Musings of a Patriot

Category: culture

  • The Liberty Line

    So long as freedom of religion is protected we have reason to celebrate our independence – even if we have to work to restore or protect our other natural rights.

  • Do We Have Reason To Celebrate?

    If we celebrate Independence Day rather than simply the 4th of July what are we celebrating? Do we even have any independence anymore?

  • Addressing Abysmal Voter Turnout

    Would non-partisan runoffs be a possible solution to address our declining levels of voter participation in Utah?

  • Please Don’t Vote

    Voting is no panacea. If we don’t do the work that needs to be the foundation of voting it can do more harm than good.

  • Failure of the American Voter

    I’ve been thinking about the massive disconnect between the abysmal ratings that Congress enjoys (8% approval I recently read) and the virtual invincibility of Congressional incumbents (incumbents consistently win 90% of the elections where they seek reelection). I realized that the apparent disconnect was not as stark as it first appeared (11 out of 12…

  • Selective Enforcement of Law

    photo credit: ThreadedThoughts In a not-particularly-surprising move, Arizona passed a very strict law giving police broad powers to crack down on illegal immigration. Equally unsurprising is the backlash from those who worry that rights will get trampled in the enforcement of this law. The biggest complaint is against the provision allowing police to stop anyone…

  • Community Caucus

    photo credit: San Jose Library There seems to be some confusion in the public mind about the purpose and nature of caucus meetings. For example Thomas Wright, chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party, is quoted in this article on KSL.com saying: {the candidates have been busy recruiting people to show and get elected…

  • A Crusade is Born

    photo credit: elycefeliz I woke up this morning incredibly frustrated. The fact that I am not a state delegate as I had hoped to be is a surprisingly small part of the reason for my frustration. The majority of my frustration is with the way the caucus meeting was held and conducted. I’ll skip the…

  • Demanding Accountability

    With Kevin Garn resigning, the possibility of closure for the legislature over this sad story is within sight. By resigning promptly Rep. Garn has demonstrated greater wisdom than some of his colleagues who facilitated this public circus by allowing this to be aired from the chamber floor and then giving him a standing ovation. Out…

  • Multi-Dimensional Political Perspectives

    photo credit: mkandlez Jane Hamsher wrote about the 11 Dimensional Chess approach to health care legislation that the Obama administration tried. That sent me back to some earlier thoughts I had shared about how we visualize the political spectrum. The simplest way to view things is one dimensional. Like the opening image here it breaks…