church and its teachings, I am impressed time and time again, that the Church and its leaders are cautious not to react to every issue of the day so much as anticipate and handle true issues when their proper time has come.

Besides, I figure that maybe we should now already what is right and wrong and do not always need it spelled out. We already know that the elephant is there.