Tag: government

  • Prosecuting Religious Beliefs

    On Friday I saw the news from the first day of the Warren Jeffs trial. Connected to the particular story that I read was audio of Jeffs teaching youth classes in his polygamous community. I was curious to hear the words and voice of a man as twisted as Jeffs has been portrayed in the…

  • Ahead of the Curve

    Yeasterday I wrote about my apprehension with Mitt Romney’s approach to health care reform in Massachusetts and the social direction of this country that our current health care reform discussion implies. Today I was surprised to find articles on both topics. Lessons from Massachusetts highlights the kinds of reasons to be uneasy with Mitt’s Massachusetts…

  • Growing Discomfort

    I said before that I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with my favorite major candidates over one issue. That issue is the issue of health care reform. Obama seems firmly in the camp of having the federal government provide health insurance for many or all Americans. I think this is a very bad idea. It looks…

  • Compulsory Education

    I recognize that it is meant to address more extreme cases, but the idea of fining parents and charging them with a misdemeanor just strikes me as wrong. I know we have compulsory education in the United States, but I wonder if we are really helping anything by making it compulsory. If my kid skips…

  • Glancing at Immigration

    I picked up my car from the shop and happened to catch part of RadioWest. Doug was talking to a writer about immigration and the contradictions in our human nature, wanting to help people in need and trying to secure our borders. I didn’t catch the whole show so I don’t know if that perspective…

  • Civic Communication 101

    I went to a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last night and learned a whole lot about communication between government and citizens. I also found it interesting this morning to see that some similar lessons were learned by a Tyler who attended a Truth in Taxation hearing in Davis County last night. The lessons that…

  • Heights of Public Discourse

    I posted in June about the voucher debate exemplifying the worst of political discourse. Apparently Frank had similar thoughts about the voucher debate while reading The Audacity of Hope. I really liked Frank’s post because it illustrates one of the root causes of our unhealthy levels of partisanship that we currently have in Washington (and…

  • Sunsets for Subsidies

    I have been thinking a lot lately about the many ways that government has become a provider or enabler of many economic activities. We take it for granted that government should provide for our retirement (Social Security) which is why we have a looming crisis. We hardly consider, let alone actively question, the necessity of…

  • Dependence vs Liberty

    I think Scott hit the nail on the head when he talked about the paradox of people distrusting the government while demanding more government services. It is natural that we chafe against intrusive authority whether that intrusion is warranted or not. It is also natural that we turn toward our source of temporal support to…

  • Right Thinking

    Townhall is not a place I have linked to before because much of what I see there is more partisan than I would care to pass along. Surprisingly today there are two articles there that give me hope that there are still active Republicans who stand for something besides being not Democrats (there are also…