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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Some time ago, my local newspaper published a letter to the editor calling for harsher treatment of people that kept dogs that harmed or threatened others. The writer suggested an escalating scale for repeated offenses. The severity of the suggested punishments, the writer felt, would provide a disincentive to owning [...]
Holly has a great post/discussion about why Unity at all costs is the wrong message for the GOP today. Within her post was one small statement that I had been thinking about for weeks:
Too many are not willing to lose . . [...]
Incessantly, putrescent pundits and politicians blame “The Free Market” for our current economic problems. In reality, the economic crisis is due to the fact that our economy is under far more government control than you’ve been led to believe.
Besides megalomaniacal politicians, the biggest of the free [...]
I’ve been asked by David Miller to “reprint” the contents of a blog I posted on my site, Core Conservative Values. Before I just copy and paste that, I’m going to add a couple of thoughts to clarify my personal beliefs. First of [...]
On Wednesday (10/14) I caught perhaps 10 minutes of the Jason Lewis Show but in that short window Jason captured for about 60 seconds exactly what is wrong with this country and how it can be fixed. (Here’s a link [...]
The old interpretation of Constitution of the United States is bo-o-o-r-r-r-ing. This school of thought said that the Constitution limits what the federal government can accomplish. So what do people do who are annoyed by that inconvenience? They reinvent and “reunderstand” the Constitution so that suddenly [...]
In various political gatherings I attend and view there are inevitably a handful of people who will vocally complain about perceived divisiveness and “in-fighting”. Their main argument is that it is counter-productive to spend our time and energy focusing on internal problems, [...]
Once upon a time there was a young president who had campaigned on a platform of using the military more conservatively than his predecessor (who happened to be in the other party). During the campaign he had chosen a more experienced man as [...]
Richard John Neuhaus said, “In a democracy that is free and robust, an opinion is no more disqualified for being ‘religious’ than for being atheistic, or psychoanalytic, or Marxist, or just plain dumb.” If we hope to preserve a free and robust society we must insist that we and those [...]
I suspect most believers in God think that “atheist” is a dirty word. But is it really? Think of a world without atheists. Would we be better off? Absolutely not. A world without atheists would be a pretty scary place.
Some [...]
At today’s committee meeting, the Central Committee of the Utah County Republican Party passed a motion affirming its opposition to the so-called (and horribly misnamed) "ethics initiative" currently being circulated for signatures and support in the state of Utah. They join a [...]
Conflating “pollution” with “climate change” is causing us to waste a lot of time, effort, and money. One of these (pollution) we can control. The other we cannot.
How is it that so many people can’t understand the not-so-subtle “nuance” between climate [...]
A commonly proposed solution to reduce the amount of corruption in Washington is to impose term limits on officeholders, thereby theoretically minimizing the amount of damage one corrupt politician can cause. The argument goes that incumbents often have an unfair advantage with a [...]
To whom do you belong? I mean literally. Who physically owns you? Don’t give me any claptrap about your boss owning you. You continue at your current employment by your own choice (as long as your boss lets you). The fact that you must earn a living (just like the [...]
Recently there’s been a lot of talk about civility in politics. Frank and Connor have posted on this topic, with Connor noting that many difficulties
…[stem] from the inability we seem to have in separating an issue from a person. When [...]
Bob Henline strikes again, but this time there is nothing he said that I would argue with.
. . . all we end up doing is enacting more ridiculous laws that only spin the problems, never really resulting in any tangible effects. That [...]
Last night, the Sutherland Institute held their quarterly blogger briefing. Guest panelists were representatives of the Republican and Democrat parties in Utah, and the audience was comprised of, well, bloggers. The topic, “Civility in Politics: Where Do We Draw the Line?”, keyed off [...]
Do we sometimes, perhaps subliminally, think that because someone disagrees with us that they are less intelligent? How civil is political debate in Utah? Why does it seem that incivility is more attractive and entertaining? Is a little incivility okay every now and then? If you [...]
There are some pretty wacky things in the Bible. That’s why I’m glad that my Church teaches that “we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.”
The other night we were reading about [...]
Bob Henline is promoting Electoral Equality at Non-Partisan. The sentiment is admirable, but there are a couple of things that need to be cleared up before anyone jumps on the bandwagon here. Let’s look at his description of what he is promoting:
For [...]
For decades, politicians on both sides of the aisle have lampooned each others’ policies and programs while guarding their own as irreproachable. Democrats have steadily promoted the welfare state, while Republicans are most noted for their advancing of the warfare state. The truth [...]
It is very likely that one’s religious perspective of heaven contributes quite substantially to the exercise of their politics on earth. It seems to me that Conservatives, who are more generally focused on earning the rewards of the next life, are not as tuned into the [...]
