Tag: thoughts
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Good News From Iraq
The report that the Iraqi Prime Minister called for the removal of American military checkpoints in Baghdad was the best news I have heard from Iraq in a long time. The reason it was good news is because we removed the checkpoints. I’m sure some would argue that the fact that violence escalated in Baghdad…
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Campaigning for Ballot Measures
As we approach elections next week there is a ballot measure which has been severely underexposed in my opinion. In Utah County it is on the ballot as an “Opinion Question”. In Salt Lake County it is “Proposition 3”. I have no idea how it has been publicized in Salt Lake County, but here we…
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Insurance Racket
I had to deal with changing health insurance today with the business office at the womens clinic that Laura goes to in preparation for our new baby. That gave me the opportunity to review prices for their services. I discovered something very disappointing. In the last year, with insurance through my work, I have paid…
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Come November
I had fun reading in the New York Times about how various people in the Republican Party are pointing their fingers at each other regarding why they seem to have so little public support. There are certainly a wide variety of reasons for people to be disenchanted with the GOP. I think I best heard…
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17th Amendment
I love being invited to comment on things. In this case, I have been pointed towards an article from September of 2002 by John W. Dean on the 17th Amendment to the Constitution and whether it should be repealed. As a brief reminder, the 17th Amendment changed the way that senators were selected. Originally senators…
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Iraq
After three years in Iraq (and three years worth of news and commentary on Iraq) I just had a new thought on the situation this morning. What would happen if we left Iraq now? I am not an advocate of cut-and-run but I think we have to ask ourselves that question if we are to…
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Which way does the safety net bulge?
You know you have hit the big time when astute readers send you interesting articles. Okay, the truth is that it’s nice to have some extra eyes and ears out there to help me not to miss too much of the news that interests me. This story was definitely one of those items. The issue…
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Conservation
I was interested to read about Homesourcing and be reminded that I seem to be caught between two radical philosophies concerning conservation and energy independence. Radical not because they are unreasonable or extreme, but because they are so different from the most common proposals for energy independence. Homesourcing is really another name for tele-commuting, the…
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Mandatory Split
I have thought for a long time about changes we could make to our political system and what they would mean in reality. I have a new one. I wonder what the effect would be if each state were required to elect one democrat and one republican as their senators? From a very short-sighted point…