Nauvoo History and Other Things

Is America exceptional? ...asks an article on Foxnews.com.

"I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism" intones our President Barack Hussein Obama, who has three Muslim names but is not a Muslim.

Trying to appear as fair and impartial as possible, he continues that he is, "enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world."  Mr. Obama went on to say that the U.S. is "not always going to be right."

He has a point. The US is not always going to be right. But it is going to try it's best, isn't it? And that's what exceptionalism is all about, isn't it?

I'm a little disappointed that our Kow-tow-er in Chief hasn't enough of a background to give a good account of American history to the world, and remind the world, and ourselves, of how exceptional a place America really is.

I found a good place to learn more about the scriptures. It's the Parkview Bible Church. My new friend Larry Mulch pastors this church and he's from Sutter Illinois. He's a 9/12 patriot too, and introduced me to his group over in Keokuk. We're gonna get together and watch Glen Beck videos.

He goes over the Bible line by line, so I am looking forward to a deeper analysis of the text, over a long period of time.

In other news, by daughter is now married and has left the building. So good luck to her and her new hubby, enjoy your honeymoon. I'm looking forward to recuperating from the stress, emotional, physical, (and financial) and having a good week.   :)

but they never covered interesting topics back then........

I have been reading a lot more history lately, and am happy to say I have been making progress. Currently I am reading A Patriot's History of the United States, and 24 Hours to Martyrdom. I rarely read only one book at a time because I am just way too curious. Once I get curious about something I go to it with a vengeance. The problem lies in that there are a lot of things to get curious about and so I run the risk of getting TOO involved in any given subject. I am sure there are consequences to this.

Very interesting but morbid fact in the first of these books: the Indians were at war with one another when the Spaniards arrived, and it was largely due to this that many of the tribes enlisted the Spaniards - to fight against the Aztecs. The Aztecs had been involved in slaughtering the neighboring tribes in a religious ritual, cutting out the beating hearts of 80 thousand people in a four day "festival". This gruesome event involved 14 deaths a minute committed by tribal priests at a time, working in shifts for the 96 hour period. Can you imagine living during such a primitively brutal time?

My other book is also about murder, a dual homicide, of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum. It's hard for me to keep the facts and the people straight, what their motives were, who said what, and why, but this book is a factual history - being written by Reed Blake but taken from John Taylor's account which was written down with as great detail as any other accounting. It shows the many instances in which the Prophet foretold, or his comments and actions foreshadowed, the impending assassination. He knew what was about to befall him, but was of such a character that he would maintain his integrity despite personal costs.

The hotel owner in Carthage made comments to Abram Hodge that showed the general antagonism of the time:

Hodge met Artois Hamilton, the innkeeper, who, pointing to the Carthage Greys, said, "Hodge, there are the boys that will settle you Mormons."

 

Hodge replied, "Hamilton, we can take as many men as there are there out of the Nauvoo Legion and they wouldn't be missed."

This angered Artois but soon thereafter the Prophet was taken and submitted to the authorities at Carthage with the consequence that resulted in the death of the Prophet and his brother.

Today's sacrament meeting talks were given by the Grow family. This delightful family has the most interesting things to say that it really helps me concentrate on the topic. I don't really have to try to listen, it's as natural as breathing, when they speak. Sister Grow talked about....

It would appear from recent events that many folks no longer understand the basic economic fact that every transaction is based upon the exchange of fair value. Any attempt to short circuit the exchange of value will reverberate throughout the entire system. If one side of the transaction is cheated of value it will work against the functioning of the economic engine. Just like putting sugar in a gas tank, unfair exchanges will ultimately degrade the overall performance of the motor, whether that motor be mechanical or economic in nature.

Poe was gifted, wasn't he?