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HAVE YOU NOTICED THIS ABOUT MORMONS?   If you were to desire to enter the exclusive LDS-Mormon club, you would have to be agree to the church doctrine including this:   First Presidency Doctrinal StatementsIt is not only his discourses that form the basis of Joseph F. Smith's doctrinal legacy. During his presidency, several important documents signed by the First Presidency and/or the Twelve were issued that still serve as a touch stone of Latter-day Saint belief. One such document, The Origin of Man: By the First Presidency, was issued in 1909 during a time when evolution was gaining attention...

SALT LAKE CITY -- University of Utah President Michael K. Young has a strong message for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He says freedom of religion is eroding in America and he urges Mormons to join the American Civil Liberties Union. While speaking at the annual conference of the LDS International Society on Monday at Brigham Young University, Young said religious freedom is about free will and agency. "We should be among the most passionate civil libertarians in the world," Young said. He expanded this during the question and answer period following his presentation by...

Priesthood Ordinances and Blessings An ordinance is a sacred act performed by a man who holds the priesthood. Baptism and the sacrament are examples of priesthood ordinances. Some ordinances may be performed by brethren who hold the Aaronic Priesthood. But most ordinances are performed by Melchizedek Priesthood holders. This section gives directions that a priesthood leader should follow when performing an ordinance. Brethren who perform ordinances should prepare themselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit. They also should make sure the ordinance meets the following requirements: All ordinances must be performed in the name of Jesus Christ. All...

"The right to lie in the service of your own interests is highly valued and frequently exercised"-Nero Wolfe I began this list when I was a full time employee of the LDS Church Education System (CES). I worked as a Seminary Principal/teacher, Institute teacher/Director, and Stake CES Coordinator from 1975 - 2002. My last assignment was brief. I signed a Letter of Agreement with CES to serve as the Director of the Pullman, Washington LDS Institute of Religion adjacent to Washington State University in July 2002. I resigned from CES a month later. I carry fond memories of the students,...

Women have a sacred role in the sanctification and purification of men, Elder Glenn L. Pace of the Seventy told students and faculty during the campus devotional in the Marriott Center at BYU on Tuesday, March 9. Reflecting on the love he felt from his mother, sister, wife and daughters, Elder Pace spoke of the positive influence women have had on his life. Speaking specifically about a time when his daughter fell asleep in his arms, Elder Pace noted the comfort it must have brought his daughter to be held by her father. He realized afterward that even greater was...

A British dating Web site geared toward the "aesthetically challenged" said it is celebrating its first member engagement. TheUglyBugBall.com, which launched about a year ago, said the engagement of members Tom Clifford, 36, and Janine Walker, 31, marks the first betrothal resulting from the site's services, The Sun reported Thursday. The couple, from Stow-on-the-Wold, England, first talked online in August, met in person for the first time one month ago and became engaged after only four dates. A spokesman for the Web site said Clifford and Walker will receive a free honeymoon in Borth, Wales. "This is our first engagement,...

Howard James of London said the dating site for the "aesthetically challenged" excludes "anyone who is overtly pretty or attractive," The Sun reported, The Sun reported Friday. "It's a sad fact that up to half of the U.K. is made up of ugly people yet amazingly nobody has ever thought of providing a dating service for them," James said. "Some of these will be moderately ugly, but others will have fallen from the ugly tree and hit every branch on their way down."

A St. Paul professor touched off a bitter trans-Atlantic dispute when he posted an online slideshow rebutting a speech by a British climate change skeptic, a cyber flap that's resulted in harsh words and threats of legal action. John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences at the University of St. Thomas, said Friday he decided he had a responsibility as a scientist to challenge remarks Christopher Monckton made during a speech last October at Bethel University in Arden Hills. "He presented science that was at odds with the understanding of the vast majority of people working in the field," Abraham...

Here is a hard truth about 21st-century Americans: "You have no culture. All you guys do is buy things." That was the constant complaint that Sarah Waxman, a design student at Pratt Institute, heard during her junior year abroad. Contemplating those charges put her in a quandary: Her field was all about promoting a culture of buying. The designs Waxman submitted for class tried to lock horns with the problem. She made a cast-ceramic wallet that asks you to consider "the things that you're consuming in the act of being a purchaser." Its strange heft in your pocket, its fragility,...

