Musings of a Patriot

Category: General

  • Why John Swallow Should Resign Even If He Did Nothing Illegal

    John Swallow should resign despite the assumption that he is innocent because 1) he has displayed very poor judgement, and 2) the investigations against him dilute the effectiveness of the entire Attorney General’s office. It is abundantly clear that regardless of his innocence or guilt the people of Utah would be better off with a…

  • Unfounded Assumptions on Gun Control

    In order to have a productive discussion on gun control it is necessary that the participants expose and understand each other’s underlying assumptions on the topic.

  • Happy Fireworks Day

    photo credit: Camera Slayer Regardless of how much some people may talk about the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States during their celebrations on the fourth day of July each year, and despite reports suggesting that participation in such celebrations makes children more likely to identify politically as Republicans, it seems…

  • GRAMA Answers – A First Pass

    I really appreciated the 36 questions that came out of the first meeting of the GRAMA working group and wanted to offer one perspective on a first pass at answering those questions. I will say upfront that the answers provided here are subject to modification or revision based upon more detailed information. Consider this the…

  • Orrin Hatch’s Insurmountable Obstacle

    photo credit: Gage Skidmore Two years into his bid for re-election (yes, he has already been in obvious campaign mode for two years), in a recent tweet Orrin Hatch invited people to let him know if he was on the right track. My tweet length response was that he could not get on the right…

  • A Failed Crisis?

    I would bet that almost all the people who have read The Fourth Turning have wondered at one time or another whether 9/11 was our nation’s crisis as predicted in that book. I know that I read somewhere that the authors of the book indicated that they believed that 9/11 was the crisis that marked…

  • Limitations of Politics

    photo credit: RSzepan Over the course of my writing here I have been asked why I focus so much on political issues and not so much on promoting a moral society. I think it’s a great question and I have thought much about it. The short answer is that my focus on this site is…

  • Political Paradise in Two Paragraphs

    I have never read a more precient statement about how politics should work – even in an imperfect world – than this comment by Charles: I don’t think we should abandon partisanship, but we need to abandon incivility and mindless unfounded attacks. I don’t want conservatives or liberals to change their principles, or to compromise…

  • Resetting Expectations

    I have been profoundly disappointed in my lack of opportunity to write here lately (combined with a drastic scaling back in my ability to comment elsewhere or participate in other related activities). I am forced to admit that this situation is likely to continue for an extended period of time and must reset my own…

  • 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…