Simple Utah Mormon Politics

Ten years ago, Ron Paul criticized Bill Clinton's policy for war in the Balkans. You'd swear he'd just been criticizing George W. Bush. It is uncanny how similar the motives are behind the Bosnian War and the Iraq War. A critique of our quest for oil hegemony? It's in there. Allies running away from us? Yup! How about "If you don't support the war, you don't support the troops." It's all been said before--ten years ago during the Clinton Administration. So, put on your seat belt, and prepare for a topsy turvy ride of deja vu. The Establishment of Mao Tse-Tung's China was a master at propaganda. But he has NOTHING on the US Establishment, which now has the sights of its big guns trained on the ONE candidate that is not in some way beholden to the American Establishment--Ron Paul. Recently he has emerged as a formidable candidate. The American kingmen can no longer ignore him, and they don't dare talk about his clearly sound and attra...

Benazir Bhutto, despite how you feel about her politics, was a brave woman who did not deserve to die. The current atmosphere of hatred and distrust in Pakistan has been generated largely by the world's only superpower, the United States of America, who thinks that it can get its fingers in everyone else's pie any time it damn well pleases. The result? The assassination of a great woman, and a country in turmoil. Update 12/30/2007 : On-scene reporter: Pakistanis are partially blaming US for the death. Following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, the United States was again unnecessarily scrambling : On Thursday, officials at the American Embassy in Islamabad reached out to members of the political party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, according to a senior administration official. The very fact that officials are even talking to backers of Sharif, a man those officials have long mistrusted and whose return to Pakistan they discouraged because they beli...

Did you ever wonder why your American internet connection sucks? You can thank the federal government. Today most of us only know that the Federal Communications Commission regulates the airwaves as a public property. But it wasn't always that way. At one point telecommunications were regulated on a much more efficient basis. But then big business and their partner in crime, the federal government, decided that things had to be done differently, ostensibly for the benefit of all. And now, American telecommunications is screwed up beyond belief. This is why countries like South Korea kick our butt in broadband speeds. Two years ago, the US had already dropped to 16th among the nations of the world in internet access speed. Why is this so? Because these so-called socialist nations are much less socialist than we are --in many ways, including--in telecommunications. These nations all have something the U.S. lacks: a national broadband policy, one that actively encourages comp...

It never made much sense to me why the tobacco companies were the brunt of such vicious attacks and lawsuits. After all smokers are free to shorten their lives, aren't they? Are you afraid of second-hand smoke? I fart in its general direction . Do you smoke? Me neither. Do you hate smokers? Neither do I. So why did the tobacco companies get their pants sued off? Was the result of any benefit to you? No? Well, it must have benefited someone... Oh, did it ever. I've only smoked once in my life. I tried a barkey and then nearly coughed my lungs out. It was no fun. Tobacco is not to smoked. It is to be used as a medicine . But something else is not be smoked either. Authoritarianism. It's much more deadly than tobacco ever thought of being. During the national debate a few years back, when tobacco companies were the subject of each day's Two Minutes of Hate , I remember people claiming to be surprised that the tobacco companies had been lying when they said th...

In this modern day of jet airplanes, microwave ovens, and X-Box 360’s, many Americans tend to look with derision on the Founders of our country. Certainly we are more intelligent than were they, we kid ourselves. In a way, we have become drunken by our technology, wrongly assuming that because we have more of it that we are more intelligent than all of those who had less. We can scarcely see the reality, though, that the founding men and women of America, uninhibited by the information age, had a much better understanding of the information at their disposal. They were able to convert their information into wisdom. We, however, reject such mental gymnastics, preferring the mental atrophy of ceaseless entertainment. Lazily we trust our education elites to give us the education we need, and we turn our heads back toward our television sets rather than notice and admit their failure. We have ignored our Founders' grand governmental insight—that that government is best which govern...

