Friday, May 11, 2012

Rodcast 100: D.B.


100!

So we share a few stories regarding failure to wed and success at sealing. Also, Mosiah. BOM's just clipping along.

Is Deseret Book evil and filthy lucrey? I'm seriously asking because I don't know.

Download here!

What is Time Out for Women? http://tofw.com/about

Recent BYU Women's Conference link: http://ce.byu.edu/cw/womensconference/registration.cfm

Next week: Testimony meeting jokes!

7 comments:

  1. The best line from this podcast is when Jon explains how things are done "The Oakland Way!". Great stuff.

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  2. I hope everyone enjoyed their time off from the Rodcast. It looks like you've made it two years. Congratulations everyone!

    I've always been neutral to Deseret Book. I didn't know anything about the priestcraft potential.

    However, profit is not evil. If your heart is only set on money, that would be no good. But "ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them, and ye will seek them to do good." Money is not bad, but the love of money is bad. The great thing about market economics is no one is forced to buy something. Consumers make choices in an arm's length transactions. If people don't get value from the products sold at Deseret Book, then it would quickly go out of business. Also, on Time out for Women: They are price setters not price takers. All merchants compete for customers, if your product or service is set too high you won't sell that product. This is all basic economics, even I understand this simple stuff.

    I also don't like the GA books that are just compilations of conference talks. But selling books is a valid way to provide income. Similarly, if you build an App that does amazing things they should be worth more.

    I think The Book of Mormon is copyrighted. Isn't Joseph Smith the "author" to accommodate publishing laws? So I suppose the Church could shut down all the scripture apps if they wanted to. Does anyone own the Bible? I'm don't know details but you do own copyrights for any podcast you make. You might want to look into publishing under Creative Commons.

    I would have been jealous of Steph if she got to hear Pete sing live.

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  3. I'm not saying DB doesn't make economic sense. Of course it does, and that's why it wasn't in dispute during the discussion. Also, in many cases, what the sell really does bless lives and bring people closer to Christ. One of the things I wanted to bring up but didn't get the chance is that they provide a platform for some of the great teachers of the Church of our generation (the three that come to mind are Robert Millet, S. Michael Wilcox and Andrew Skinner) the venue they need to get their insights to the masses. One of my all-time favorite books, Gethsemane (by Skinner) is sold at DB. The positive power the company wields can't be disputed.

    However, they also sell alot of crap fiction and other such things that people probably wouldn't buy if it wasn't sold by a Church business like DB. That's the kind of stuff with which I take issue. People give the company too much credence and buy stuff there they probably would never have thought to buy, but the DB name and background makes it feel OK to do so. That, to me, is where it crosses the line. In retrospect, I wish I had spent a lot less time railing about Time Out for Women and talking more about this part...the "it's OK because it's sold at Deseret Book" idea.

    The thing about price-setting vs price-taking for TOFW might be questionable, though. If you're in Harrisburg, PA, chances are that you're not going to spend the money to travel to Provo to go to Women's Conference at BYU. I was speaking from the perspective of someone who is within easy traveling distance of Provo and has the choice to go to Women's Conference or TOFW. Most of the time, TOFW is the only game in town when it comes to gatherings for LDS women, so they would have to be the price-setters because there's no competition.

    Also, I do think that the Church (via Intellectual Reserve) owns the rights to the Book of Mormon, D&C and Pearl of Great Price. There is a copyright mark at the front of the Book of Mormon, so that one is for sure, but I don't know if that covers the other two as well (I was looking in a triple) or not, since the cover pages of the other two only state that the Church publishes them.

    Looking forward to the big Rodcast family reunion/all-star guest gathering in a few weeks (or months, considering it took three weeks between recordings this time around).

    [End]

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  4. Mark, if you ever need a blessing let me know. I normally charge about $25 or more per blessing, but if you mention the Iron Rodcast at checkout, I'll make you a deal.

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  5. Thanks for the clarification, everyone. It never crossed my mind before about the possible priest crafts happening right under my nose. My mind was expanded thanks to this discussion.

    The Rodcast family reunion/all-star guest gathering sounds like are great idea to make some money. ;)

    I guess I'm too much of a capitalist sometimes.

    It was great to hear the new guy. I'm sure he'll fit right in.

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  6. I just have a couple links showing things that Deseret Book sells.

    http://oldbuddysam.blogspot.com/search/label/Bad%20Mormon%20Art

    And if you want to be freaked out...

    http://www.ldsbookstore.com/mary-mother-of-jesus

    I don't think their marketing strategy here is very obtuse. I think it's sickening. For a church that teaches their youth to be "in the world but not of the world" this seems to be feeding into the opposite philosophy. I don't care if Stephanie Meyer is Mormon. Giving Mary a "come hither" look is just wrong.

    Check out the other "Real Hero" posters.

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  7. I think Jn. and Pete Diddy should go to 'Bekah Rogers ward a few more times and see what happens. Maybe none of the girls in the ward noticed Jn. because he was too humble and with a 2nd helping they would be more smitten.

    Like Pete, I like the "if you do something stupid, this is not going to work out well for you" type of scriptures, too. D&C 42:60 is a good one as well. I think it's the clarity and simplicity that I respond well to.

    It's a shame I still work at night because I'd love to see Jn. and Matt do standup. If you guys ever record it, I'd love to have a listen.

    I don't have much opinion on Deseret Book as far as products like books and pictures. Someone has to sell those things so I'm glad they do it and it's not like any of their products are required for membership in the church. As for the Timeout for Women thing, I agree with Steph in that it seems like pandering. Then again, I don't know a ton about it and it's not for me anyway so who cares what I think.

    As for jokes in testimony meeting, which now that I think of it may have been my suggestion, I get easily annoyed by people who go up there, bust out a couple zingers, and throw in a testimony at the end. It's totally ok to be funny or witty while sharing a spiritual story or bearing testimony, but the spiritual story/testimony needs to be the main reason for getting up there. Even if the people that go up there mainly to tell jokes are hilarious, in the end it feels like it detracts from the spirit, which is the main point of testimony meeting. Also, I feel that sometimes people feel like they need to be funny, which then causes them to try to be funny when they simply aren't or the joke is not completely appropriate, and then it gets awkward.

    It's nice to get a personal shout-out! Yeah, school is over so I'm back on the map. If you guys ever want me back on for some weird reason, give me a hollar. I think having a bunch of new voices on the Rodcast is great, and welcome to Andrew!

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