Benjamin Pacini

Because 1) someone asked, and 2) I have work that I'm trying to avoid. Benjamin Pacini's brief guide to twitter civility for Latter-day saints. Thread.

The irony of "Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" is that none of the women seem particularly good at being Mormon, keeping secrets or remaining a wife.

Luke is Luke because he’s a Latter-day Saint. He’s Luke because of his time as a missionary teaching about Christ from the Bible and Book of Mormon. He’s Luke because he learned his identity as a child of God. That’s what made him Luke. There’s no Luke without Mormonism.

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is inviting all to participate in a special fast on July 5 in conjunction with the United States’ 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Wrote the First Presidency: “All are invited to participate in a unified fast to express gratitude for religious liberty and to pray that it be strengthened throughout the world.” Also, the Church’s April 2026 general conference will feature just four general sessions as well as a solemn assembly. With the conference held over Easter weekend this year, messages are expected to especially focus on Jesus Christ, His literal Resurrection, His infinite Atonement and the hope, renewal and peace that come through Him and His gospel. And in a Church News video titled “Love Thy Neighbor,” Church leaders — including Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson, Presiding Bishop W. Christopher Waddell and Welfare and Self-Reliance Services managing director Blaine Maxfield — discuss progress made in caring for those in need in 2025. Leaders of charitable organizations and nonprofits speak about their collaborations with the Church in humanitarian efforts.

In our tradition we use the symbol of the square. The square is an instrument for creating and verifying “right” angles. Do you use your political ideology as the means of measuring the “right”ness of the church’s actions? Or do you measure the world against the Word of God in scripture and through his living oracles? With which judgement you judge, and with what measure you mete, shall be measured to you again. So Judge and measure using God’s measuring instruments.

how my codebase written entirely with claude code runs

Make BYU I-DO unironic again

My favorite genre is still ChatGPT not believing current political developments when I ask it for a copy edit.

Meta-analysis in math ed: higher achievement is associated with more enjoyment, hope, and pride—and with less anger, boredom, frustration, and shame. Emotions and outcomes move together, so instructional design shapes more than just scores.

Ukrainians, Georgians, Moldovans, et al be like

And in despair I bowed my head; "There is no peace on earth," I said; "For hate is strong, And mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men!" Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do. I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet. Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.” I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9). With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses

Merry Christmas to each of us! May we all feel God’s love for us and show that love toward our neighbors during this special season.

People in the comments are denying America is very rich. But America simply *is* very rich! This holds when accounting for things like healthcare, PPPs, and so on.

Why are Mormons not referred to as Christians? President Jeffrey R. Holland provided a solid answer i haven't heard before.

Baumol: "Why have services like education and healthcare become so expensive across the rich world? Because the people performing these services reside in affluent societies and dynamic economies where they can rightly command a high wage." ft.com/content/3fa9b4…

The anti-vax movement is going to go down in history as one of the most sad, bizarre, and destructive social contagions of modern times.

Mormon’s high praise of Captain Moroni always stands out: “If all men [were] like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever”. But what was it about Moroni that impressed Mormon so much?

Minutes of work at the average wage to purchase one can of Campbell's tomato soup: 1898: 46 minutes 2025: 2.5 minutes