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meta

Trying again

Gotta see if this will finally show up in the fediverse. Maybe after another try.

Categories
Elevated meta politics technology thoughts

Contributing to the fediverse

This is both new and old for me. I wrote consistently on political policy topics for over 10 years but then life happened and I tapered off nearly 10 years ago. I was writing before social media was a thing – back when decentralized personal publishing was the norm rather than everybody using one or more monolithic mega-platforms to share their thoughts. (Also before short form content dominated all the conversations online.)

In the nearly 10 years since I stopped writing with consistency we have stopped being a nation where I felt that our constitutional order was secure and have become a nation where it is clear that significant populations of voters across the political spectrum (but especially among the flag-waving rightward fringe of the political spectrum) either do not understand our constitutional order or no longer believe it can or should be maintained. That is why I think it is critical for me to again share a perspective that is unabashedly pro free-market and fully committed to defending our constitutional order from all enemies, foreign or domestic.

I’m also intent on contributing in the decentralized social web to help foster that healthier ecosystem that harks back to earlier days before our discourse got toxic enough that rabidly anti-constitutional positions are now treated as fairly normal. (This isn’t unlike efforts to save the Great Salt Lake from spiking salinity levels due to dangerously low water levels – I hope it’s not too little, too late but there’s no way to know in advance.)

Categories
life meta

Stuck in Limbo

The funny thing about expectations is that they can serve to motivate our actions. I had held an expectation for myself that I would write daily (or almost daily) on all weekdays. It was hard at times to find things to write about and even harder to write anything of substance (as evidenced by some periods of very insubstantial posting). Once I decided that I should reset that expectation to only writing once or twice a week hiwever, I almost immediately stopped writing for more than two weeks. I consider that lack of discipline unacceptable.

I think this is especially disappointing to find such a lack of contribution in the middle of the legislative session—I could have at least commented on some bills such as the rainwater bill (which I favored) and the administrative subpoenas bill (which I opposed).

While I know that I am not able to maintain the daily posing schedule that I had previously expected I also know that my very thinking begins to atrophy if I give up posting altogether.

I have yet to find the proper balance but I am working on it and hope that I. will still have people interested in reading and responding to what I write by the time I find the proper balance.

Categories
meta

Thanks for Great Comments

One of my favorite parts of blogging is getting comments and discussion. I really like the tone of discussion that we have here, and sometimes I get comments that really make an impression on me. I finally decided to find a way to show those “best of the best” comments so that people who may have missed a particular conversation can see the great contributions made by others to our various discussions.

I’m using a plugin called Best-Of Comments to display those comments I select in the sidebar with a link back to the original comment. Feel free if you see a great comment to go add to the discussion, even if it seems to have ended.

Think of it as a way for me to say “thanks” for everything that all of you add to this site.

Categories
life meta State

A Huge (but Pleasant) Surprise

Every once in a while I check where this blog might be ranked in the BlogNetNews Weekly Influence Index of Utah political blogs. The list has been published weekly for the last 20 months and I used to watch it every week to see where I was ranked. I always felt good whenever I was in the top 10 for the state. I was even more excited on half a dozen occasions when I was in the top 5 (I was #4 once) which used to be displayed on the front page of BNN/Utah. As BNN/Utah began to expand and after I changed domains late last year my rankings became less consistent (meaning sometimes I was not in the top 20 anymore) and I stopped checking my ranking as regularly as I used to. When I looked today I was amazed to discover:
BNN/Utah #1

I was so surprised that I had to go look at the full list. I don’t think it was an error because the top 5 is still some select company.

May 17, 2009 Top 5 for BNN/Utah

Now I will return to more valuable content.

Categories
life meta

Blogging Full Time

No, this is not an announcement that I will be blogging for a living.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately. Besides any moral/religious reading (C. S. Lewis etc.) in the last month I have read:

As I read all these things I have lots of thoughts worth blogging about and I have come to the conclusion that I am missing some good opportunities because of the "Book Report" mindset. I have avoided blogging about things I am reading when I am still in the middle of a book. By the time I get to the end I am starting a new book and there is too much in any of those books to remember and synthesize it all (at least in the time I have to write a post). I decided this morning that I will try to avoid that mindset and just blog about thoughts and ideas that I have from my reading without trying to digest the whole book first. If I write about Atlas Shrugged it will be far from a book report because I have returned that book and don’t intend to re-read the 1200 pages in order to cover the many ideas more fully. On the other hand, I have not yet returned Why We Whisper and so I will probably go back through those 100 pages to gather the ideas that stoked my thoughts the first time around (the same applies to Lies – except that I own that one).

Also, I have started contributing as an author at the KVNU – For The People blog. I won’t cross post everything I write there, but I now have a section in the sidebar showing things I have written recently on other sites.

Categories
life meta

Speaking My Native Language

I have always tried to maintain a very civilized and respectful tone here when discussing issues that are sometimes charged with emotion in the public arena. I have been reading the book Why We Whisper and I began to recognize that my efforts to be civil had resulted in my speaking a dialect that is not native to me – secularism. I recognize that my effort not to shout had resulted in a timid whispering of my opinions for which I would not like to be known. The result is that my declared stances are weakened by an often apologetic tone when I take a position on some issues. I have determined that I can no longer do that. From now on I will be more willing to state my positions without apology and without an effort to articulate my position using secular terminology.