Helen Thomas of the Washington Press Corps has a face and voice that only a mother could truly love. Provided said mother happened to be a blind and deaf liberal, that is. Thomas has been haunting presidential press conferences for nearly 50 years. In the 50 years prior to that, she was Herman Munster on The Munsters, a role for which she was uniquely qualified because she required absolutely no make up. As the oldest living "journalist" to be on the payroll of both the DNC and UPI at the same time, one can see years of wear and tear...

OK, so I'm at the Dunkin Donuts this morning, it's a rather cool spring morning, about 50 degrees. I can see my breath in the air! Yet, every woman in the Dunkin Donuts were in flip-flops! Now everywhere I go these days, it seems that the women are wearing flip-flops instead of regular shoes. Why is that? I just don't get the appeal of wearing flip flops. I can understand wearing them at the beach. And when I was in Marine boot camp (Parris Island), we were issued a pair to wear to the shower. But anywhere other then the...

World stocks slide on Dow collapse, debt crisis By PAN PYLAS (AP) – 1 hour ago LONDON — World markets fell sharply Friday following a huge sell-off on Wall Street and amid fears that Europe's debt crisis could spread and derail the global economic recovery. In Britain, where investors were grappling with uncertain general election results, the FTSE 100 index was down 53.05 points, or 1 percent, at 5,207.94 following a slide in the pound. Germany's DAX fell 71.80 points, or 1.2 percent,

Disappointment as US high school students snub 'lesbian-friendly prom' Senior prom fell far short of the rite of passage Constance McMillen was hoping for when she began a legal battle to challenge a ban on same-sex dates. Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Apr 2010 Constance McMillen Photo: AP The 18-year-old lesbian student said that she was one of only seven students to show up at a private party chaperoned by school officials. She said the rest of her peers went to another private event where she wasn't invited. "It was not the prom I imagined," she said. "It really hurts my...

TOKYO, - A senior retail manager for Prada Japan alleges in a lawsuit she was ordered to eliminate employees who didn't have the "Prada look." Rina Bovrisse said Prada Japan Chief Executive Officer Davide Sesia informed her she had to eliminate 15 managerial staff workers he deemed "old, fat, ugly, disgusting or not having the Prada look," The Daily Telegraph (Britain) said Friday. Bovrisse alleges in her discrimination and harassment suit against the Italian fashion label that Sesia also asked her to lose some weight and change her hairstyle. The retail manager, who supervised staffs at 40 stores in Japan,...

My mother always told me not to make fun of people because of their looks. Of course she's right, but mom's a better person than I am and I don't report to her anymore. Plus, Henry Waxman's a Democrat, so he doesn't really count as "people" according to her. Democrats are more like a collection of grievance groups teased into constituency by professional irritants such as unions, ward bosses and community organizers. So, here we submit, what is arguably the ugliest ghoul to ever roam the hall's of Congress -- and that's sayin' somethin'. Henry Waxman, D-CA. click here for...

On Wednesday night, ugly harridans Joy Behar and Kathy Griffin got together to discuss myriad issues of importance to the American people, including an ode to Octomom's "crazy vagina." Seriously, this is what passes for intelligent comment these days at CNN. Wonder why their ratings are in the toilet. But one particular low moment stood out ... To read more, click here.

Fifty Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years A Half-Century of Automotive Eyesores By Damian Joseph Considering how many new cars are rolled out every year, it's no surprise that a few might be just plain homely. There's a chance that certain styles might become fashionable with a dash of retro hip. (Well, maybe not from the 1970s.) But for the most part, the following 50 cars will never be anything but design duds.

Yawwwwwwwn. Time to wake up, put on my $500+ and go for a Once that’s done comes a quick change from Shorts Outfit #1 (dog-walking gear) to Shorts Outfit #2 (tourist gear) Fun's over: now for the serious stuff. So, armed with a $900 (or was it $6,000?) handbag I'm now ready to face world leaders and their better-halves Though sparse, I spend what little free time I have after making sacrifices for everyone else tending to my lead-ridden veggie patch

Rosie O'Donnell has confirmed that she and longtime girlfriend Kelli Carpenter are on the rocks. In a new interview with USA Today, she says, "We're a family. We will remain a family forever. And we are working on our issues." The 47-year-old O'Donnell -- who has been suggesting a split on her blog -- wouldn't confirm a National Enquirer report that Carpenter, 42, has moved out of their Nyack, NY, home and into Manhattan. (USA Today notes that Carpenter was not at the house during the interview.) Meet Rosie O'Donnell and other stars' surprise BFFs "We're a family, we remain...