1/07/2026
Wake-up Call on Fraud and Corruption is Needed Right Now in America
Here’s Why the Book of Mormon’s Wake-up Call on Fraud and Corruption is Needed Right Now in America
1/01/2026
11/24/2025
The Thanksgiving Blessing Tree
Thanksgiving week is a natural invitation to pause, notice, and respond with gratitude. Here are some thoughtful ways to deepen gratitude to God and sharpen our recognition of blessings:
🌿 Ways to Increase Gratitude to God
Prayer of Thanks: Begin and end the day with a short prayer naming specific blessings—health, family, opportunities, even challenges that helped you grow.
Scripture Reflection: Read passages that emphasize gratitude (e.g., Psalm 100, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Alma 34:38). Let them shape your perspective.
Gratitude Journal to God: Write daily entries addressed to Him, acknowledging both ordinary and extraordinary gifts.
Acts of Service: Express gratitude by serving others—sharing food, visiting someone lonely, or offering encouragement. Service becomes a living prayer of thanks.
Worship Through Beauty: Notice creation—sunrise, autumn leaves, laughter—and consciously thank God for the artistry woven into life.
Shift Perspective: Instead of asking “What am I missing?” ask “What have I been given?” This reframes even small things as gifts.
Celebrate the Ordinary: A warm meal, a safe home, a conversation with a friend—these are blessings often overlooked.
Remember Past Deliverance: Reflect on times God carried you through difficulty. Gratitude grows when we recall His faithfulness.
See Blessings in Trials: Challenges often bring hidden blessings—patience, resilience, compassion. Naming these helps us see God’s hand even in hardship.
Community Reflection: Share with family or friends what you’re grateful for. Hearing others’ blessings expands your awareness of your own.
✨ A Thanksgiving Practice
Here’s a simple ritual you could try this week:
Gather stones or slips of paper.
Each day, write one blessing and place it in a jar or basket.
On Thanksgiving Day, read them aloud as a prayer of gratitude.
It becomes a tangible reminder of God’s abundance.
🧠 Teaching Moments
Young children: Ask, “What made you smile today?” or “What do you love that God gave you?”
Teens: Invite deeper reflection: “What blessing have you overlooked?” or “How has God helped you grow?”
Adults: Encourage naming blessings in disguise—hardships that led to growth or healing.
To guide reflection, you can write a prompt on the back of each leaf:
“What did God give me today?”
“What challenge became a blessing?”
“Who am I thankful for?”
“What beauty did I notice?”
11/23/2025
New Take on Colonoscopy Preparation
Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald.
This Article
This is from newshound Dave Barry's colonoscopy journal:
I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis. Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'
I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now, suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's enemies.
I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor. Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons.) Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.
The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.
MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.
After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep. The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.
At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.
Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first, I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this is, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.
When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand. There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' had to be the least appropriate.
'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me. 'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.
I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling 'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that it was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.
On the subject of Colonoscopies...
Colonoscopies are no joke, but these comments during the exam were quite humorous..... A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their colonoscopies:
1. 'Take it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man has gone before!
2. 'Find Amelia Earhart yet?'
3. 'Can you hear me NOW?'
4. 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?'
5. 'You know, in Arkansas , we're now legally married.'
6. 'Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?'
7. 'You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out...'
8. 'Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!'
9. 'If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!
10. 'Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.'
11. 'You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?'
12. 'God, now I know why I am not gay.'
And the best one of all.
13. 'Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is not up there?'
This is the Law
This is the law [@realDonaldTrump](https://x.com/realDonaldTrump is looking for:
The Night Trump Ended the Socialist Illusion. What Really Happened with Zohran Mamdani
10/28/2025
The Declaration of Independence
10/05/2025
Republicanism and the Administrative State
In Federalist 39, James Madison writes that the nation must adopt and maintain a republican form of government, for “no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America.” As Madison points out, the decisive feature of republican government is that it “derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people.” If the people do not ultimately rule, the country can’t have self-government.
As simple as this definition seems, Madison is here applying one of the nation’s foundational principles, stated in the Declaration of Independence: because all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights, governments must derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Madison goes on to explain in Federalist 39 how the first three articles of the U.S. Constitution arrange the federal government to follow republicanism:
9/28/2025
We the People Must… Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States of America
