DiscussMormonism.com

Happy holidays, friends and colleagues! It would seem that we are in full-swing, as far as the season is concerned. Have you recovered yet from the Thanksgiving feasting? From all those turkeys and desserts? Speaking of "turkeys," did you happen to notice how Thanksgiving was celebrated on "Sic et Non"? Now, far be it from me to judge another person's preferences when it comes to holiday customs, but let's take a look at the Celebration of a Major American Holiday, as practiced by the Mopologists:

The Appetizer

Dr. Peterson kicks the day off with a patriotic post dealing with George Washington. The lone two comments are from Kiwi and Midgley:

Kiwi57 wrote:Clearly the framers of the US Constitution sought to banish all mention of God from the public sphere...

Midgley wrote:These public declarations that Dan has posted should be compared and contrasted with those of the "founding fathers" of the Soviet Union or of the leaders of several other similar or related regimes.

Huh. I thought the holiday was supposed to be about spending time with family and giving thanks for all the various "blessings" in one's life? Are we meant to understand that Midgley and Kiwi *are* the "SeN" editor's "real" family?


The Main Course

So, what were you thankful for on Thanksgiving? If you are "SeN," then you are mainly thankful for the Interpreter Foundation:

Daniel Peterson wrote:On this Thanksgiving Day, I’m grateful for many things.

Among them, I include those people who have made this year’s achievements possible for the Interpreter Foundation.

Tomorrow will mark the 384th consecutive week (out of its 385.5 weeks of existence) that the Interpreter Foundation has published at least one article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.

The Interpreter Radio Program is on the air between 7 PM and 9 PM every Sunday night. We’re gearing up for perhaps as many as three conferences next year. Several new books are in the works. We’ve begun to post chapters from our prior books online, accessible at no charge. We’re serializing a yet-to-be-published book.

Roughly half of the interviews for the documentary portion of the Foundation’s Witnesses film project have been recorded, and the vast majority of the shooting for the dramatic portion of that project has been completed. Raising the funds to do this was a daunting task, but we succeeded. And completion of the script and the casting and the filming required a huge amount of labor, but, again, we succeeded. I’m nervous but excited to see how the effort will finally turn out. (Negative reviews, mockery, and derogatory comments are already pouring in from the usual suspects, which, from my perspective, is a healthy sign.)

*This* is what he was dwelling upon on Thanksgiving? Well, hey: I am looking forward to the Witnesses film as much as anybody. I can't say that I'm "thankful" for it in any meaningful way. But I am at least interested in checking it out when it's finally completed.

There was also a third T-day post from Prof. P, also dealing with Interpreter-related issues.

Dessert(s)

Look: I get it. Not everyone likes hanging out with their family. There is your mouth-breather uncle. Maybe there is an aunt who always drinks too much. Maybe your brother Ray's son is a pain in the butt. How do you deal with it, though? Do you go hang out in the garage and play ping-pong? Pour yourself another glass of wine? Tough it out? Or, do you reveal to the entire world that you are not spending time with your family, and that, instead, you are horsing around online, doing blog posts about your pseudo-scholarly "Institute," and picking fights with Gemli? I count roughly 20 more-or-less snide comments that were aimed at Gemli on Thanksgiving Day, including this:

DCP wrote:And I want to see evidence that gemli has driven nails with poems, cooked steaks with a stethoscope, and heard music by means of a lawn mower.

And then there's this, in response to David Tiffany:

DCP wrote:My blog wasn't established in order to give you an unearned platform for your anti-Mormon propaganda.
Please don't do it again.

And this, aimed at Dr. Dre:

Back-Up DD: "I too am giddy with anticipation about the Witness Film."

Of course you are. Sure.

Back-Up DD: "Here’s hoping the Interpreter Foundation will Release its legally required financials so we can see where the million dollars has gone."

Don't you worry your little self about our financials. All is being done on the basis of solid professional legal and financial counsel.

Wow.... Is his family really this intolerable? How often did he have time to slip away in order to pound out these missives? Is this really the way that one wants to spend Thanksgiving? Midgley, "family" in a sense, I guess, helps provide the answer:

Louis Midgley wrote:SReed actually provides a change of pace from the amusing but must more civil if not all that better informed gemli. At least the malevolent SReed has heard of the Witnesses.

And there be a serious pathology behind this substitute DD rubbish.

(And it needs to be said: Midgley spent far more time attacking Gemli on Thanksgiving than DCP did.)

What does all of this mean? Well, as the B.H. Roberts Chair, it means that *I* need to publicly give thanks to the fact that the Mopologists are so open and transparent about the way they spent their 2019 Thanksgiving Holiday. It truly is a testament to the things they stand for, and the very real feelings that dwell in their hearts.

