Simple Utah Mormon Politics

The nuclear family was enemy number one for the Soviet Communists of yesteryear.  Ironically, many of the same tactics applied by the Bolsheviks are being employed in modern-day America.

Both the U.S. and Japan have gigantic social welfare programs. Japan's program is just about as costly as ours, but it works much better, and Japan's crime rate is much lower than that of the United States. Why has Japan's welfare program has worked so much better than ours? In Japan, the family is considered to be the first line of welfare support. The crass individualism Rather than place welfare requirements upon extended families, the United States government chose to attempt to solve the entire problem--and now we have a mountain of debt and cesspools of social filth to show for it. spawned by gigantic corporations caused a great deal of grief to a lot of American workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal social legislation, in trying to solve that admitted problem, created one that was far worse. The New Deal, in trying to rein in the corporation, and the Great Society, in trying to plug the increasingly leaky dike of...

Advertisers constantly attempt to manipulate consumers into wanting--and therefore buying--the advertisers' products. That often doesn't work, so, more and more, advertisers have turned to manipulating our children. This is the essence of the scientifically proven and continually refined process known as "The Nag Factor". Have you been overrun by the Orcs of Nag? "But mom, all my friends have one!!! I just gotta, gotta, gotta have it!" "You know, dad, if you get me that cell phone, then it will be much easier for you to know where I am, and for me to get in touch with you if something bad happens." If you have ever given in to such demands, you have been a victim of the Nag Factor. Lucy Hughes, who is director of strategy and insight for Initiative Media, has helped develop a scientific breakdown of the the ways that children nag their parents to buy things. Nags are broken down generally into two categories: The Whiny Nag ("all my frien...

It's official. The "legacy" of no-fault divorce is ugly. What started out as a bold and confident experiment has left a wake of despondency and destruction. As I read to you some statistics and anecdotes from Judith Wallerstein's book, The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce , I want you to stop me if it seems like you've heard this before... Doctor Wallerstein and her colleagues Despite what was hoped then, there is now little question that no-fault divorce was and is a social maelstrom, an evil genie whose lamp we can no longer even find. Knowing what you now know about this disastrous experiment, do you really want to attempt a similar one? studied the effects of divorce on children for a 25-year period--children who, by the end of the study, had advanced well into their adulthoods. These case studies indicate that, decades later, sons and daughters of divorce still have trouble building healthy and trusting relationships, and that their offspring are much more lik...

Many of those who say that abstinence education doesn't work advocate the use of safe sex measures such as condoms because, supposedly, "they're going to do it anyway." Wrong. Besides the fact that children aren't mature enough to know how unsafe the results of sexuality can be, the worst and unavoidable fruits of "they're going to do it anyway" are poverty and the illicit sanctioning of predatory sex and sexual abuse. Parents and other role-models should know that their example can enforce the importance of abstinence before marriage and fidelity thereafter, and that that reality makes for a much more healthy society. The family is Of course abstinence education won't work if we, as a result our politically pre-conceived notions, don't want it to. Of course it will fail if parents and other should-be role models teach their children to behave like dogs!! the fundamental unit of society. When children are taught that sex is a recreational...

As I trekked with members of my family and my LDS Ward at Martin's Cove and other LDS Church historic sites last weekend, I came to realize why the Church is publicizing the events that occurred in those sacred places in 1856. It's (among many other things) to inspire me to become a better husband and father. Yesterday I visited with Greg Allen on his radio program The Right Balance about an epiphany that I had recently as I walked along a dusty old Mormon trail in Wyoming. The Martin and Willie Handcart Companies left Iowa City very late in the year of 1856 on their trek to join other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City. What transpired on their way west can be looked at from one of two perspectives: (1) as the result of a completely illogical and very dumb decision, or (2) as one of the most poignant examples of sacrifice, courage, and heroism that the world has ever known. On October 16, 1856, the weather was What transpired can be...

My wife took a couple of our kids to the track and field events of the Utah Summer Games last year. She couldn't get away this year, so I volunteered to take the kids, and, on somewhat of a dare, I registered for and competed in 3 events. So I figured that if I was going to not look ridiculous, I'd better start training. It was my son Jacob's first time jumping over a hurdle, let alone competing in a hurdling event, and he was very nervous. It turns out, though, that he's something of a natural in the An Olympian I'll never be, but I'm well on my way to being much more fit than I've been in about 2 decades. hurdles, winning the silver medal in his race. He has as one of his goals now to be a hurdler extraordinaire. When faced with attempting new things, he has a lot more courage than I do. The rest of us, including son Cache and daughter Mauriana, competed in the mid-distance events. Without visiting with each other, we all happened to sign up for the s...

Do unmarried-partner households account for the lion's share of domestic violence? I think so, but it's hard to know for sure. There don't seem to be many statistics tabulated on the subject. Hopefully in Utah, with Senate Bill 242, that is about to change. In 2000, there were just over 54 million households in the United States that contained married couples , and there were about 5,500,000 households in where there were unmarried partners. The percentage of unmarried-partner households in 2000, then, was about 9 percent. About 7 or 8 years ago, after a presentation on domestic violence, I asked the police officer who had given the presentation what percentage of domestic violence occurred in unmarried-partner households. He told me that they didn't keep those kind of statistics, but that if he had to estimate based on his experience, 70% of domestic violence occurs in unmarried-partner households. If that's true, it definitely pays to make a marriage commitm...

What do you wish you had done before you graduated high school? Me?--a lot of things, but spilt milk doesn't taste very good. I've been challenged by Elizabeth at More from Elizabeth to list six things that everyone should do before they turn 18. I really appreciated her list , so mine will be somewhat similar to hers. There are a lot of other things I could have mentioned. Let me know what I might have missed. It's easy to live vicariously through our kids. Usually that vicariousness is through sports, but it can also be through anything that they excel at. More important than expecting them to excel at anything, however, is to give them the tools to excel in whatever way they choose. Here are a few of those tools as I see it. 1. Learn how to manage money wisely. My parents always gave me an allowance when I was growing up. I spent it on some foolish things, but they let me make those choices and learn their lessons. We do the same things with our children. ...

Is life really going faster these days? It sure seems like it to me. Is it because we're too busy? Or is a second just not what it used to be? Whatever it is, if you blink it's almost gone. When I was a kid, the days seemed to go on forever. Not anymore. One of my theories is that since each day becomes an increasingly smaller part of the life we've lived, that each day seems to go by faster. Then again, I have a friend who makes a good case that the earth really is spinning faster. Well, my oldest is now 16 and driving like a mad woman. And my youngest will turn 8 in about a week. The fact that a lot of my life has passed me by is staring me in the face. One of the things I like about (some) country songs is that they get you to refocus on the important things in life. A new one by Kenny Chesney is called Don't Blink . It starts like this: I turned on the evening news Saw a old man being interviewed Turning a hundred and two today Asked him what's the se...

I was listening to the radio this morning, and one of the guests talked about how important reading to your children is. By the end of the segment, I remembered. It was important to me as I was growing up, and instilled in me a desire to read. Mothers and fathers who read to their children will find that their children are more well-rounded and kind to each other. Not only that, they will get to sleep more easily and will sleep better. Children who are read to have less fear and greater optimism. It took me a while to think back, but I remember when my mom (and every once in a while my dad--about the same as it is in our household now) would read me stories. It had almost escaped my memory, but now that I think back about it, it brings back fond memories. I remember some of those stories even now. Here are my favorites. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak The Sneetches (along with The Zax, the Pale Green Pants, and Too Many Daves - Dr. Seuss Are You My Mother? - P.D. Eastm...