Top of Utah Voices

Chances are, Mitt Romney will win the Republican nomination for president, and the Mittens will be ecstatic. Chances are, Mitt Romney will lose to President Obama, and the Mittens will be devastated.

Exactly four years ago in this January column I predicted that the junior senator from Illinois was going to grab the Democrat nomination and beat the pants off any Republican who ran against him.

As a campaigner, Barack Obama came across as a likable fella with a fresh vision for America, his compelling speeches promising "hope and change." There wasn't a lot of substance, just the hyperbolic promise of liberating Americans from the oppression and ineptitude of the Bush presidency. It turned out to be a winning campaign strategy.

In flattering imitation, Mitt Romney is campaigning as a likeable fella with a restorationist vision for America, the promise of a future America like the good old days. There isn't a lot of substance, just the hyperbolic promise of liberating Americans from the oppression and ineptitude of the Obama presidency.

The message from dispatch was confusing so I asked for the incident commander's phone number and called him as I drove to the scene. The Sheriff's Sergeant said, "Hello, Padre. The funeral home guys are here but the family won't let them remove the body until a holy man does his thing." I was a little less confused, but still wondered what I was getting into.

At the time I was part of an association of clergy who had received specialized training and certification from the International Conference of Police Chaplains. We served the county sheriff's office and several municipal police agencies. Our primary ministry portfolio was to provide pastoral care for cops, much like military chaplains. But some of our training prepared us to work alongside deputies and officers. An unattended death in a home was among those occasions.

I presume you scored three French hens from your true love on this third day Christmastide. They'll go with the two turtle doves and the partridge you received yesterday and Sunday. You see, Christmas is not over. Christmas has just begun.

The goofy carol, "Twelve Days of Christmas," with its bizarre inventory of gifts is a reminder that Christmas isn't a holiday, Christmas is a holy season that begins on December 25. Today you woke up to the third day of the season of Holy Christmas.

Among the treasures I enjoy at this time of year are old Christmas postcards sent to my father in the first and second decade of the 1900s. Costing only a penny to mail, and a penny to buy, the cards traveled back and forth between my father in North Ogden and his cousins in Weston, Idaho. The messages rarely were humorous, nor were they maudlin verses, but displayed little works of art with sincere written greetings.

Cousin Harold wrote on a card imprinted with "Ever Thine" and a picture of a child in a bright red coat holding a white dove: "I hope this finds you all well as it leaves us the same at present. We are having an awfull cold winter out here, so cold that little Karl and I cant go out to play. Write soon."

Three women signed another card that featured a curly haired, pink-cheeked girl with "A Joyful Christmas" message surrounded by red holly berries and leaves. Another holly framed winter scene arrived from Pearly Swift.

I recently attended a graduation ceremony for a friend who was receiving her master's degree in library science. As is typical for commencement ceremonies, there was a long list of speakers. Given that all the graduates were receiving degrees in library science, the speakers focused their remarks on the role of libraries in the 21st Century.

As I listened to the speeches, it was apparent that the librarians were aware, and perhaps a little worried, about the impact that rapidly changing information technology would have upon their profession. The speakers' commitment to keeping libraries relevant was also clear.

The religious issue swirling around governor's Romney and Huntsman just shouldn't be there, but it is. And it's not just that they're Mormons, they're Republican Mormons.

By contrast, since Mo Udall dang near displaced Jimmy Carter as the Democrat presidential candidate in 1976, up to the present day with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Mormon Democrats have been immune to theological stigma.

On Oct. 16, 1758, the great lexicographer and philologist, Noah Webster, was born. He is famous for his American Dictionary of the English Language published in 1812 which defined 70,000 words.

Since its publication, many dictionaries have followed. My version is Webster's College Dictionary. I like words. When I'm reading I continually run to my dictionary to look up a word's meaning. Here are a few of the words I've discovered.

Agita describes my condition after eating too many tomatoes. It means heartburn.