Sic et Non had a fun thread on Christmas Carols. We should do something similar here. Do you have any favorites Doctor Scratch?

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2019/12/the-annual-sic-et-non-christmas-carol-improvement-project.html#disqus_thread

Thanks for the holiday update, Doctor Scratch! But this, I have to take issue with:

DCP:

Roughly half of the interviews for the documentary portion of the Foundation’s Witnesses film project have been recorded, and the vast majority of the shooting for the dramatic portion of that project has been completed. Raising the funds to do this was a daunting task, but we succeeded. And completion of the script and the casting and the filming required a huge amount of labor, but, again, we succeeded.

Funds raised: check. Work done: check. Work paid for: ?

According to the Interpreter expense reports, out of approximately one million dollars donated, $3,000 was paid for the “media project” in the first quarter of 2019, $0 paid in the second quarter, $0 paid in the third quarter.

Who is paying for this? And what’s happening with the million dollars, donated specifically for the film?

I’ve recently noticed that Midgley’s spelling and grammar within the Sic Et Non comments section is below what one would expect from an educated adult. Is this a recent thing?

I noticed that quite a while ago. What stuck out for me was a surprising frequency of sentences that just kind of stumbled. Often they were ungrammatical but my impression wasn't so much that the author was ignorant of grammar as that he kept forgetting, mid-way into his sentence, exactly how his sentence had begun.

I posted here to ask whether this might be a sign of dementia, in which case I suggested that maybe we should all just lay off Midgley because he wasn't fully responsible for his actions. But several people indicated that Midgley had been writing like that for decades. If that's true, then I don't think it can have been early-onset dementia because I don't think he's far gone enough now for someone who had started dementia twenty years ago.

If it isn't dementia then I don't know what it is, because Midgley really doesn't write like any professor I know. We all make occasional slips but his kind of slips would embarrass me, and if they started happening that often to me I'd start proofreading my texts before hitting Submit. And worrying about dementia.

Peterson responded by letting everyone know he had a nice Thanksgiving (moved to Sunday because he and others were feeling under the weather).

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... nd-me.html

That sure is unfortunate to hear that he and others were feeling under the weather. The upshot is that he clearly felt well enough to spend a decent chunk of the day attacking Gemli, and also to express thanks and gratitude for the Interpreter Foundation. But horsing around online, attacking critics, and engaging in Mopologetics on Thanksgiving is something of a Peterson tradition. Last year, for example, he was making public denials about the "TK Smoothie Hypothesis."

And am I mistaken, or is there an actual "Smithmas" celebration on the horizon? These alternative holiday customs are reminiscent of Frank Costanza's "Festivus" celebration. I guess the Mopologists have simplified things, such that they have the "airing of grievances" and nothing else?

Boy, that Mr. Peterson really keeps an eye on this board. Dr. Scratch can nary utter a word about anything without Mr. Peterson obsessively tracking down every_last_byte typed on the Internet by our esteemed colleague and then writing up some sort of odd monologue steeped in narcissism and victimhood.

- Doc

Physics Guy wrote:I noticed that quite a while ago. What stuck out for me was a surprising frequency of sentences that just kind of stumbled. Often they were ungrammatical but my impression wasn't so much that the author was ignorant of grammar as that he kept forgetting, mid-way into his sentence, exactly how his sentence had begun.

I posted here to ask whether this might be a sign of dementia, in which case I suggested that maybe we should all just lay off Midgley because he wasn't fully responsible for his actions. But several people indicated that Midgley had been writing like that for decades. If that's true, then I don't think it can have been early-onset dementia because I don't think he's far gone enough now for someone who had started dementia twenty years ago.

If it isn't dementia then I don't know what it is, because Midgley really doesn't write like any professor I know. We all make occasional slips but his kind of slips would embarrass me, and if they started happening that often to me I'd start proofreading my texts before hitting Submit. And worrying about dementia.

One of my side jobs in the past was as a Gerontologist, doing rounds on nursing home patients.

Louis Midgley may have some dementia mainly due to age, As some have noted with some of his grammatical mistakes. I tend to notice how he tightly sticks with the things he knows, steers the argument into one of his talking points, or if that doesn't work he throws short insults out. I think in this way he can mask some of the mental deficits of dementia. If that doesn't work DCP steps in to provide cover.

Get him out of his comfort zone and his dementia will become more apparent.

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:Boy, that Mr. Peterson really keeps an eye on this board. Dr. Scratch can nary utter a word about anything without Mr. Peterson obsessively tracking down every_last_byte typed on the Internet by our esteemed colleague and then writing up some sort of odd monologue steeped in narcissism and victimhood.

- Doc

This is an exciting board and Dr. Peterson is frequently mentioned. It makes sense for him to stay current with this board.