Last week, the Utah Statesman profiled two USU philosopher professors: professors Huenemann and Kleiner.

Huenemann was featured in the paper because he was recently awarded full professorship after 15 years of teaching at USU. From the article:

Among his colleagues and students, Huenemann is known for filling the shoes of a philosopher by fitting the quirky and comical stereotype, said friend and colleague John Seiter, speech and communications professor. … Though Huenemann is an accomplished philosopher and professor, Seiter said what stands out most about Huenemann is the person he is…“He is a compassionate leader with an amazing sense of humor. He makes movies with his kids. He invests a lot of time into being a father.”

I have regrettably never taken a class from Dr. Huenemann. But he has nonetheless made my stay at USU more enjoyable. My first semester (Fall 2006), I wasn’t so sure I made the right school choice. But that semester, I attended a philosophy club event where I was introduced to professors Huenemann and Kleiner. I was so impressed by their knowledge, their passion, their beards—everything. Knowing that professors of their caliber taught here at USU gave me great peace of mind.

While I wasn’t able to take any of Dr. Huenemann’s courses, I have been the beneficiary of Dr. Kleiner’s teaching. Professor Kleiner was also featured in the school newspaper, but the reason for the article is hardly celebratory:

Of the many professors USU employs, one philosophy professor will not be returning to expand the minds of students next fall. Professor Harrison Kleiner has inspired the hearts of his pupils here for five years, but because of the budget cuts, he no longer will teach them how to think like Socrates, write like Plato and study like Aristotle.

Those who know Dr. Kleiner, from either this blog or his classes, understand how profound a loss his leaving will be. I don’t use Yiddish to describe many people, but Dr. Kleiner is a real mensch. He’s more than a phenomenal educator, he’s an all-around great person and I’m honored to call him a friend. I wish him the best and hope he continues to grace our blog.

Be sure to thank both these men for their many years of service at this school.

If there is a Hell, these atheists are practically sprinting there! Our group would never dare do something like this. I guess we’re all SHAFT and no balls.

Since its 1830 publication, there have been nearly 4,000 changes made to the Book of Mormon. The vast majority of these changes were minor grammatical edits. Other changes were more significant, tweaking and clarifying doctrines. My favorite change, though, corrected a hilarious and embarrassing typo in the 1992 Spanish edition of the Book of Mormon.

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From Mormon Times:

An attorney for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints predicts secularism will be one of the most significant obstacles facing the LDS Church over the coming decade.

William F. Atkin, associate general counsel for the LDS Church, made the prognostication Saturday during an address at the 2010 J. Reuben Clark Law Society Conference on the University of Utah campus.

“When governments become neutral towards religion, we see less and less protection of religion and religious activities,” he said. “Secularism in the world is neutral at best towards religions and hostile at worst. We’re seeing more and more that it is hostile, not just neutral, towards religion.”

In the United States, secularism could result in changing how the tax code treats nonprofit religious organizations.

“We think there’s going to be a tightening now of what kind of entities get tax-exempt status,” Atkin said. “Maybe churches are no longer going to be viewed as such a positive influence in society — therefore (maybe) they’re not going to be granted tax-exempt status.”

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Cool, if a bit cheesy.

Just a reminder: Our sister group SHIFT at the University of Utah is hosting a huge event in SLC this weekend. Here is the event info, via SHIFT’s blog:

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