Mormon Apologies

I meant to put this as a comment on Cameron's post soliciting an opinion on Under the Banner of Heaven, but I couldn't figure out how to do a hyperlink in the comment section and I wanted to make this look cool.

There is an article that gives a rebuttal to the book and much of the history that the author uses to support his theories. Obviously there are always two sides to every story and if the author's is one side, this represents the other side. Since the article is lengthy and you probably won't read it all (although you should, I did and it helped me understand the story better), suffice it to say that there is an army of people that have become more than experts on Mormon history. These people prey on authors like Krakauer because they obviously haven't spent their entire lives researching the history of the Church and often times come to hasty conclusions. These experts are pretty knowledgeable and believe it or not, do delve into some of the less glamorous facets of the Church's history. They, like Krakauer, do have an agenda in what they write. Reading what they have to say as well as other accounts from historians outside the Church gives the whole picture and you are left to draw whatever conclusions you'd like. Fairlds.org has some of the most compelling information available on Mormon history, doctrine, and beliefs and the fact that they confront some of the issues that most members of the Church and even the leadership of the Church would rather avoid gives them an added measure of validity in my opinion. Anytime you see something that stabs at Mormonism, they have something to say about it - like it or not!

Prophecy, Murder and Southwest Airlines (aka Cameron's return to the blog)

4th Avenue Crossing (brooklyn, ny)

I'm back. I missed you too Frank. And Ben is really smart. Unfortunately for Ben, his intellect has always been in proportion to his size. Fatty. Hahahah. Oh man, that brings me back. Sorry Ben. (un)Fortunately for me, we had a major acquisition finally go through last month that was being held up by the EU (another reason why the French are assholes). Thus, my lengthy absence. I just did a quick recap though and it looks like once again, you've all done some great and thoughtful analysis. Bravo. Now for my two cents.

Admission: I did pick up the book and leaf through it. To be honest, I never got past the book jacket. Admittedly that was narrow of me and I will use work obligations to hide my shame. But all in all, strict interpretations of the Bible (or any religious work for that matter) scare me and I'd rather lend them any more credibility by buying or reading them. These interpretations are usually just flimsy masks to justify to unjustifiable. On a related note, strict interpretations of the Constitution also scare me. Read Jeffrey Toobin's "The Nine," if you want a background on the contemporary Supreme Court and to be frightened about the future of our judicial system and its impact on civil liberties. I digress.

While a well intentioned choice by Smurf to enlighten us on the impact of world religion on politics, economics, etc (thank you kind sir and well needed), using the lens of extreme evangelical prophecy does not sit well with me. Pulling the bizarre Nostradamus card will always make me shun you. Consider yourself shunned Epicenter. But I am content to leave the more concrete and extended commentary to those who actually read it.

On yet another related note, I decided to read "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer instead of Epicenter (same section of the bookstore). I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on this book. If you're unfamiliar, it's basically a deep dive into Mormon history and more specifically Mormon fundamentalism, to try and explain/understand the murders committed by Ron and Dan Lafferty in 1984. I know it has been openly criticized by LDS leadership for casting a negative light on the church, but I was hoping for a less political stance on the subject matter. This book similarly highlights what can come from close readings of religious text and antiquated doctrine.

Book the next, The World Is Flat. I read roughly 150 pages of this book about a year ago. I did not leave the book for want of interest, but for lack of time. To be sure, this is a dense book. It is jammed packed with all the tidbits you can handle about the booming next phase of globalization. However, it's also loaded with mostly inane anecdotes about Friedman himself. Concrete examples are great. 6 pages about your inability to wrap your head around Southwest's online check-in is not okay. Luckily, these "everyman" insults are innocuous and only mildly patronizing.

What strikes me most about my reread is how much the landscape has already changed. It must be a tiresome job to write about technology. Several of Google's latest products (Google Docs and Google Sites specifically) would probably feature prominently in a revision, not to mention the horizontal connections of the iPhone (Apple Hardware, AT&T Network, Google Apps).

More to come. I grow weary. Glad to be back.

Outsourcing

I liked Frank's idea of posting videos to this. So hopefully it works because I am just under the retarded level when it comes to computers...



Report: Many U.S. Parents Outsourcing Child Care Overseas


...I am enjoying the book so far, though I'm only about 40 pages into it. It's interesting that Friedman uses the example of the radiologists outsourcing CAT scans. I believe that example was used in the first edition (I'm reading the 3rd) which was published in 2005. Radiology outsourcing is much more prevalent now, as is outsourcing in other areas of healthcare. There have been some radiologists that have been forced to change positions or get better, but the overall effect has been that echoed by Friedman--the radiologists have more time to focus their energies on more important aspects of their field. This has created a HUGE expansion in the specialties and sub-specialties of radiology. New advances include one particular field, interventional radiology, which is allowing radiologists to perform image-guided vascular and neurosurgery. This has been an incredible help in fighting certain kinds of disease, most notably stroke and cancer.

So, it's a good pick so far. This guy is an absolute genius. I think just about all of my business professors at the University of Utah worshipped him. Hopefully the video works, and if it doesn't, go check out The Onion and search "outsourcing".

The World is Flat

Another big book to bite into and I am excited about this. Hatch read some excerpts of this book to me last summer on a trip to Moab. The concept behind the book is fantastic.

I've read about two and a half chapters so far and I must say that we live in the greatest era of time. It's amazing how far we've come as a society since 1990. The 90's and the 00's have got to be the two most productive decades the world has ever seen. We're very fortunate to be a part of it. It seems to be snowballing even now. The advance of technology picks up speed each day. It's wonderful to be smack-dab in the middle of it!

I had a thought about one of the initial points of the book - outsourcing. When Friedman talks about outsourcing, even some of the people he interviewed about outsourcing, the picture that is painted is one of the "simple" or "easy" or "mundane" tasks being sent out of the country. While I wish our country's employment rates continuously grew, I like one side effect the books discusses. That is that Americans are being left with the sophisticated, creative jobs. The ones that require more expertise and ingenuity. The salesmanship and the customer relation. It's difficult for people who have been in manufacturing their entire lives to be out of work with n where to turn. This type of an environment does force us to evolve and develop new skills. Skills that ultimately push us to achieve more than we ever would have. Sometimes that's a slow, painful process, but that is one of the things that has made America the greatest county in the history of the world - the ability to overcome and thrive.

April Book?

So a couple of ideas have been brought forth, but we still have no book for April...Consensus?

Just finished book

Well I officially finished the book last night and like the rest of you I did enjoy the end of it more than the first half. Like was said before, it was a good reminder that things are happening that will allow for the second coming to approach. Above all else I remembered that God works in interesting ways and has many resources to accomplish his purposes.
When I was in Mexico I hated the Christian churches so bad because they would always lie about us and really made things dificult sometimes. I began to have a little hatred towards them. Reading this book reminded me that those churches opened a lot of doors for religious freedom to be preached and without them my work would have been 10 times as hard. I realize that in all of these middle east countries the other Christian churches will play a huge part in bringing Christianity to them and opening up future doors for LDS missionaries. For that alone it made me glad that I kept reading the book when I almost put it down at one point.