Musings of a Patriot

Month: June 2008

  • Federalist No. 17

    Prior to Federalist No. 17 I had never completely disagreed with any of the federalist papers. Unfortunately, in discussing the possibility of a national government becoming stronger than would be desirable, Alexander Hamilton completely missed on his guess that: It will always be far more easy for the State governments to encroach upon the national…

  • The Way Things Work

    I should not be surprised that the Hatch re-election committee is among biggest donors to other Republican campaigns. The only consolation is that very little of that $200,000 he donated for candidates outside of Utah came from donors inside of Utah. Hatch gets his money mostly from special interests outside the state. He casts his…

  • Original Intent

    While I fully agree that the Electoral College was not an arbitrary decision and should not be abolished, I also think that we need to articulate the arguments in favor of the Electoral College better than simply stating: Our Forefathers specifically wanted the STATES to elect the President and Vice President, not the general public.…

  • Stability

    As I have been exploring the issues of an ideal living environment I have come to the conclusion that there is a factor which I had not noticed before which can probably exist in almost any of the categories of places (large city, suburban, rural, etc.) which seems to have more influence over desirability of…

  • Articles of Confederation

    In the midst of my efforts to evaluate all the Federalist Papers, I realized that I had never read the Articles of Confederation which was the basis against which the Constitution was written and against which the Federalist Papers were generally basing their arguments. The Articles of Confederation were the first attempt by the states…

  • Signs of Change

    I was excited by the news that Obama Declares DNC Won’t Take PAC Money. I think that Lyall shares a good point from a letter to the WSJ editor that the way to really rein in lobbyists is to rein in government. (I wish Lyall provided a link.) If Obama can understand that truth then I…

  • Primary Season is Finally Over

    With the official end of the primary season I can finally end my self-imposed ban on posting about the primaries. Of course Maureen Dowd has already said everything that needs to be said about the current situation. So there are three options for my vote in November (in order of my preference): Obama keeps his…

  • Toll Roads and MVC

    Nobody should be surprised that some west-side cities don’t like the idea of tolling on the Mountain View Corridor. Some are suggesting that it is unfair. I think tolling generally is not a bad idea but I think I would agree that tolling on MVC while leaving I-15 free would be unfair to the growing…

  • Popular Misconceptions

    In arguing that the appellate court was wrong on the FLDS Sunny Hostin perpetuates some very popular myths that help CPS and many people following the story to assuage their guilt about the hostile actions being heaped upon this fringe community. Here we will debunk some of those myths. Thanks to the format of Ms.…

  • Big Cities

    Large cities (I mean those with populations exceeding half a million people) seem to be ideal from a commercial and industrial perspective with a large number of people in one area to supply a workforce and a large body of consumers. With the exception of businesses that require open space (ranching/farming for example) large cities…