Musings of a Patriot

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • 2074 Pages of Loopholes

    With Thanksgiving weekend behind us all politically interested people can look forward to the Senate opening work on the healthcare bill. According to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: . . . senators {will} work on weekends if necessary to hammer out compromises on thorny issues like a government-run insurance plan, abortion coverage and holding down…

  • Of Big Tents and Purity

    It’s a busy holiday time so I’ll spend more time quoting and less time expounding. Back in May, Jim DeMint expressed the very opinion I still hold about How Republicans Can Build a Big-Tent Party by holding to one key principle: There is a question Republicans do need to ask: What is it that binds…

  • 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…

  • A Short-Term Vision of “Purity”

    photo credit: David Reeves It’s never safe to focus so much on the present that we lose sight of the future. This seems to be what is happening with the push by some to codify a purity test within the GOP. If you have not heard about this I would sum it up like so…

  • Stretching Our TARP

    photo credit: wolfheadfilms When the TARP bill was first being discussed I made a statement that I would like to repeat about the TARP money: [T]his should not be used as a windfall by Congress to fund some pet projects. We have come to the point now where Congress is faced with the question of…

  • Do the Utah Lake Bridge Right

    I agree with the sentiment in this Deseret News article that the environmental impacts of proposed Utah Lake bridge should be discussed. {Sam} Rushforth has been studying at {Utah Lake} for 35 years and said there needs to be an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) conducted while the bridge over the lake is being considered. Those…

  • Phony Federalism

    photo credit: estherase Gene Healy wrote about what he called Obama’s phony federalism but what he was really talking about was a relatively universal perspective on federalism: Not yet a year into his administration, Obama’s record on 10th Amendment issues is already clear: He’ll let the states have their way when their policies please blue…

  • Legislator as Advocate

    Many times during campaigns for legislative offices voters and candidates alike portray officeholders as leaders. I think this is a mistake. A more accurate portrayal would be of officeholders as advocates. Their job is one where they speak out for positions and principles, but it is not possible for a legislature to be made up…

  • Legislator as Negotiator

    Politics is the art of the possible. So said Otto Von Bismarck in 1867 and he was surely right. One of the challenges for an idealist is that compromise is a necessary and appropriate component of the political process. It happens within parties and it happens within legislative bodies. In both cases compromise is necessary…

  • Frying a Red Herring

    I wonder if our country would be in better shape if we spent more energy in a war on bad arguments rather than a war on terror  (or poverty, or drugs, . . . or prosperity). Just a thought. As an example, we see the often repeated argument by abortion advocates that it is hypocritical…

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