Christmas Eve: Watch Mindcraft Movie with the kids and laugh at the Idaho jokes. Make and eat fish tacos. Read The Grinch to the kids and do the voices. Wife reads from Luke and we sing a handful of Christmas songs. Good night, all. Have a great Christmas.

There's a bakery near my work that was supposedly started by a German baker in the 60's. I've stopped by before without finding German baked goods, but figured I'd have a better chance around Christmas time, so stopped by again today. Nope. No Lebkuchen, no Pfeffernusse, nothing. Pffft.

The Yellowstone area got hit with hurricane-force winds yesterday, with the highest winds being recorded near Star Valley, Wyoming--144 mph. Dozens of semis blew over on the freeway near Malad, Idaho. Fortunately the winds weren't quite that high in the Idaho Falls area.

Trump's brand new addition to Travel Ban countries includes Tonga. The LDS church says over half of Tonga is LDS (other sources have lower but still significant numbers). Restricting F and J visas is going to have a huge impact on BYU-Hawaii.

The Gaston live movie news reminds me of a writing assignment my freshman year at BYU. During class time we had to write a brief recollection about a time someone was mean to us. Once we'd written it, we were given new instructions--to write about it from the other person's perspective.

The Grand Inquisitor and the Christ Child After the shepherds had returned to watch their flocks at night, after the wise men had left to their own country, deliberately avoiding another audience with Herod, after the shepherds had returned to watch their flocks at night, the Holy Family received…

Went all the way to Pocatello to buy bread at a European-style bakery. Arrived 35 minutes before it opened and the line was already 10 deep. About 40 people in line before it opened. The crowd was definitely not an Idaho Falls style crowd.

New Trump policy--a waste of tax dollars and extremely painful for immigrants and their U.S. citizen families.

The wife has had in-depth conservatives with two different divorced friends this week about their dating lives, and the dating world for women in their 30s and 40s is harsh. Too many guys wanting to date but not willing to commit. A type of Peter Pan Syndrome.

"For decades, Latter-day Saint leaders have preached compassion. During Trump’s first term, the church’s governing First Presidency issued a rare public statement condemning family separation. The 2016 churchwide initiative 'I Was a Stranger' explicitly reminded members that early Saints were...

Reading Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" for the first time and can I ask writers of mainstream fantasy series to not adopt a pen name that's the same name as the main character in a classic novel? It's not fair to Hemingway that I get irritated each time I read the name "Robert Jordan."

Today's Thanksgiving leftovers meal: Turkey tacos--homemade corn tortillas, homemade salsa verde, leftover turkey, and mozzarella cheese, baked until the cheese is melted. Turkey matches real well with the salsa verde.

Animals I have seen in the wild and swerved or braked hard to miss: 1. Turkey vulture (and it dropped its lunch on the hood of my car) 2. Deer 3. Dog (okay, not a wild animal) 4. Couch (okay, not an animal) 5. Coyote

The only positive thing about hosting a crowd of 23 in a house not built for hosting is the ability to sneak off to another room in the house when it all gets to be too much. Hope all you others who are hosting are hanging in there.

Not even that. Trump hates TPS period. Everyone I know from Ukraine is white (and yes, I know quite a few good people from Ukraine) and yet Trump's working on ending TPS there too, despite the war.

Took my teens to a TSO concert last night and I found myself telling them "I first saw these guys play more than 20 years ago when some buddies and I did an all-nighter and drove from Provo to Boise just to see them play" and that sentence made me feel so incredibly old.

Remember when Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not loose any supporters? Pretty sure if he can commit murder in broad daylight without losing supporters he can also have sex with underage teenagers and his supporters wouldn't care.

The whole point of this is to make it more difficult and more expensive for people to get green cards. Like lots of bad laws, it harms people because it greatly increases the amount of hoops they have to jump through.

SOME PIG (derogatory).

Look, J. Reuben Clark Law Society, I get that it's a great honor to get a Supreme Court Justice to speak at your event, but maybe Clarence Thomas isn't the best choice right now? Read the room.

Anyone else worried about what he's going to do to distract from the Epstein news? If I were Venezuela I'd be worried right now.

I've tried to see the aurora borealis several times over the last few years and never had any luck--until today. Saw some nice red from the house, and took the kids for a short drive on the outskirts of town for a better view.

I'm admittedly a bread snob, but my options for buying good bread shouldn't be limited to either traveling 6 hours to buy from Harmons Bakery in Utah or driving 45 minutes to a bakery in Pocatello that's literally open just 2 hours a week and hoping they aren't sold out yet.

