tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28474404720426841742024-03-14T03:13:39.878-07:00A thoughtproduct in the life of...mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.comBlogger173125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-54311858234526999182024-01-17T17:13:00.000-08:002024-01-17T20:35:00.650-08:00Reflections on The Ethical Slut, Second Edition: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Adventures A few things have stood out to me so far. First was this section:That's been one of the "hard truths" that I've seen practiced more in non-monogamy circles, than I did in monogamous ones: namely that it's more pragmatic to own your own feelings, than to hold someone else responsible for them via blaming. This isn't equivalent to giving malfeasors a free pass by the way: it's still mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-39264174196189076432023-01-16T09:46:00.002-08:002023-01-16T10:24:22.967-08:00The Sunshine DividendI met for coffee recently with an old friend. We were sharing about our lives over the last year, and when it was my turn I paused to consider how to express the most significant personal trend for me over that period. What came to me then was this. About 18 months ago I came out to my spouse as polyamorous in my romantic orientation (meaning that regardless of what path I take behaviorally,mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-13408274674382549572023-01-14T21:45:00.001-08:002023-01-14T21:49:34.419-08:00A framework for understanding and communicating emotionsA friend recently offered a repair conversation after a situation where I felt disappointment after their behavior. I gratefully accepted the offer, since to me it shows the friend cares about trust in our relationship. Though I'm not quite sure what that repair conversation will entail, I expect it will include sharing and reflecting how I felt and why, with an aim of emotional understanding.&mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-18589497965113163152021-05-06T10:52:00.001-07:002021-05-06T10:52:23.612-07:00Reflections on Blade Runner 2049 Includes spoilersI've seen several future dystopia shows now with similar themes (e.g. Anon, Matrix, Altered Carbon, A.I. (2001), Battlestar Galactica, Her (2013), Terminator, Westworld, USS Callister). One of those themes is a human-like AI that wants to be human/"real". In order to blend in with humans, they have to have emotions, consequently consciousness sparks and then you're rooting mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-77724223764699146152021-03-20T06:04:00.007-07:002021-03-20T08:47:50.505-07:00The Sweet Scent of FailureI've heard many claim that social media posts are overly rosy compared to reality: we post the best pictures of ourselves, highlight our successes, etc. and omit the ugly, boring, and the failures. I'm certainly guilty of this. Well today I'm going one step in the opposite direction by listing eight of my material failures! These are things I tried quite hard to achieve or change, and mostlymistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-37541931516274931592021-03-16T00:50:00.000-07:002021-03-16T00:50:21.957-07:00The Relationship Between Controversy and the 2011 Honor Code ChangePasting without edits my recent email response to a USGA blogger, referencing a suggestion I emailed them. Hi Brad,We are planning on posting your article to the blog this friday. I have some questions from our editorial team to help refine the article.Reference:"A professor of mine who was on the honor code committee shared with me his belief that the honor code was changed to make it more mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-34634333524343236432021-02-20T22:27:00.000-08:002021-02-20T22:27:22.699-08:00Context of the Feb 2011 change to the BYU Honor CodeBYU's LGBT association which I co-founded, USGA, recently posted The History of BYU and LGBTQ Issues to their blog. I reached out today to one of the authors with the below, providing additional context on that change.hi Gabi, I just finished your/Hayden/Elijah's excellent article, The History of BYU and LGBTQ Issues! Would you be interested in additional context behind the Feb 2011 honor mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-88231047197826250442020-12-10T03:01:00.000-08:002020-12-10T03:01:37.675-08:00The luckiest generation?My spouse and I were recently discussing the tech and screen saturation we and our kids live in, juxtaposed against the simpler and more people interaction-oriented milieus of our childhoods. This led to reflections on the improved medical and information technologies avail to us compared to our parents' generation, and the advances we're likely to witness over the second half of our lifespans.&mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-25377791016656937672019-10-28T07:07:00.002-07:002019-10-28T07:07:43.959-07:00Poem - Defenders of the Status Quo
Defenders of the Status Quo
All around me I see
Lives of quiet sacrifice to "the way things are"
Offered up by devotees, whose allegiance came
Merely from a natural instinct
To fit in
mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-48917686552496172172017-06-01T12:36:00.000-07:002017-06-01T14:26:56.453-07:00Why my posting frequency is lower these daysOver the last few years, my posting frequency on this blog has decreased.
