Category: politics
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Economic Recovery
I was listening this morning to a story on NPR about rising unemployment when an interesting thought struck me. The story was talking about the negative feedback loop of rising unemployment leading to lower housing prices and more economic uncertainty. These factors then dampen consumer spending and keep unemployment high and even encourage more unemployment.…
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The Monroe Doctrine
I remember learning about The Monroe Doctrine in history classes – mostly about the interpretation of it called Manifest Destiny. I found it enlightening to review some background surrounding this speech to Congress. In Wikipedia the doctrine is summed up like so: President Monroe claimed the United States of America, although only a fledgling nation…
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Political Football
At a time when we have two senators and one senate candidate from our one party state all trying to insert politics into college football (and all three claim to be conservatives – go figure) it seems appropriate to use a football analogy to describe the dangers of having one-party domination within the state or…
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Inside Politics
When I read about the results of the Utah Democratic party chairman’s race I had an interesting thought pop into my head. (Although this article originally ran in the Salt Lake Tribune I am linking to a copy at UtahAmicus because tribune articles eventually expire and disappear.) First, some background. The race for chairman was…
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The Healthcare Issue Simplified
DownsizeDC has a post entitled Complexity, Simplified that promises to make our national issue with health care reform understandable. And they deliver on that promise. They say more than this, but it all boils down to these few statements: But we think the complexity can be simplified to two simple questions: For whom does your…
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Why Bob Bennett?
I went to the organizing convention for the Utah Republican Party on Saturday. While I was there in the nidst of hundreds of people campaigning for candidates and causes among the state delegates I made a point to talk to a variety of people sporting Bob Bennett t-shirts. With four primary challengers at present it…
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Hate Crime
I keep thinking about the tragedy at the Holocaust Museum yesterday. I find it tragic and unfortunate that the security guard is the one who has died while the assailant is still alive. I have heard that authorities are considering whether this was a hate crime. Personally I think that it is painfully obvious that…
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Second Amendment Victory
My appreciation for the second amendment just went up another notch. Opponents of gun ownership rights like to argue that guns kill people (for that matter so do hands, cars, T-bone steaks, and many other things) but they never mentioned that gun rights could also kill an illegal house seat for D.C.: Fights over gun…
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Banks Giving Back
While it is good news that 10 banks will be allowed to repay billions in bailout funds I would be much more excited if I didn’t already know what was likely to happen as a result. The banks were deemed strong enough to leave the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, after months of lobbying…
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Online Conservative Desert
I understand that it is a commonly held belief that the political left has more influence in online political activity than the political right. Now we have research by Richard Davis that sheds a bit of light on that. Davis also queried more than 200 journalists to learn how they use blog content in their…