When I responded to Obama’s Health Care Speech I said the following about the potential inclusion of an individual mandate in whatever health care overhaul bill is eventually debated in Congress:
In a nod to the necessity of compromise and political expediency (I [...]
Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart have been focusing the nation’s attention in recent days on ACORN, and rightly so. This organization has been riddled with corruption and controversy for some time, and the recent exposés of their widespread lawlessness have only [...]
Governments are notorious for creating problems (or inventing problems that don’t exist) in order to blame someone else for them and to obtain more control over the masses by and setting out to provide a solution to the problem it caused. This is the essence of [...]
Liberal. Conservative.
Right-wing gun nut.
Hippie.
Tea Partier (at best).
Republican. Democrat. Extremist.
“One of those people.”
Are we in third grade?
I know that treating people like individuals is just SO… HAAAAARD… but it’s what we need.
Maybe I’m just a contrarian. (Category alert!) But topping off broad, stereotypical, media accusations and derision at political meetings, was [...]
I find it appropriate that on Constitution Day (”happy” 222nd) there is a story about a lawsuit seeking to expand the House in the name of fairness for voters across the nation. Of course, I am in favor of expanding the House but let’s look at this [...]
The following is an op-ed I wrote that was published in the Daily Herald today:
It seems that for Utah’s governors, “fiscal conservatism” is little more than a campaign sound byte to be discarded upon assuming office. Governor Herbert, it would appear, is not off to a very good start. [...]
Some people think the Constitution is almost dead. Some people wish it were dead. And some people are doing their best to kill it. I think, though, that the Constitution is much stronger than we give it credit for since, when its precepts are adhered to, [...]
My town held a municipal primary election yesterday to narrow down the field for the mayor position and two city council seats that will be filled by a municipal general election in November. In the nonpartisan election, one of three mayoral candidates and one of five council candidates was eliminated.
The [...]
I don’t pay attention to talk radio because even though I am very conservative I find that the conservative perspective shared on talk radio is generally laced with too much thoughtless and inflammatory perspective that is designed to stir reactions rather than [...]
Iraqis mourned with Americans on September 11, 2001. It wasn’t long, however, before their tyrannical ruler was targeted as a possessor of weapons of mass destruction along with the intent to use them on America. When it was later proven beyond doubt that Saddam Hussein never [...]
Norman Podhoretz provides one of the most apt descriptions of the differences between progressive and conservative thought that I have yet seen:
“[I]n speaking of the difference between left and right, or between liberals and conservatives, I have in mind a divide wider than the conflict between Democrats and [...]
Most people have probably heard of the two basic classes of vision problems, far-sightedness and near-sightedness . For those who are not clear on the differences, far-sightedness is characterized by the eye being able to focus on objects at a distance [...]
Few people would disagree with the assessment that the advocates of big government—a broad but loose coalition consisting of champions in both parties of welfare and warfare—have made steady and consistent political gains in the last century.
Why have they been winning?
My casual [...]
At a speech at the Reichsparteitag in 1935, Adolf Hilter declared that “he alone, who owns the youth, gains the future!” This ownership he described was a reference to the use of propaganda, emotion, and allurement to captivate the minds and secure [...]
It’s a dangerous political game we play when we pit ourselves as enemies against our actual friends. This is the result of believing the mistake Glenn Beck and others are making with an alarming increase in frequency, in that they claim that President Barack Obama is [...]
A full reading of Goldhill's conclusions is a necessary first step for anyone on any side of the health care issue before they have any business adding anything to the debate. Whether they then agree or disagree with his conclusion anything they say must either refute some or all [...]
In an effort to inspire the colonials to stay the course in throwing off the shackles of British tyranny, Thomas Paine wrote a series of pamphlets titled The American Crisis. The first of these pamphlets began with the lines:
These are the times [...]
One of the purposes of existence is to serve one another so that we might become equal. This is the essence of the free market, as well as of the “Invisible Hand” of which the great economist Adam Smith wrote. Yet despite what free market principles [...]
In a recent post, Connor Boyack admonished people to become politically involved. He noted that just privately disagreeing with the way things are going is insufficient. He suggested that each of us has a moral duty to do what we can within the scope of our capabilities and opportunities [...]
If you want to walk a thousand miles you do it one step at a time. If you want to eat an elephant you do it one bite at a time. The genius of big government is that Congress believes that since [...]
In a 2004 General Conference address discussing how the Saints of God are to oppose evil, President Hinckley stressed the need for our active involvement in defending truth and righteousness. Noting the influence that a small group of individuals can have, he remarked [...]
History demonstrates that climate change is related to a variety of things, of which all the CO2 in the world is a very minuscule contributor. So says a real scientist, Ian Plimer. Real science is unrelated to politics. Unlike perhaps any other clearly observable phenomenon, the [...]
