The Mormon Church fires back at LGBQT students at BYU, says being homosexual is still a no-go.

Nine years ago, this blog jokingly started writing about the comically curious, absurdly strict, and just plain odd codes of conduct at various colleges and universities.

The first school chosen to showcase? BYU. From haircuts to clothes to who uses your bathroom, BYU lists a delightful array of absurdity by modern conventions.

Things haven't really changed in the near decade since. That was until a few weeks ago, when the university's Honor Code Office (yes, they have a full office for this stuff) surprisingly deleted a passage in the honor code that banned gays and lesbians from hugging, hand-holding, or sharing a kiss on campus. Students of all sexuality backgrounds were thrilled and excited. It seemed like a new day at BYU!

That lasted about the time of a cup of coffee, if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints actually allowed adherents to enjoy coffee. (Psst: They don't.)

Church Elder Paul V. Johnson penned a letter rebuking Brigham Young University and its students regarding homosexual behavior.

Today this letter from Elder Paul V. Johnson, Commissioner of the Church Educational System, regarding the updated Honor Code was sent to students and employees at all CES schools. pic.twitter.com/sADljd8lQT

— BYU (@BYU) March 4, 2020

"Lasting joy comes when we live the spirit as well as the letter of God's laws," Johnson states.

This is where the trouble starts. The same passage of the Bible that says a man shall not lay down with another man also notes a cloth should not be made out of two types of thread, or a garden made with different seeds. I don't know about you, but I love me some cotton/poly blends and a good cucumber and tomato salad I grew myself. But I guess I'm packing a suitcase to Satan as I speak.

"Same-sex behavior cannot lead to eternal marriage and is therefore not compatible with the principles included in the Honor Code," Johnson continues.

So, if we're following Johnson's declaration about "the word" of God, then he also REALLY doesn't want you wearing those 98% cotton shorts with 2% spandex that stretches over your love-handles. Sorry, BYU.

Know Your Obscure Halloween Candy: Pixy Stix

With Halloween coming soon, that means only one thing really: candy.

Anyone who trick-or-treated as a child knows that there's always one or two houses that dish out some obscure candy. So, between now and October 31st, we'll take quick looks at obscure candies (and some popular ones as well), just so you know what exactly you're getting yourself into.


Today:  Pixy Stix

What it's made of:  Dextrose, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors.

Who owns it:   Nestlé, under the Willy Wonka banner.

Background:  Ever pour a Pixy Stix into your mouth and think you were really just sucking down powdered drink mix? Well, you're not delusional. That's because it's how the Pixy Stix originated.

In 1942, J. Fish Smith found that children were eating penny drink mix straight down. Considering this all happened in Salt Lake City, Utah, this was the equivalent of mainlining heroin. But Smith went ahead and created Lik-M-Aid.

Ten years later, an affiliated company of Smith's located in St. Louis was in charge of distributing Lik-M-Aid nationally. It took the company until 1959 to place the sweet or sour sugary concoction into straws and change the name to Pixy Stix.

In 1962, the company decided to use the same flavor profile of a Pixy Stix, but in a tablet candy form, naming them SweeTarts. So, in essence, a SweeTart is really just a Pixy Stix with a hardened, bad ass attitude.

What it tastes like:  Sand, if sand tasted like sugar.

Halloween Trick-or-Treat Grade:  B+

Points deducted because the paper straw deteriorates if you suck on it too long. I don't need extra fiber in my diet.

How many public schools teach creationism in America?

It's a question Slate decided to document via a map.

Whether it's a public school, or just a tax-funded charter institution, schools in Texas, Utah, Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia, Indiana and countless others receive some sort of taxpayer money, yet also are allowed to blur the line between church and state.

All public schools in Louisiana and Tennessee--those great bedrocks of forward scientific thought--are allowed to teach creationism (whether or not they choose to do so is unknown), whereas the state's largest charter program in Texas, Responsive Ed, takes it a step further. As Slate describes:

The state’s largest charter program, Responsive Ed, receives $82 million in taxpayer money each year, but that hasn’t stopped its schools from adopting a creationist curriculum that seriously misrepresents the science of evolution. These materials wrongly portray the fossil record and the age of Earth as scientifically controversial, assert that there is a lack of “transitional fossils,” and claim evolution is untestable.

Damn right! Earth might be 4.540 billion years old, it might be 4.54001 billion years old--we can't handle this kind of controversy!




Map: Portion of Slate map, found here.

Utah student pays tuition entirely in $1 bills.

Needing to pay a $2,000 tuition bill at the University of Utah, student Luq Mughal decided to make a statement about the rise in tuition costs. His solution? Channel his inner Scarface and bring a small metal suitcase filled with two thousand $1 bills to the school's billing department.

“When you spend cash, you feel every dollar that you hand over to someone else,” Mughal told the Daily Utah Chronicle. “You feel that you’re losing that. If you just swipe your card, it could be 10,000 or 100,000 bucks and you don’t really feel it. When you actually slide over a huge pile of cash, you really feel like you’ve spent that. That’s your money, and you also want to make that worthwhile by doing well in school.”

Added Mughal abut the experience with the school cashier, "She didn't even count it."

No funny money?! Tony Montana is rolling over in his grave.

Utah teen kicked out of school for dyeing her hair auburn.

Admittedly, it is Utah.

Utah is all that was great about America, circa 1625. So hat tip to them for keeping it real, Pilgrim-style.













Photo: Egregious hair-coloring student, Kylee Mackay, via Yahoo, via her Facebook page. As the photo suggests, she's channeling her...inner sensible soccer mom?

Which state uses racist language the most?

According to a study that researched racist words searched on Google, the state that searches for racist language most is West Virginia.

The Top Ten:
1. West Virginia
2. Louisiana
3. Pennsylvania
4. Mississippi
5. Kentucky
6. Michigan
7. Ohio
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. New Jersey*

The only surprise here is Pennsylvania. But, really, go fifteen miles outside Philadelphia and the banjos and overalls crowd pretty much dominates.



*Don't even act surprised about New Jersey in the top ten. All the racist New Yorkers move there. It's one pitchfork away from a John Grisham novel.

BYU = a sense of humor? (No, really.)

It's always been known that Utah has its fingers on the pulse of comedy. The Osmonds alone have made us laugh against our will for generations.

BYU made some sort of commercial about their library. Yeah, their library--because they're either really bored in Utah or love books a lot more than sane people. It's a sort of/kind of knockoff of all the Old Spice commercials airing lately, except with production values you never expect from a university.

Someone at the FSC Comm Media department needs to get inspired.