The amount I comment on other platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, and other blogs) has significantly decreased as well. It's not because I'm too busy: it's because I view "being more right" as less pragmatic and valuable than I did when I started this blog (especially between 2010 and 2012).
Early on, partly due to my mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-15226389332387849722017-01-02T18:05:00.001-08:002017-01-02T18:05:38.607-08:00Second from left
We need a word for "second from left," e.g. the second from left lane.
I'm thinking "pensinistral," combining penultimate and sinistral. It's also scalable- you could have pendextral (second from right), antependextral (third from right), etc.
What do you think? What's a better word?#wordsmithing
mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-34098911242723840082016-10-16T12:48:00.000-07:002017-01-02T17:21:30.906-08:00Take-Home Baby
Audio
For us, it happened on a Monday.
I got the text from Michal at work. I fumbled some words to my manager; she stopped me at baby. "Go. Run!" she said. Week 39: exactly seven days before the due date.
I picked her up and we rushed to the delivery wing, emotions high. First thing they did was an ultrasound, to confirm everything was okay. The intense contractions began a few hours later.
mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-58184709136055964422016-06-27T10:25:00.000-07:002016-06-28T07:31:42.704-07:00"Deeper and deeper into homosexuality ideas": My BYU Honor Code File Revealed
I wrote and published a book entitled during my last six months at
BYU Law (between October 2010 and April 2011) entitled Homosexuality: A
Straight BYU Student's Perspective. Without my knowledge, a friend of mine
reported me to BYU's Honor Code Office (HCO) for "getting deeper and
deeper into homosexuality ideas." As a consequence, the HCO investigated
me.
The HCO assigned a staff mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-33503179002368801372016-06-22T23:03:00.002-07:002016-06-22T23:10:18.615-07:00Hi, I'm Brad Levin- director of FreeBYU, because I REALLY REALLY want religious and academic freedom at CES universities. AMA!I did an AMA on Reddit earlier this month. Here was the dialogue:
bwv549♫ 𐐹𐑉𐐮𐑌𐑅 ♫ 9 points 13 days ago*
I read through your honor code file, and it was interesting the kinds of comments and notations in there.
Have you had a chance to see any other HC files? Any sense how deep a typical HC file goes?
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mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-44618396060736057982016-05-01T12:39:00.003-07:002016-05-01T12:39:55.166-07:00FreeBYU UpdatesI've been quite active over the past 20 months leading FreeBYU. As an organization we've elicited about ten press cycles, pursuing multiple accreditation challenges, a petition, a boycott, and an open letter. We've documented our activity at FreeBYU/blog.
Here's an example of one of our deliverables:
ABA Accreditation Complaint Against BYU Law by Brad Levin
mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-64583909196567718982015-11-07T13:25:00.000-08:002015-11-07T13:25:56.225-08:00The 9 Facebook Myths About the Church’s New Crazy-Eyed Doggie Policy
All offspring of crazy-eyed dogs must now be euthanized.
Opinion
There is a good chance that you’ve recently learned about the Church’s new policies regarding euthanizing the litters of crazy-eyed dogs, and read much about it on social media. Mormons and puppies has long driven web traffic, so news outlets can be expected to jump on the news, but they should be expected to at least mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-31440653033632902332015-09-08T19:43:00.000-07:002015-09-08T19:43:03.817-07:00What ultimate causes explain the rise of democracies and the decline of slavery?My bro asked me a thought-provoking question recently- essentially, what ultimate causes explain the rise of democracies and the decline of slavery (at least through much of the Western world)?