Proponents of the current health care proposals charge that those who oppose these proposals only want the status quo. No honest Democrats have stepped forward to admit the truth that opponents of these measures have been offering alternatives and [...]
I got a complaint on facebook over a statement I made that later amendments take legal precedence over earlier ones where both conflictingly address the same point of law. Here was the complaint:
I have a problem with the rationalization [...]
Robert Lefevre was expressing a fundamental truism when he declared that government is in reality a disease that also masquerades as a cure. Of course, this duplicitous double punch requires placing the blame for the disease on others’ shoulders. For if [...]
“When health care is subsidized, no one should be surprised that people demand more of it and that the costs to produce it increase.” —Arthur Laffer
I realize that we are currently in a major economic slump. But over the last four decades the overall economic picture has improved dramatically [...]
I agree with President Obama–health care in the United States is in desperate need of fixing. I even agree with some of his proposed solutions. But a national health care/insurance scheme would be a debacle. The federal government currently has the grubby paws of minutiae tightly [...]
I consider 1913 to be a very bad year for liberty because in that year the 16th and 17th amendments were both passed. Each of these amendments is a lever that loosened the moorings that had limited the power of [...]
Frédéric Bastiat once wrote that "the worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended." Throughout his life, Bastiat contributed a great deal of forceful arguments in the defense of [...]
Frédéric Bastiat once wrote that "the worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended." Throughout his life, Bastiat contributed a great deal of forceful arguments in the defense of [...]
by HowardLake
Those pushing the need for health care reform spend a lot of time talking about the uninsured and the many unfortunate people who cannot or will not afford to pay for health care. (Mostly they talk about the “cannot pay” people except when they [...]
Fewer words in our political vernacular have become as distorted as the word “right”. Today, politicians and ordinary people alike regularly mention a “right to health care”, “right to home ownership”, “right to affordable insurance”, and a litany of other supposed [...]
Health care, some contend, is too special to be driven by a profit motive. As one person grappling with serious health issues and the corresponding costs asked, “Who can put a money value on a life?” Health care, it is said, should not be reduced to consumerism.
We all understand this [...]
One of the most effective tactics for making someone feel guilty (presuming they have an active conscience) is to accuse them of being selfish.
This works particularly well as a progressive closing salvo against free markets and low taxes… at least, it tends [...]
Based on my unscientific observation, it seems that very few Mormons believe that people have much effect on the warming of earth. Does this mean that most Mormons have their heads in the sand? Does it make our Church look a bit hickish?
I think it makes [...]
by Lori Spindler
If we are ever to achieve any health care reform that will actually have a positive impact on our society it will require that we have honest Democrats in Congress. Not just any honest Democrats, but enough of them and in the [...]
A political tool long coveted by Presidents of the United States and enjoyed by a majority of the governors of the separate states is the line-item veto. This power allows the executive officer to unilaterally repeal certain provisions contained in a bill [...]
Barack Obama is turning America into a socialist nation!!!!!!
So go most of the ignorant economic critiques made by your average Republican in response to the policies and programs being promoted by his highness, the great President-who-can-and-will-fix-everything. Aghast at what’s being pushed through a [...]
by aflcio2008
Matthew Piccolo has a good summary of some of the major issues that are attached to the current health care proposal. That seemed like a good complementary article to what I wanted to point out about the Health Care Reform Freight Train™ speeding [...]
The field of science relies upon challenging previous assumptions and understanding; by asking questions, we learn. Pursued properly, science can be a great asset to provide knowledge, technology, and progress to humanity. When married with government (the “political science” I here refer [...]
An article linked from Trying to Grok has opened up a whole (long) line of thinking for me. The statement that particularly caught my attention appeared in the author’s original op-ed :
I want Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Marxists, Independents and anyone with a halfway decent idea that doesn’t [...]
by tray
With Judge Sonia Sotomayors confirmation hearings casting an extra highlight on the recent case of reverse discrimination among New Haven firefighters, it is easy to contemplate what it means to guarantee legal equality. This has lead me to consider the difference between equality [...]
by r0b0r0b
I was just thinking today that there are two bills currently introduced in the House that clearly demonstrate how Congress acts in opposition to real progress. One is H.R. 1207 (text) and the other is H.R. 3200 (Table of Contents). Let’s [...]
While shrouded in layers of propaganda and political intrigue, the foreign policy of the United States of America is really not too difficult to understand. In discussions with others, I have often employed the use of an analogy I created to demonstrate its [...]
What’s worse, having a government bureaucrat between you and proper health care, or having a corporate bureaucrat? When health insurance companies’ allegiances shift away from people who need health care and toward pleasing their investors, you get the kinds of runaway health care costs that we [...]
Frank Staheli, Guest Author - Monte Bateman, Scott Hinrichs, Connor, David Miller, Krista, Guest Author - Holly Richardson
