Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Remarkable Consensus
I was pleased to read from Phil Kerpen on Earmarks: An amendment to the budget sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has been collecting some unlikely cosponsors over the past couple of days, including both Democratic presidential hopefuls, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The amendment would establish…
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Liberal No More
What happens when a lifetime of experience gets processed in a period of introspection and begins to overwhelm a long held youthful idealism? David Mamet comes up with this: What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying…
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Important Changes
In a meeting with LaVarr Webb this morning two topics really stuck with me that seem to illustrate the most important political problems that we face as a nation. The particular issues we talked about were at the level of our state government, but both issues apply equally well to our federal government and often…
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Passing in the Dark
I thought it was interesting to read that Randy, at the Utah Conservative Democrat Blog, is seeing progressives among the Republicans and some rather undemocratic things among the Democrats and has begun considering the possibility of turning into a Utah Progressive Republican. This comes at the same time as I look at the big-government conservatives…
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Another City Overrulled
Why did State lawmakers mandate a FrontRunner stop for Bluffdale? In some ways this sounds like the decision by UDOT to toss the Lehi City proposal for the Mountain View Corridor. SB286, sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, exempts UTA from complying with city ordinances – as long as that city lies in a first-class…
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Mountain View Corridor – Moving Forward
UDOT has decided that the 4800 North proposal from Lehi city is not a viable alternative for the Mountain View Corridor. This decision officially takes that proposal off the table for future consideration on this project. Now it’s time for the city of Lehi to push for the most acceptable solutions from among the remaining…
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The Declaration of Independence
I doubt that I could add any new commentary on The Declaration of Independence but in reading it again I was reminded of why there are only three paragraphs with which most people have any familiarity (the first two and the last one) – all the rest of the declaration is filled with statements that…
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Oh (Big) Brother
Here’s another victory for big brother sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. Our apparently bored legislature just changed the booster seat law. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for child safety and I would welcome any effort by any group to encourag, educate, or invite parents to keep their children in car seats…
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An Average American Perspective
If you know who Lawrence Lessig is you will probably agree with me that he has proven himself to be much more intelligent than the average American citizen. If you don’t know who he is then you’ll have to take my word for it. I read an interview he did for National Review Online and…
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Block Grants
When I read The Coming Crisis of Big Government I gained a measure of hope that there might be some possibility left for averting the crisis of our soon-to-balloon costs for social security and Medicare. One of the central examples in the article relate to the use of block grants to restructure some of the…
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