It's hard to imagine that the cross in the window of Mike Huckabee's Christmas commercial was just a coincidence. It's just the latest of his stunts to try and convince the voting populace that Mitt Romney is a member of a cult. Huckabee is a great presidential candidate, but this sidetrack has him well on the way to embarrassing himself. You might think the following diatribe strange coming from me, considering that Mike Huckabee is my second choice for president of the United States--behind Ron Paul and ahead of Mitt Romney. But read on to find out why it's important. I have a great deal of respect for Mike Huckabee. Not as much as I once had, but I still respect him--and his religion. I just wish he would respect my--and Mitt Romney's--religion, rather than making it the brunt of a derisive political ploy. It started sometime around the point when Governor Huckabee, feigning ignorance, asked "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers?...

I suspect that 90% or more people in the world think that it is critical to take care of the earth. I certainly do. There are ways to accomplish this task without ceding control to world government. But this is certainly the aim of those bureaucratic chicken littles who claim untruthfully that man is causing the sky to fall. Fortunately, more scientists are escaping the grasp of the global Ursula to admit that global warming is actually part of a natural, historical trend. Update 12/26: UN does not let International Climate Science Coalition present at Bali conference. One of the first commandments God gave to man was to be a steward of the earth. This is wise counsel. In the modern industrial age, we should find ways to keep our environment clean, including solar power, wind power, hybrid cars, nuclear energy, etc. But we can make matters a lot worse by believing things that just ain't so, such as...oh...for example...computer models and the people who get paid to believe ...

At one point in time I was of the opinion that telecommunications companies were being forced to cooperate with the government in the immoral and unconstitutional Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and therefore they should be given immunity from lawsuits against their activities. I changed my mind, however, when I found out that the telecommunications companies actually enjoy the financial benefit that accrues from this "compulsion". I hope that Orrin Hatch, for his support of such corruption, will be dispatched to the pasture in the next available election. Update : Proof that the phone-database gathering so essential to finding the culprits behind 9/11 actually began several months earlier. Update 12/26 : It's getting worse: using your body as an identification card. It is interesting that Congress doesn't give a rat's backside about protecting the United States from enemies at our gates, yet they demand the right to eavesdrop on the lot of us al...

A couple weeks ago I opined in this space that we shouldn't care if Iran has nuclear weapons . If, however, some recent, alleged developments in Nicaragua are true, I may have to stand corrected. Is Iran still developing nuclear weapons? Is Gordon B. Hinckley Mormon? Is Bismarck the capital of North Dakota? Is the ocean made up largely of salt and water? Ain't no politically motivated National Intelligence Estimate gonna convince me otherwise. Of course Iran is still centrifuging uranium , so yes, they are still on the path to developing nuclear weapons. But we shouldn't care...or should we?? Some people in Nicaragua think we should . MONKEY POINT, Nicaragua — The second military helicopter in as many days hovered over the jungle and then landed to a most unwelcome reception from several dozen angry Rama Indian and Creole villagers. Rupert Allen Clear Duncan, a leader of some 400 Creole who live along the shoreline, confronted the foreigners dressed in suits and milit...

"No homeschool for you!" It's not something that the Deseret News seemed to pick up on. Nor could I find anything about it on the Salt Lake Tribune's web site. A similar search of KSL.com yielded no results either. In what appears to be a very important news story, Judge Scott Johansen has ordered (former) Utah resident Denise Mafi to enroll her kids in the public school or lose custody of them. Does anyone know anything more about this? There must be more to the story than WorldNetDaily is reporting , but a Utah mother has fled Utah because 7th District Judge Scott Johansen has threatened to take her kids away from her if she does not enroll them in public schools. Her crime? Not sending in her required homeschool plan to the school district for the 2006-07 school year. She says she did one better than that-- she faxed the plan to the district . "This is all because the school district says they never received my 2006-2007 homeschool affidavit. I have a co...

