Simple Utah Mormon Politics

One of the worst things that someone can do is to claim that a consensus exists when it does not. More and more, the so-called global warming "consensus"--that man-made global warming is destroying planet earth--is falling apart. This faux consensus has contributed more than most any other factor for man's lack of hospitality to earth. It's time for some environmental honesty. Can't we just work together using It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that there is only a fringe of scientists who don't buy into anthropogenic global warming. reality to encourage stewardship of the earth? Apparently not. From the early days of environmentalism, lies and exaggeration have been the norm. Global warming "expert" Stephen Schneider summed it up quite well about twenty years ago. On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method, in effect promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but - which means that we ...

Ezra Taft Benson, thirteenth prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was one of the greatest statesmen that has ever lived. Not only was he prophetic when it came to spiritual things, he was equally prescient when it comes to economic issues. I have read several times the economic warnings of President Benson, but his warnings have never rung more true than now--when we are in the midst of suffering for failing to heed his warnings. Recently I wrote about the prophetic mantle of Gordon B. Hinckley as regards the world economy. With similar prophetic insight, Ezra Taft Benson authored The Red Carpet in 1962, and in 1969, he penned An Enemy Hath Done This . What follows are selections from those two books. Warning: If you feel a sense of dizzying deja vu, don't be surprised. Care for a stimulus package, anyone? A nation cannot spend itself into prosperity. How about a bailout? When you read the following axiom from Benson, the futility of such economic s...

My wife gave me a copy of The Christmas Sweater for Christmas. I devoured in in all of a Christmas afternoon. I warn you...when you read it, prepare to not only be surprised, but to understand that, in your surprise, you will know that it all makes sense. And, hopefully, you'll want your own Christmas Sweater. On the same day that I read The Christmas Sweater , I read coincidentally what might in retrospect be an astonishing development in the world of cancer research. My wish, for this Christmas season, is that everyone will come to appreciate the sweater's magnificent metaphor. In the afterword to his newest book, author Glenn Beck explains why he wrote what he wrote: In The Christmas Sweater , Eddie's trials begin when his father succumbs to cancer. I didn't select that disease by accident. Almost all of us know someone who has been affected by it in some way, and I am no different; my grandfather had cancer. Six years ago, just after Christmas, my nephew, Ty...

Over the last few days I haven't been able to stop thinking about the Iraqi reporter who threw both of his shoes at George W. Bush during a recent Iraqi press conference. After contemplating the "legacy" of the younger President Bush, I applaud the Iraqi reporter's actions. Come to think of it, given the chance, I might throw my shoes at President Bush as well. More than most pawns of the Establishment, he has been an unmitigated disaster for America. Shoe throwing in the Arab world is a supreme insult. You may have Like his father, George Jr. experienced a meteoric rise to fame coincident to his presidence over the destruction of Iraq. Also, like his father, George II left office amid plummeting popularity, once the American populace had come to understand his true character. read that this very disgrace happened to President Bush on his "farewell tour" to Iraq on December 14, 2008. At the beginning of a joint press conference with Iraqi President No...

A lot of supposedly free-market economists revere Adam Smith as one of the foremost proponents of free enterprise. Ironically, these same economists advocate corporate libertarianism, which ultimately allows powerful corporations, through special governmental favors, to make a mockery of the ability of people to freely exchange money, goods, and services. Adam Smith hated what corporations had become in 18th-century England. Today--at best--it's no better. In today's world, money has become for most the sole measure of market value--civic, social, and environmental responsibility be damned. Without any sense of irony, today's self-proclaimed free marketeers argue that free markets should be completely unrestrained by government. Corporate law is their prominent blind spot, because, as these "economists" apparently haven't noticed, it is government regulation in favor of corporations that has allowed corporations to become 8- and 900-pound gorillas that ...

In the recent presidential election, only three states had a lower voter turnout than Utah. In 2006, Utah had the worst turnout in the nation. Why the apathy? I think it's because many Utahns feel like representative democracy, even in Utah, is a lost cause. Somehow we've got to enlist the "lost cause" voters and get them back on the path of optimism. Lost-Cause voters have martyr complexes, and , in large part, it is their fault that we are a country ruled more and more by a Republicrat oligarchy. Do you know people who say they don't vote anymore because their vote doesn't count? I do. It's their fault that their country is going down the drain. If they're Latter-day Saints, they might be surprised when they see the big movie of their life on the other side of the veil and discover what might have been if they'd pulled their pathetic heads out of the sand. Despite leaders of Utah's predominant religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

Apart from claiming unique authority to act in God's name on the earth, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encourages its members to seek truth, even if a significant part of the truth we find is not from a study of standard church doctrine. To the best of my knowledge, no other religious denomination is so confident in its teachings and principles that it encourages its adherents to look into every field, under every rock, and in every nook and cranny to discover what is true. Unfortunately, not enough members of the LDS Church realize this enormous blessing and challenge. In many ways, many members of the Church are just like members of other denominations--limited by their creeds, superstitions, and ignorance. Joseph Smith taught that: ...the most prominent difference in sentiment between Latter-day Saints and sectarians was, that the [sectarians] were all circumscribed by some peculiar creed, which deprived the members the privilege of believing anything not co...