Simple Utah Mormon Politics

Prior to the Great Depression, private charities and state and local governments did a remarkable job of taking care of those in need. Since the mistakes of the Herbert Hoover Administration, however, and the continuation of those mistakes by Franklin D Roosevelt, we've never been the same.

How did Europe get this crazy? I think it's because European governments have overstretched by trying to provide too much, so that when they attempt to provide the limited benefits that good government should accomplish, they fail. They've certainly conditioned many people to think that someone else is to blame for their various plights.

It's the first time in history that a credit rating agency has downgraded US credit. What does it mean? What are others saying about it? Who is to blame?

Why are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Because the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes? Perhaps this is a minor contributing factor. However, the greatest means to increase the divide between rich and poor is actually inflation of a nation's currency. Here's how John Maynard Keynes explained it.

Three issues have conspired to cast Brigham Young in an almost monstrous mythical light. (1) The fact that he was the leader of a growing religious empire rubbed people the wrong way. (2) To a sex-crazed world, polygamy is seen as all about crazy sex. (3) LDS Church members, reacting against the slanders of the world, place the leaders upon pedestals of purity when they are not so pure. Because of this, the real Brigham Young is much different than we think.

On July 4th, 2011, I still think that the United States of America is the greatest nation on earth. But not because we are a superpower. America is not great because America is warlike. We are great in spite of that dismal fact. In order to survive, the United States as a political entity will have to learn from its citizens and from its churches how to be peaceful.

Is it possible that the political and military leadership in Pakistan didn't know that Osama Bin Laden was living under their noses? No. This is one of the growing list of reasons why average Americans and Pakistanis should get to know each other instead of believing the mutually reinforcing lies told by their governments.