The leading radio talk show hosts don't like him and make fun of him every once in a while, but not enough to let people know who he really is (Glenn Beck is finally hosting Ron Paul on his CNN show tonight). Ron Paul just raised $6 million in one day on Boston Tea Party money bomb day, and what are the media saying about him? Still, not much. What a bunch of lackeys. Ron Paul is the new Six Million Dollar Man, but to the media he's like the homely girl standing against the wall at the high school dance. Imagine if Giuliani or Clinton did something like this. Besides the fact that donations would be from a far fewer number of rich supporters, and that the donations would be thousands of dollars per person higher than Ron Paul's average donation receipt, the media would be slobbering all over themselves to report the accomplishment of the impossible. It is the most raised EVER by any presidential candidate in one day, but the media are virtually ignoring it, many sites ...

It's news, I suppose, that another Utahn made it big in Hollywood. But the way he did it is not news to be proud of. The recent winner of Survivor 2007 earned a million dollars at a high price. They used to talk about the lifeboat scenario in school classrooms--the one where you have enough room for 9 people on the lifeboat, but you have 10 people, so who are you going to kick off the boat? They don't have to teach it in school anymore (although they probably still do) because kids can learn it first-hand by watching one of the most popular television programs. In this scenario they kick people off the island. And the fans heap praise on those who are the most ruthless. We had an antithetical Family Home Evening tonight as I read the following quote from the Deseret News and explained to my kids that this is exactly how NOT to act in life. (Survivor teaches us so many wonderful lessons, doesn't it?) "I backstabbed and lied to a lot of them, but I was playing a ...

First ethanol caused a shortage of tortillas in Mexico. Then we found out just how much the American taxpayer is paying for the development of ethanol. Now ethanol's helping cause the price of wheat to go higher. But that's not the most interesting tidbit. What's worse is that ethanol vehicles get terrible mileage per gallon. It takes so much land to grow corn to create ethanol that a lot of the corn necessary for our sustenance is being diverted to ethanol production . Meanwhile, people in Mexico have found it harder to buy the basic foodstuffs of life. Mexico is in the grip of the worst tortilla crisis in its modern history. Dramatically rising international corn prices, spurred by demand for the grain-based fuel ethanol, have led to expensive tortillas. How did these ethanol tycoons get so big? On the backs of the American taxpayer, of course . The greens, hawks, and farmers helped convince the Senate to add an ethanol provision to the energy bill—now awaiting acti...

I agree with most Americans that the presidential campaign shouldn't be about Mitt Romney's religion. But since it is, I think it would be more helpful if he would answer the questions that people put to him. They aren't that hard, even if they might be asked with ulterior motives. Update 12/29/2007 : Does God speak to man? Romney says no. Woops! I still like Mike Huckabee, and I think he would make the second best choice for president behind Ron Paul, but I'm a bit miffed at the sideswipes he's been taking at my religion lately. Mike, stop playing the religion card-- it's getting a bit annoying. Huckabee asks this question in a story appearing this Sunday in The New York Times magazine: "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?" That's a bit rich. For someone reading the NY Times Magazine who doesn't know anything about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, that is beyond provocative. And I think Mike ...

Ron Paul: First he gets hundreds of thousands of donations totaling millions of dollars, placing him in the top tier of presidential candidates. Now it comes to light that Ron Paul is the Google search presidential candidate of choice. How much longer can the establishment ignore him? Hillary and Rudy didn't even beat him. Ron Paul beat all presidential candidates in terms of the number of times h is name was searched for in the year 2007 on Google . This year's list, released today, details some surprising results. Quick, name the most popular presidential candidate based on who users were searching for: Hillary Clinton? Rudy Guiliani? Nope. The outspoken, quirky Ron Paul beat out all other candidates. Mayer tells me, in our exclusive interview, that, "Ron Paul had a huge up-swell in terms of online interest. He had the largest fundraising day online ever. I think people are wondering who he is and what he stands for and it gives them interest in searching for him....

