Musings of a Patriot

Tag: Elevated

  • Our Broken Debate

    The big question in the debate over torture right now is “who knew what and when did they know it?” That question is being used by Republicans right now to implicate Speaker Nancy Pelosi as having done nothing with what she knew and thus being complicit in any torture committed under the previous administration. The…

  • Federal-Sighted

    Most people have probably heard of the two basic classes of vision problems, far-sightedness and near-sightedness. For those who are not clear on the differences, far-sightedness is characterized by the eye being able to focus on objects at a distance while objects up close are blurry. Conversely, near-sightedness is characterized by the eye being able…

  • Loyalty . . . Right or Wrong

    I have been thinking about the sentiment “my country, right or wrong” as well as many potential variations (e.g. “my party, right or wrong,” “my parents, right or wrong,” or “my company, right or wrong”). What I have been thinking is that such a statement of unquestioning loyalty is ripe for abuse and manipulation. I…

  • Legislated Equality

    I have been thinking about the “equality” that we equate with the American dream – the one that we want our government to guarantee for us. This has lead me to consider the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes. I don’t think that many people would openly argue for equality of outcomes…

  • Our Chinese Finger Trap

    Socialism is like a Chinese finger trap. Playing with it just a bit look harmless and even fun, but once you start on that road it much easier to get further trapped than it is to free yourself. Image based on stuck for lyfe by Chris Martin. I read a great example of this in…

  • Liberty is the Priority

    Much of what has gone wrong in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam is a result of a culture that is very different from ours. As I thought about that recently it occurred to me that Iraq is typical of all (or virtually all) of the fighting that the U.S. has engaged in since the…

  • Health Insurance Isn’t Insurance

    Steve Olsen started a discussion about healthcare at THE UTAH AMICUS (I’m looking forward to part II) by asking: Is “free market health insurance” a nonsense phrase? He then identifies two issues that we must face head-on if we are to have any hope of actually pursuing a solution to this problem. We hear a…

  • Economies of Scale

    This news is disturbing but hardly surprising – our existing entitlement programs are unsustainable in the long term. The more I think about it the more I realize that this is like a lesson I learned as a child about ants. There’s an old movie that depicts 25-foot tall ants attacking people. What I learned…