Carlisle, PA

Congrats to a one Mario Alderfer and Kathy Lowell on their engagement. At least as far as the last time I had talked to either one of them they were both still dating so I feel that it is safe to assume that it is to the other that the engagement is with. This is via a photo-text message from Kathy with a photo of an egagement ring on a hand that says, "We're engaged."

I was back in Chicago the other day and probably will again soon. Delivering a load tomorrow in the always pleasant New Jersey. Nothing like East Coast traffic through Philadelphia and the New Jersey Turnpike.

Speaking of the snowy egret, after Don Imus made that infamous comment about the Rutgers Women's Basketball team, the New Jersey Governor scheduled a meeting at his house or office to get an apologetic dialogue going between Imus and members of the Rutgers team. The Governor (or maybe it was the mayor of that town. I'm not sure, but I could find out) didn't make it, however. He was involved in a hit and run accident on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Not really a hit and run. But a truck did something wreckless that cause another car to swerve and hit the Governor's car and the got hit and the truck kept going. The Governor was seriously injured but has since recovered. The funny thing is that the Governor was issued a ticket for speeding and not wearing his seatbelt.

I was reading a biography of Joseph Smith entitled No Man Knows My History which is essentially the history of the Mormon church and it's a really in depth biography of him and the history of the church. It uses actual documents and stories and affidavits and mentions where things are based on skeptical accounts or rumors. It has everything to support the Mormons but things against them as well. It's funny because there was recently a thing on PBS about the Mormons as well and was this book and more, as it went into more details of the whole church history and its stance today.

It mentioned the book I was reading and the author of it was the niece of former church prophet David O. Mackay and she got excommunicated for the book.

That was one of the many things I didn't like about the church, having been grown up in it, was that you aren't allowed to question. Also, anything against the church in anyway was just because the people writing or saying things about it are against Mormons on a whole so they are biased and only the books and accounts put out by the church are reliable sources. Outside sources are okay as long as it's for the church.

I never really delved deep into it, but I always wondered, if the Mormons are always saying that their church is the one true church, why would they be afraid of the members questioning the church and researching other churches? If it were the true church, they shouldn't care because in the end wouldn't it lead them to their church?

If it's true, why would they hide certain things and deny other things and why would they prevent you from researching things? It's rather suspect to me that you are to believe this church to be true but cannot question why.

I like to know things for certain and just like researching anything I am interested in, I like to get both views, for and against, and then make my decision. I always hate one-sided opinions because you cannot truly understand whatever you're believing in if you only know one side. That's the problem with America as well. That's why I dont' watch Fox News to be informed. Only for entertainment. Being "Fair & Balanced" doesn't mean that because you have a view from both sides that means you're non-biased, because to be non-biased you have to be fair in letting both sides speak their views and hear them out.

And I'm not trying to break new ground with the views expressed here, it's just what I've been thinking about recently reading that book and seeing that documentary and my mom expressing to Jeanne about Mormon's and how I am a Mormon, even though I rarely went to church in high school because I scheduled myself to work on Sundays and haven't consistently gone to church then until now (I have gone several times like when I'm back home and am there on Sundays and when my brother and I went for some reason to satisfy my mom like five years ago, two times or so, and when my mom sent the missionaries to our place in LA and we humored them for a while until they wouldn't stop coming over and when we moved and someone sent them to our place and we just ignored them.

That was actually fun because once I was cooking dinner and I was listening to a Black Flag record, playing rather loudly, and the door knocked. I peeped out the eyehole and saw that they were missionaries. I didn't answer the door and turned the stereo down. The knocking persisted for 10 minutes. I kept laughing to myself. They finally left. This happened several more times (though not always while cooking and listening to Black Flag) with myself and my roommate and they finally stopped coming.

Well, I'm outs. Gonna watch something. I'm recording a MD and maybe will watch some "Henry Rollins Show" tonight. Saw the one with Chuck D and Jurassic 5 last night. Good shit.