I still intend to be civil in manner, but by abandoning the secular terminology I will not avoid taking positions that are considered politically incorrect. As I have in the past, I will still be open to changing my positions in the future when I have been convinced of an error but I will try to avoid situations where people might mistake my true position based on my whispered stances and open declarations of uncertainty.

I appologize in advance to any of my readers who might perceive my writing as becoming more partisan than it has been in the past. I don’t know where this will take me, but I know that I cannot bear to think of myself as one who whispers the truth as if I am afraid to offend anyone or afraid that my positions may come back to haunt me in the future.

In addition to this change to a less wavering voice, I have also determined that it is time for me to find a party to affilite with in order to become more engaged in the political process as a participant rather than just as a pundit. I am still in the process of deciding what party would most closely align with my goals because I intend to make a difference in shaping the way we actually conduct the business of government. I do not intend to participate only in order to say that "I’m a delegate" (or whatever level of participation I actually  achieve). In other words, if I were a delegate, I would be active in shaping the party platform and holding elected officials accountable to that platform not simply attending and casting a vote at the convention.

Categories
meta State

Rejecting Amendment A

Let me start off by saying that Constitutional Amendment A does not have anything sinister or devious in it. In fact, there is very little in it to raise objections about. My primary objection is rooted in my position on constitutionally based governments in which I prefer to reject any amendment to the established law unless I see good reason for the change – in other words, I default to opposition where constitutional amendments are concerned.

This amendment would clarify the specifics of succession in the office of Governor and Lieutenant Governor. The specifics themselves are fairly mundane, but the situation being addressed is one that hopefully and probably will never occur. (Davis Didjeridu reminds me that a vacancy can happen for less than tragic reasons – such as federal appointment – making this situation more common than I had been thinking.) In the event that one of those vacancies did occur, common sense should allow the succession to happen seamlessly even without these specified specifics being added to the State Constitution.

There is one place where I have a specific objection to the amendment. In the section dealing with the succession of the Lieutenant Governor, it specifies that the Governor must receive the consent of the Senate for the person they would appoint to fill the vacancy. This appears to violate the separation of powers considering that the Governor, when running for office, needs no consent from the Senate when picking a running mate. I see no reason that selecting a replacement should have tighter safeguards than the original selection.

In summary, there is little to recommend this change, and more to discourage it. I won’t be overly concerned if it does pass, but I believe that not making such a change is the better choice.

Categories
culture life meta State

Make “the Silent” a Minority

Recently my niece approached me to ask questions about politics. She’s a young teenager, years short of being able to vote, but she wants to become informed and involved so that she could positively participate by the time she can vote. The conversation served as a reminder to me of how important it is for our young people to be able to obtain information on political issues that is not tainted by the rancor that often pervades political discussions. In other words we need a clearinghouse for civil civic conversation. I decided that I wanted to form an organization that would work for that purpose.

When I read the plea at Ladies Logic regarding our atrocious levels of participation in Utah (and remembered my own pleas to encourage greater levels of participation here), I realized that the time to act was now and that the need was not only for our youth who are approaching or recently passing the age where they can vote but also for every citizen who can’t bring themselves to really participate in the dirty game of politics – many of whom simply stay out of the discussion and vote without becoming well informed on the issues. We need to reach “the silent majority.”

The group I will be forming will be open to, even encouraging of, participation by people of all political perspectives. The only requirement for participation is a commitment to avoid the playground politics of name calling and guilt by association. The aim of the group will be to draw people out of the silent majority until the silent become the minority by fostering civil dialog between people of differing perspectives. We will not aim to come to a consensus except the consensus that wider participation is better than narrower participation. I would like the group to seek to engage other group members in public discussion of issues so that people who have been silent will have a chance to be exposed to various positions on important issues without the likelyhood of being personally insulted by those who disagree with them. I also would like the group, individually and collectively, to engage in discussing issues with candidates for office and elected officials with an emphasis on local candidates and officials and a balance of local, state, and national issues.

In addition to my own energy, and knowledge I need the energy and experience of others who can help me to spread the word, engage effectively with public officials, organize group efforts, and generate ideas to further these aims.

I would ask anyone who believes in the importance of broad political participation, especially if you are in Utah, to please contact me publicly or privately to help me get this off the ground. Leave me comments or drop me an email if you have interest in participating, ideas about what can and should be done, or if you know of people who could help me in this.

Categories
meta

New Domain

I have been wanting to get a more suitable domain for my site for some time and I have been wanting to do some less political writing (family journal type) at davidjmiller.org. I finally took the plunge and purchased pursuitofliberty.net (I’m looking into getting pursuitofliberty.com, but while the current owner mulls multiple offers I decided to move ahead with something). I am leaving all the old posts on the previous domain, but that will start to be updated less frequently and less politically. I have imported all the posts of any political nature here and will continue to write politically as I have been doing – minus the really non-political stuff.

There are a few plugin glitches to work out (no classic posts listed at the moment) and I have removed the “politics” category since everything here is politics to one degree or another. I hope that everyone can make the transition smoothly with me so that all the great comments keep coming.