President Kimball and War

I think Mormons aren't nearly radical enough. Every single page of the Book of Mormon preaches doctrines on the subjects of war and poverty that are more radical than anything discussed in any mainstream political discourse in America
We don't need to buy in to all the crap that's fed to us to justify running around the world killing and exploiting people. The endowment makes it pretty clear that most of the mischief in this world, on all sides, is the work of Satan and his minions.
The Nietzshean rascals that run things create a bizarre coalition by conning their evangelical dupes by throwing a few fake bones their way. Mormons think that, because they share a few trivialities with evangelicals they must swallow the hideous anti-human policies and the deathly philosophies that justify them. Mormons have the Book of Mormon, continual revelation, and personal revelation. We don't need to buy in to these lame and pernicious doctrines. The author of them certainly doesn't believe them.
The Bush Doctrine has roots in an older concept invented by you-know-who, a doctrine that he taught to Cain, that you can get gain by murdering.
Our role in this world is not to be the lapdogs of modern-day Gadianton robbers and murderers. We are supposed to be the salt of the earth, the leaven, the peculiar.
Am I pessimistic? We generally muddle along with good, bad, and mediocre governments. But the Kingdom of God continues to go forth "boldly, nobly, and independent" bringing freedom, democracy, etc. in its wake to every country it visits.
You have to read Pres. Kimball's talk all the way through to realize how radical he is.

Fred Ho

http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=5784

Here is a very interesting interview with baritone saxophonist, Fred Ho, in which he talks about the role of the avant garde in society.  The most interesting idea he talks about is that guerilla-type artists thrive when the mainstream is in disarray.  I have always felt this to be the case.  So there is cause for hope in the current turmoil.

Bailout

I am hearing various learned and rich defenders of capitalism saying how we don't have any evidence that government can solve blah blah blah.  Now we are giving them hundreds of billions.  All of their laissez-faire blather is starting to ring hollow.  When are we going to realize that there is a class of people that have simply found ways to game the system.  They are not interested in free exchange of goods and services.  They are interested in manipulating the markets to their advantage, getting government handouts, obtaining monopolies, etc.  Yet they self-righteously preach free market fundamentalism.  What a bunch of dupes we are.  They get us to buy into this system by giving us a bunch of shiny crap and gizmos--corian countertops, iCrap, cars, junk food, McMansions, energy drinks, giant tv screens, etc., and make us go into debt to get them and eventually we cling desperately to their lies, go without healthcare, education, arts, etc.  They somehow have used some deep-seated anti-communist feeling to cut off any discussion of how the private and public sphere should interact, as if the only options are extreme laissez-faire capitalism and totalitarian communism.  There are some countries that have established pretty decent balances between government expenditure and free markets.  Can you stinky post-Milton Frieburgites shut up already.  We're not interested in your false religion.  We don't need the super-rich on this planet.  All they do is hoard and hog and then con us unto believing that any little scrap (or crap) that we have is because of their largesse.  They corrupt our morals by making us covet their sick lifestyles, and forego any kind of happy productive life while we desperately try to ape them, dreaming of someday having "passive incomes" like them.