Musings of a Patriot

Year: 2007

  • Balanced Government

    I have long believed that Utah needs balanced government. I have made most of the same arguments on this issue as were raised in that article. Having a single party in power does not generally provide the give-and-take, compromise-and-entertain-new-ideas environment that is the strength of a democratic society. One of the problems that encourages the…

  • Potential Candidate

    I think I would make a great elected official. That is, I think I have the qualities that I would like to see in candidates and elected officials at all levels of government. I’m intelligent and interested in learning a wide variety of new things, I care about our government and society, and I like…

  • Heroes and Idols

    Laura and I were having a fascinating conversation with good friends which rolled around to the topic of teaching children about their future roles as adults. We got to talking about the types of role models that children have and the messages that they are being fed from our society about those adult roles. Out…

  • Mike Jingozian

    Although he is running for President, Mike Jingozian is more focused on the idea that we should remake our political machine. While the core values expressed have some merit, he fails to recognize that the vast majority of those who have the skills necessary to successfully operate our government are those who believe in, or…

  • Where Do I Fit?

    This morning I was thinking about my political orientation and wondering where I fit. I’m independent from a republican region. I am more and more in favor of a smaller federal government. I am convinced that we rely too much on the government, especially for things that the government is not well-suited to address. Libertarian…

  • Mob Intelligence

    I love reading Terry Pratchett, for the humor, but I just discovered an extremely useful mathematical equation in Maskerade to calculate the intelligence of any mob. “The IQ of a mob is the IQ of its most stupid member divided by the number of mobsters.” Now if only we had an accurate definition of what…

  • Non-Binding Resolutions

    While listening to NPR today I heard a senator talking about many agreements we have made with the Iraqi government where the Iraqi’s failed to do what they promised. He attributed that failure to the fact that "the agreements [had] no teeth." That got me thinking. We don’t have to look outside our country to…

  • Bob Jackson

    Well, I decided to tackle a second endorsement today because some endorsements are very easy to go and find a candidate who should not be endorsed. I expected that to be the case again today. After looking into Bob Jackson again (a commenter pointed me towards him some time ago) I was looking for reasons…

  • Donald Allen

    Donald Allen is an idealist. He talks about the major issues of today (Energy Independence, Social Security, Healthcare, etc.) but his campaign is exactly what I would expect for a person running for city council in a city of 25,000. Some people may be nostalgic for a time when leading our country was a matter…

  • Inherently Unequal

    My whole family is getting over being sick (here’s a story about that) and as I reflected on the experience I was thinking how nice it would have been to have the kinds of beds they had 150 years ago (pre-industrial age) where you would clean a mattress after someone threw up on it by…