I've discussed the subject with some friends in the Mormon Transhumanist Association, and though I'm no Jared Diamond, here goes.
Printing Tech. The ability to quickly and broadly spread stories andmistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-6621135768487772512015-03-11T16:45:00.000-07:002015-03-11T17:20:27.032-07:00Novel human cell typesThe prospect of being able to grow replacement organs could prove a boon to doctors and patients. Being able to revert cells to more pluripotent states, then direct them to develop into specific tissue types, could similar benefit human health.
I wonder though, about the potential benefits of creating new tissue types. We know cells differentiate into distinct types; estimates mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-35715335700581543022015-03-08T15:18:00.000-07:002015-03-08T15:18:42.041-07:00ISO a business model for healthspan companiesAs Aubrey de Grey the gadfly tirelessly preaches, research into treating disease receives far more funding than preventing disease.
Which got me to thinking. A comparable industry, cryopreservation, is able to support a viable company (Alcor). I believe the reason is that Alcor has a sustainable business model- folks pay for a policy, and in return their contract promises they'll be mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-77210684188509013052015-02-07T21:12:00.003-08:002015-02-07T21:58:01.882-08:00A Double Standard: Oaks and Holland plead for religious freedom while denying it to students at BYU
Below I analyze the recent LDS news conference from the perspective of BYU's practice of expelling, evicting, and terminating LDS BYU students who change their faith.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT
Transcript
of News Conference on Religious Freedom and Nondiscrimination
Published January 27, 2015
This is a transcript of a news conference held
January 27, 2015 that included three members of the mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-26100485424900537212014-12-21T14:30:00.000-08:002014-12-21T21:11:43.961-08:00LDS statements again at odds with BYU's religious freedom policyEarlier this month, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published the "Fourth in a five-part series on why faith matters to society" entitled In Honor of Human Rights:
Earlier this fall, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also published "I Knew What I Had to Do," a story about a young man who was kicked out of school for distributing LDS pamphlets:
Since both are mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-73202693439038774842014-12-02T23:34:00.000-08:002014-12-06T10:30:00.331-08:00The Ginormous Stackrank of Human ExperiencesI've decided to accouche an idea that began over four years ago.
Back then, I was freshly emerging from the ethics-heavy portion of my graduate education. The moral reasoning models I was learning copulated with the decision analysis tools I was exposed to, and my brain conceived The Carmack Vector Addition Theory of Ethics: Advancing the Ball.
In its first trimester, the idea was mostly gearedmistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-69123084084199763932014-05-06T17:34:00.000-07:002014-09-14T18:09:38.630-07:00Response to Bruce Hafen's Feb 2014 attack on gay marriageIn case my comment gets removed, below is my response to Bruce Hafen's attack on gay marriage.
http://youtu.be/-YRhcI_u0bk?t=44m10s
He starts the attack at about 44:10 in the video.
"Fantastic points
about the positive social and individual consequences of marriage. I agree with
his emphasis "that although building a marriage is difficult and
demanding, it is also sanctifying and satisfyingmistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-40202672676499464412014-05-05T16:52:00.000-07:002014-05-05T22:29:58.534-07:00Response to "Religious Freedom is Our First Freedom"
In case my comment is removed from the video, I paste below my response to:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h8W4sgpd00)
What a touching
video! This three minute clip from the J. Reuben Clark Law Society's channel
drives home compelling points about religious people. I noted these:
We love what is good in the
world
We live to make it better
We follow what we feel in our
mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2847440472042684174.post-25961524665552885472014-05-04T21:08:00.000-07:002014-05-04T21:08:13.456-07:00My response to "Clay Christensen on Religious Freedom"The BYU Law channel recently posted a video from Clay Christensen about religious freedom:
Vacuous scare tactic or good point?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjntXYDPw44)
I don't know whether my submitted comment will be posted, so I paste my response below.
"Clay's point that the democratic function relies heavily upon the compliance of the majority is well taken. A state where the mistahdoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10565026922565152435noreply@blogger.com4