*Of course I don't really mean that. But based on his approval of this form of torture, who could blame, say for example, the Chinese from performing a waterboard operation on Rush Limbaugh if they became the world's only superpower? Waterboarding is wrong, but somehow Rush doesn't see it that way. Because it makes for excellent ratings among his mind-full-of-mush minions. I was running an errand yesterday, and my radio happened to be tuned to the local station that carries Rush, and I was astonished (well, not really, because I've heard enough of his crap) at what I heard. He mentioned that a caller had posed the question, 'If waterboarding would have saved 9/11 from happening, do you think it would be worth it?' Rush's pompous reply was, to the effect, 'Now that is a very important and valid question. And I think the answer is yes.' Bullcrap! It is NOT a valid question. It's as hypothetical as the day is long. The question that we should b...

Government intervention has caused the US health-care crisis. So what is the solution to the problem? Well, more government intervention, of course. Communism seeks to control property as well as economic and social activity. Governor Jon Huntsman's new health care plan is communist, and it won't work. Can you tell I'm angry? The problem with health care in America today is that government is too involved in it. Today's mantra--that our health care needs to be more like that of the socialistic countries of Europe, Canada, or Cuba--is the height of irony. Good heavens, they don't hold a candle to us! In only two nations do health consumers pay less out of pocket than in the United States. We are their health care role model! That's why health care is so expensive--because others are paying for it for us! That's why so many people don't have health insurance in the United States. Because the parasitic rest of us have driven up the cost of healt...

Tehran is 6,339 miles from Washington D.C. So why do we care if they have nookyaler weapons? Because we have no national plan to encourage alternative energy sources and energy independence. Because we're tilting at Middle Eastern windmills. Because we can't drill for oil in our own coastal waters or in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It's almost like, together, the Democrats and the Republicans love having a bogeyman. And--tag!--Iran is currently it. The most recent National Intelligence Estimate claims that, although Iran is still enriching uranium, their intent to create weapons-grade material has been stopped since 2003. I'm not comfortable believing that, especially because the Iranians are working with the Russians, and the Russians (read nouveau Soviets) have not told the truth (unless it gave them a distinct advantage over their enemies) in over 90 years. For example, this paragraph, buried deep in the dungeons of the publicly released port...

Life is all about learning and applying fundamentals. This applies to economics and finance as well. Government, insulated largely from market forces, is usually not a good economist, because it does not usually apply the fundamentals of economics. It is counterproductive, then, for the Bush Administration to get involved in dictating a 'voluntary' solution to the sub-prime mortgage crisis--especially when government helped to cause the problem in the first place. Dictionary.com defines socialism as Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy. Under that definition, George W. Bush just socialized the subprime mortgage problem. Wait...I guess not. He said that his plan was purely voluntary. The Deseret News did a good job of calling BS on Bush's "voluntary" plan. To a politician, the most difficul...

MSNBC calls Mitt Romney's speech about his faith a "landmark speech". I absolutely agree. Even more than I am glad that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is being clarified in the public eye as the result of Romney's presidential candidacy, I am glad that religion is being talked about freely in the public square. I agreed with every statement in the entire speech. That is why it is a landmark speech to me and I hope to the rest of the country. Yet, Mitt Romney is not my preferred candidate for president, even though we share the same faith. Mitt Romney made some profound statements in his speech. I agreed with every one. Some of, to me, the most impressive, are these: God gave us liberty. We are all children of God. Every faith draws its adherents closer to god. Commitment to love and serve one another is common to all religions. He would put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the law. His oath of office is his highest promise t...

Does it seem like there has been a rash of tasing incidents lately? Have there actually been more than usual, or is it just because the ones that occur are all finding their way onto YouTube so more people are seeing them? Are law enforcement officers being trained to treat the public in general with disdain? How much effect do the exaggerations of movies and TV shows have on the feelings of these officers toward the public? We had a very spirited discussion in the office last week about the Utah tasing incident . I was very sure that the officer had acted wrongly--until I got the perspective from some of my co-workers. I have decided though, that I think that, although it may have still come to it, the officer acted rashly and prematurely in the use of his taser. Did he have to arrest the individual because he wouldn't sign the citation? (I don't know what the law is, so I'm just asking...) It appears (the video conversation was somewhat muffled by passing traffic)...