We need new TV and film adaptations as period pieces. James Bond set in the 1950s. War of the Worlds set in the 1890s. I want to watch a tripod alien machine destroy a horse and buggy and James Bond fight off measles.

Eastern Idaho can seem like a cultural wasteland--typically if I want to see a rock concert I have to drive down to SLC--but Styx came to town yesterday and put on a great show. A couple deep cuts, a couple fantastic new songs, and a lot of classics. Forgot how much I love good loud live music.

Broadview and Religious Liberty The events at Broadview represent the most significant attacks on religious liberty by the federal government that I can think of in my lifetime. Even if the church does not involve itself---and it should!---as members of the church, we can and should demand that…

“Federal authorities told demonstrators Friday that there would be ‘no more prayer’ in front of or inside the Broadview ICE facility, in a move that mystified local leaders and raised legal questions.” blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/07/f...

We need a concrete plan in order to ensure the continuance of democracy. Truth and reconciliation trials. Finish reconstruction. Universal healthcare. Get rid of the billionaire class by taxing excess wealth. Get money out of elections. Increase the size of the Supreme Court and stop their bribery.

Trump's not labeled because he's obviously just Trump.

Yeah, there's a good reason I charge what I do--it's a ton of work and it's incredibly tricky.

Remember when Cheney was the extreme element in the Republican party? Those were the days.

SNAP benefits ending has me worried. I didn't use SNAP as an undergrad (although I was probably eligible). But in law school, with a newborn, the wife and I both worked part-time but didn't bring in enough to make ends meet. I graduated during the Great Recession, another child on the way...

A survey done in late September in Alaska asked Trump voters: Donald Trump has made suggestions that he might run for a third term in 2028, even though doing so would be in clear violation of the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution. Would you still vote for him in 2028, despite this?

I was at the "after-party" of this loser's (Ryan Nelson) judge-swearing-in-ceremony. Not because of him, but because another judge who I greatly respect was speaking. Ever since, the cowardly Judge Nelson continues to disappoint.

Getting caught up with the last season of Foundation on Apple TV--a sci-fi show set in the very distant future--and one of the characters says in response to a broken ice machine, "F*ck ice." While I appreciate the sentiment it did seem a bit like breaking the fourth wall.

For Eastern Idaho folks, Broulims pharmacy is usually great but this year they're not giving out the COVID vaccine to the under-65 crowd. Get your flu/COVID shots elsewhere.

People commenting on the new Helmuth Hubener movie on Facebook are comparing the conditions he faced in Nazi Germany to the conditions they faced when they refused to wear masks during the pandemic. They're comparing him to Charlie Kirk. What are we even doing? It's all so stupid.

Not a good luck for this LDS senator from Idaho.

A few months ago I firmly believed the Supreme Court would uphold birthright citizenship. 7-2, worse case scenario 6-3. With how much they've given in to everything Trump has demanded over the last few months, I'm no longer so sure.

May they be stupid enough to place it outside, away from any cameras, where it will quickly become a public bathroom.

I appreciate that they've set a precedent for fireworks at funerals. I feel like that's going to come up again.

Where @kashana.blacksky.app absolutely obliterates a certain kind of media profile...

Welp, the Sunday School teacher brought up Charlie Kirk in class today...

The border chief was caught on camera accepting a bribe from a "contractor" (FBI agents) and the market's so flooded with cocaine coming over the border that the price of cocaine is half what it was this time last year. I wonder who else he's taken bribes from.

ICE complains that everyone's calling them Nazi losers, and then lists multiple examples. Great reading.

Today's annual small town parade is so close that parade-goers park in front of my house--and I'm happily not participating. I was in charge of this parade for 2 or 3 years a while back, and honestly I have no interest in ever watching a standard American parade ever again.

Good morning! I just had the privilege of emailing clients who just paid $2,805 to the federal government to speed up their visa extensions so they can travel internationally about Trump's Friday night plan to extort them for an additional $100,000 (not a typo) so they can reenter the U.S.

The University of Idaho College of Law is bringing Alan Dershowitz to Idaho for a presentation and I've never been happier to not be a U of I Law grad.

A member of my ward is on the small town Facebook page saying "If your [sic] struggling with the Charlie Kirk situation and are looking for a church to go to today you are more than welcome to come to ours!" Church today should be...interesting.

Sad day. This guy was a legend. One of the most interesting people in SE Idaho. www.eastidahonews.com/2025/09/isu-...