Category: culture
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After We Vote
One of the greatest things about our country is what happens after we vote. Rarely is there any large shouting about unfairness – calls of “they stole the election.” Most commonly the prevailing attitude among those who continue to be active after the vote is summed up by the question that Jesse asked, “So now…
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The Government Hammer
My father-in-law is known for saying, “When you have a hammer everything looks like a nail.” Thomas Sowell talks about political crises created by Political “Solutions.” Government laws and policies, especially the Community Reinvestment Act, pressured lenders to invest in people and places where they would not invest otherwise. Government also created the temporarily very…
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Put Virtual Politics on the Ground
I have been thinking about the words of Tom Friedman when he wrote about what he calls Generation Q. I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be. . .…
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Real Life Choose Your Own Adventure
I was surprised by the news that JK Rowling announced that Dumbledore was gay. At first I was annoyed that she would take the time to insert something into the story that was never apparent in any of the books. It sounded like she was going back and writing an alternate ending after everyone had…
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Doing the Impossible
I thought it interesting to learn about the blog post from Bobby Calvan – the blog no longer exists – which proves that nothing is impossible. (Hat tip Steve Urquhart) For those who are interested the entire post – and the 197 comments that were generated in just over 3 hours – has been preserved…
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Speak Up
I loved seeing How to Get Involved in Political Process at KSL. It talks about how to go beyond voting and pontificating to actually making a difference politically. There are many ways to be involved between the voting and serving in an elected capacity. If you really want to make things happen you can look…
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Are We Willing to Change?
We took the kids to Timpanogos Cave a couple of weeks ago. One of the people on our tour with us was a soldier who we learned was recently back from a tour in Iraq. At the end of our cave tour Laura took a moment to point him out to our girls and told…
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Four Good Criteria
I’m always looking to quantify what makes a candidate acceptable or not. Thus I was drawn to four criteria that Scott suggested we should seek in candidates we would support. They should be Honest, Good, Wise, and Constitutional. Scott does a good job of expanding on each of the criteria, but this qualifier should guide…
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Someone to Believe In
After talking about my opposition to Rudy Giuliani and the dangers of the “select someone electable” mentality I thought it would be a nice change to talk about the kind of candidate that I would like to back. My example is Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, who I recently learned about. Much of the…
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Bureaucracy in Action
This is what happens when we expect government bureaucracy to manage something rather than leaving things in the hands of individuals. Loving couple. Loving home. Steady jobs. No criminal history. Kids like them and the birth mother wants it. Despite all that, Michael Valez and Michael Oberg are wading upriver through the state child protection…