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The Top Ten Feminist Pop Songs

Pop songs aren't exactly known for their egalitarian view of gender. There are, however, a few diamonds in the rough. In the list below, I've tried to pick the top ten, in terms of both musical quality...

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How Gay Marriage Became Thinkable for a Generation of Young Americans

With the legalization of gay marriage in New York yesterday, I think it's worth reflecting on how we arrived at this point. How did something so unimaginable for the Silent Generation become thinkable...

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Paul Cheesman and the Lambayeque Gold Plate

I've been going through the Paul R. Cheesman papers at BYU, including his research files on an inscribed golden plate supposedly discovered in Lambayeque, Peru. The files provide a fascinating glimpse...

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Symposium on the Cultural History of the Gold Plates

The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarshipand the Mormon Scholars FoundationInvite you to the Annual Summer Symposium on Mormon CultureTHE CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE GOLD PLATESThursday,...

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Comparative Starbucks: A Case Study

For the past few weeks, I've been living in Provo, Utah. Obviously there's been a bit of culture shock, since Provo is so Mormon. But actually, one of the weirdest things about living here has been the...

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New Short Story Published at Bewildering Stories

This is a little late, but better late than never. Recently my short story "Icarus" was published in Issue 443 of the science fiction e-zine Bewildering Stories. "Icarus" is a story about a boy who has...

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2012 Bushman Summer Seminar Announcement

It's time again to start applying to the Bushman Summer Seminar! I did this last year, and it was a total blast. This year's seminar will be picking up the investigation of "the gold plates as a...

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A Letter to My Congressman

Dear Congressman Lungren,Decriminalization of mild recreational drugs is one of the most straightforward economic, foreign policy, and moral solutions available to the US today. This is a no-brainer...

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Seven Solid Reasons Not to Preemptively Strike Iran

To Strike or Not to Strike? That Is the Iranian QuestionThe US and Israel have been making a lot of noise lately about a possible preemptive strike against Iran. Some analysts and officials suspect...

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Jesus as the Founder of a Community of Monks

Lately I’ve been reading about the Buddha, and it’s been making me rethink how I read the Jesus story. The Buddha founded a community of wandering monks (called the sangha). Contrary to the popular...

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Not Even Standing Room at BYU Gay Student Panel

This evening, a panel of gay BYU students spoke about their experiences to a lecture hall packed with their classmates. The event's university sponsorship made it something of a historic moment;...

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B. H. Roberts and the Mormon Political Left

This was written as a guest post for Faith Promoting Rumor. I'm reposting it here so my regular readers will see it, but if you'd like to leave a comment, please join the discussion over at FPR rather...

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Hug someone. It's the patriotic thing to do.

Research shows that moral behavior is linked to a neurotransmitter called oxytocin. The release of oxytocin can be stimulated by, among other things, being hugged. In a recent TED talk, Dr. Paul Zak...

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My Latest Project: Worlds Without End

If you haven't seen it yet, go check out my latest project: a Mormon-themed group blog called Worlds Without End: A Mormon Studies Roundtable. I explained the impetus behind the project in a two-part...

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On Sacred Symbols and the Storming of Embassies

In 1979, a group of militant Salafi rebels captured the Kaaba, the holiest shrine of Islam. (Their goal was to anoint one of their leaders as the Mahdi—an Islamic messiah-figure who’s supposed to usher...

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This Time, It's Different: Why 2012 Is Not 1979

In 1978, the Jimmy Carter administration decided to back a democratic revolution against an Iranian dictator the United States had previously supported. President Carter and his Secretary of State...

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Probably as Many Middle Easterners Wonder, ‘Why Do They Hate Us?’ as We Have...

Haroon Moghul, “Are Muslims Nuts?,” Religion Dispatches, September 19, 2012:“Through the 19th and 20th centuries, some of the Muslim world’s leading thinkers tended to portray the West as a deeply...

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To Democratize China, We Should Use the Carrot — While There's Still Time

To remain financially solvent in the future, the United States is going to have to significantly draw down its military commitments in the Asia-Pacific (not increase military spending by about $200...

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On Libya, Biden Let Ryan Get Away with Murder

Debate Fact-Check: Is Obama’s Foreign Policy “Unraveling”? President Obama responds to the Libya consulate attack in a statement given inthe Rose Garden on September 12, 2012In Thursday’s...

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One Can't Be "Too Optimistic" about the Arab Spring

By Toufik-de-planoise, GFDLLately I've been posting a lot on Facebook about the signs of liberal, democratic progress in the Middle East. The most striking example, as I've recently argued, is Libya....

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