
Gene Healy wrote about what he called Obama’s phony federalism but what he was really talking about was a relatively universal perspective on federalism:
Not yet a year into his administration, Obama’s record on 10th Amendment issues is already clear: He’ll let the [...]

I enjoyed a good chuckle the other day when I came across the Facebook group “1 Million Strong Against our SOCIALIST Fire Departments”
Created to poke fun at conservatives who oppose big-government programs (like health care) on grounds that these programs are socialistic, their slogan is:
“WE MUST [...]
I’m fascinated by data visualization. Expressing complex ideas in a simple way is immensely powerful. In my post yesterday, I linked to a
county-by-county time lapse of unemployment rates. I’ve found some interesting images (complete with a thorough explanation) examining the U.S. economy. The article is interesting, but the [...]
No new pork? Openness? Transparency? Accountability? Apparently folks in DC hope we DON’T remember…. [...]
Above you see the previous health care bill (1,018 pages); multiply that by two and you’ll have the most recent version (2,047 pages).
The Democrats have rolled out their latest proposal for health care reform. This 2,047 page version closely resembles previous versions and would push [...]
Daring Fireball pointed to this county-by-county time lapse of unemployment rates. Fascinating. It explains some of the differences I’ve observed in the move from Utah to Georgia.
A few things to notice:
Because each frame is a 12-month running average, the map doesn’t show whether some counties have started to [...]
There are two political cultures that we need to change in order to have a healthy “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” in this country. The first is the culture among the voters as defined by how thy [...]

There are two political cultures that we need to change in order to have a healthy “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” in this country. The first is the culture among the voters as defined by how thy [...]
The following is the text of a lecture I gave last night to the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at Utah Valley University:
Throughout the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, those who have been sustained as its leaders have repeatedly spoken out on political matters. [...]

When I read Jay Hutchinson’s post about Why Capital Punishment is wrong I could not sit still without sharing the opposite perspective so that some people can recognize that the issue is not one sided or clear cut. I am not one [...]
“Evil rarely comes upon us all at once, and liberty is rarely lost in one stroke.”
Our federal government is out of control. The sprawling government we have today is markedly different from the one bequeathed to us by our Founders, which “was strictly limited in its scope, guaranteed individual liberty, [...]

November 9th marked two decades since the Berlin Wall came crashing down. As a visual representation of the larger “Iron Curtain”, Berlin’s wall served as a symbol of the separation of and forced isolation by the Eastern Bloc. In the minds [...]
[...] The following is an op-ed I wrote that was published in the Salt Lake Tribune yesterday (my submission is below; the Trib edited it slightly for publication):
Along with the recent announcement of the NSA data center to be built near Lehi came numerous praises of the jobs it would [...]

When I learned that Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the NY-23 race, and even more when I learned that when she dropped out she endorsed the Democratic candidate rather than the Conservative candidate, it really got me thinking about what parties [...]

The Hate Crimes bill recently passed as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, and President Obama signed it into law. I’ve blogged on the ridiculous nature of “hate crime” legislation before, but now a larger connection is materializing in my mind, [...]

Alexander Hamilton at one point in his political career seemed to have held a very limited view of the federal government’s powers, believing that such things as “agriculture and manufacture” were under the purview of state governments. Not long after taking such a stand, he advocated [...]
It’s sometimes difficult to be appropriately critical of someone you know and respect. But it is important to speak out when you see something wrong.
The St-Ex reports that last Friday Roy High School held a special assembly “to which only minority students were invited to listen to Dave [...]

In over two hundred speeches given between 2002 and 2009, President Obama has referenced “special interests” 212 times. This near 1:1 ratio shows a continual concern (if only a verbalized one) for the influence of these allegedly nefarious groups of lobbyists.
Mr. Obama [...]

Although I had never heard it before, this quote in Utah Policy really captured the essence of some of what I have been trying to convey in posts and comments on what makes an ideal legislator:
“A popular Government, without popular information, [...]

It is absurd to imagine that the former colonists, who abhored British attempts to continually centralize governmental power over them, would in turn create a federal government that possessed the same abusive powers. Yet this is exactly what some opponents to the Constitution of the United [...]
Congressman Jason Chaffetz takes a minute to talk about the new tax imposed on ALL “medical devices”, roughly 80,000 different items. [...]
Ever heard of the acronyms NDEA, ESEA, EAHCA, IASA, IDEA, or NCLB? All these represent former or current federal laws that did or do regulate public education in the states. What kind of impact have these laws had on state governments, schools, and students? Has that impact [...]
Heard of Doug Hoffman yet? He’s the former Republican, now Conservative party candidate whose popularity just forced Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the NY23 race. Scozzafava is a liberal Republican who supports gay marriage, abortion rights, big labor, union bosses and card check. Before [...]
From Congressman Mike Pence [...]
From Congressman Mike Pence [...]
By Lyle Hillyard
A recent article by the Heritage Foundation provides an exhaustive and compelling list of instances in which supporters of California’s recent Proposition 8 were targeted, harassed, and violently abused by individuals in the opposing camp. While certainly not complete in its [...]

Soon after the election last year in the Wall Street Journal, Gerald Seib wrote about the opportunity presented by the financial crisis for Barack Obama. Perhaps he was simply reacting to Rahm Emanuel’s statement that, “you never want a serious crisis to [...]
Barney Frank: We are trying on every front to increase the role of government“ [...] 
If a court doesn’t clearly understand what a law means, the judges always go back to the intentions of those who wrote it. So they should. A law is still the law until it is properly amended. As law, meaning of the Constitution of the United [...]