Simple Utah Mormon Politics

Religion is a significant part of our culture. It is too bad that many have taken the "freedom of religion" clause and contorted it into a "freedom from religion" clause. I support freedom of religious expression in the public--including public schools. But I don't support current legislation in the Utah Senate that wants to protect that freedom. Here's why... Sometime back I wrote a post stating my preference that prayer be allowed and encouraged in public school settings . I also support freedom of religious expression in public schools. A better cultural exchange I can hardly think of. Wearing of hats and t-shirts with religious emblems, passing out flyers inviting others to religious events, and religious groups using public school facilities during non-school hours are all implementations of this free expression. The Supreme Court has clearly defined that religious expression is allowed in public schools . It's ironic, then, that there occur...

It hasn't taken very long, but Venezuela's elected president Hugo Chavez is on the verge of becoming a dictator. He's been able to do it by helping the disadvantaged and poor to lead a life of greater comfort, but also by getting pro-Chavez people to dominate the National Assembly. [George W. Bush] has just about everything a president could want: popular support, a marginalized opposition, congress firmly on his side and a booming economy as he starts his new [four]-year term. Now, he's about to become even more powerful — the all-[Bush]ista [Congress] is poised to approve a "mother law" as early as Wednesday enabling him to remake society by presidential decree. In its latest draft, the law would allow [Bush] to dictate measures for 18 months in 11 broad areas, from the "economic and social sphere" to the "transformation of state institutions." The above were the opening paragraphs to a CBS news article about Venezuela and President Hug...

The people decide who represent them in the legislature. When the majority party in the legislature arbitrarily limits what legislation those in the minority party can introduce, this upsets the election balance established by the voters. A recent change in the rules permitting more fairness in the Utah House of Representatives is a welcome turn of events. What shenanigans did the Utah Democrats pull on the Republicans when Democrats were in the majority? Were the Utah Democrats ever in the majority...? We've recently seen what the Democrats in the US congress can do to limit the ability of the Republicans to do their jobs--the same thing the Republicans have been doing to the Democrats for the last 13 years. Similarly, current-gerrymanderers-in-power (regardless of party) have taken gerrymandering to a new art in an effort to perpetuate their power. The kind of animosity and unfairness this engenders makes me glad, even though I'm a Republican, that Republican Representati...

When I've suggested in the past that people immigrate to the US illegally in large part because our legal immigration system is broken, I've had people tell me that our legal system is just fine. The Thorsted family doesn't think so, and I agree. "The system is broken, in my eyes," [Mr. Thorsted] said. "It just doesn't make any sense. You've got a family that wants to be together, it's just inevitable we're going to be together." Johana and Aaron Thorsted were married in 2003. They immediately began the process of applying for her legal immigrant status . As a result of Aaron being called to active duty military to serve in Iraq, they were penalized--the application process had to be put on hold. Because she had been in an illegal status before they met, she had to return to her native Guatemala to apply for a waiver of a 10-year ban from the United States. There she sits with her two daughters, one of which has lost her English fluency, ...

Some interesting facts and figures have jumped out at me as I've done a study of the poor and how they would be affected by the Minimum Wage. A more efficient way to help the poor is through the Earned Income Tax Credit. Click "Read More" to read about that, plus a few other of my (hopefully coherent) ramblings on the subject. I know someone whose husband left her, and if she isn't making the minimum wage as the now-sole breadwinner in her family, she's making pretty close to it. She has no phone. She has no car. Her oldest son is in and out of trouble with the law all the time. Would she be better off with more financial means? In every way. And I think there should be a way to help her become financially more well off and on the road to self-sufficiency. Utah currently pegs its Minimum Wage to the Federal one. This to me is a State not taking care of its responsibilities, and expecting the Federal government to do its business for it. I'm not sure ...

Henry Hazlitt's book, Economics in One Lesson , begins by saying that " Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man." European economics is based on perhaps the simplest of those fallacies to avoid: "Bite the hand that feeds you." There are a lot of electronic music players in the world. One of them is the IPod. I don't own an IPod because it is too expensive and its music will not play on any other player. The Europeans have gotten around to noticing this lately, and rather than buying something else, they want to force Apple Computer's ITunes store to provide their music in other formats. Yes, by all means! I have just created the FSMF (Frank Staheli Music Format) and I am appealing to the European Union to including me in their list of supported formats. I think it's the same stupid economics that made the Macintosh a second player to the PC market. But the Europeans think it is illegal. And knowing their laws...

It should have stopped surprising me by now how much of a siege mentality many public school educators and administrators have when it comes to school choice, but it still does surprise me, because I find it so irrational. Currently, a voucher proposal in the Utah Legislature has some public educators making all sorts of exaggerated and erroneous claims. Vouchers are weapons employed in a strategic attack on our public institutions[!] In a letter to the Deseret News editorial board on January 24, 2007, Heather Bennett and others challenge the benefits to society of school choice in the form of education vouchers . Some of the complaints in the letter are that vouchers will: "do nothing to address underfunding of public school programs" not reduce class size "deepen social divides and leave taxpayers without a voice. ...Transportation and tuition costs will continue to discriminate, further dividing our community." "compromise the separation of church and stat...