Reach Upward

• When It Comes to Politics, All Is Vanity

  The writer of Ecclesiastes (about whose identity there has been much scholarly dispute) lamented that “there is no new thing under the sun” (ch 1, v 9). He has searched out wisdom and has carefully observed “all things that are done under heaven.” From this he declares concerning [...]
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  Posted: December 15, 2009, 5:02pm EST
  

• When the Gambling Bug Bites

  “Why do they send stuff like this to us?” my wife asked, referring to a brochure we had received in the mail about Mesquite, Nevada. I suppose it’s because we happen to be in the right demographic categories. After all, you can see plenty of Utah license plates on [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 4:11pm EST
  

• The Bright Future of Journalism

  There has been significant handwringing about declining newspaper readership and the demise of journalism ever since the advent of television. The rise of the Internet has evoked increased fear of these horrors to the point that some are seriously calling for a government takeover — lite version, of course — [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 8:39pm EST
  

• The Musical Bed

  When a new parent first cradles their newborn babe,
  An innocent bundle from above,
  An instinct previously latent blooms
  Imperceptibly mingled with love.
  
  For unrealized in that moment sublime
  Are the seeds of deep impulse unseen
  That cause each child to intuitively treat
  Each bed like a trampoline.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 11:51am EST
  

• What the Constitution Really Means Today

  This post on the Politics & Prosperity blog presents some thought provoking ideas about what comprises real constitutional law. The author, who lists only the name of Thomas, quotes GMU law professor Randy Barnett quite extensively. Barnett is noted for 2003 book, Restoring the Lost Constitution: the [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 5:56pm EST
  

• The Fed: A Study In Political-Financial Mischief

  In October 2008, this WSJ op-ed by celebrated economist John Steele Gordon was published extolling the virtues of a strong central bank. As the economy was reacting to the bursting of the housing bubble, Gordon opined that, thanks to our nation’s central bank, “the present crisis will at [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 7:37pm EST
  

• It's the Story That's Important

  This Politico article by John F. Harris paints a worrisome picture for President Obama. (Digging up — or even creating — controversy sells news.) It outlines seven “stories” or narratives that are presenting a challenge to the official storyline from the administration/campaign.
  
  The Politico’s Ben Smith blogs [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 9:32am EST
  

• Thanksgiving Action

  I saw a marquee in front of a business the other day that read, “Thanksgiving is an action.” I got to thinking about tomorrow, which is Thanksgiving Day, and what it really means. After watching this video titled In the Spirit of Thanksgiving, I started thinking about how grateful [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 9:44am EST
  

• The Next Real Estate Bubble Prepares to Burst

  Not all real estate is created equally. We all felt the pain when the housing mortgage bubble burst last year. Lately the chatter in certain financial circles about the situation in the commercial real estate market has been heating up.
  
  The word is that the commercial real estate market [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 2:01pm EST
  

• A Time to Fight

  “Evil rarely comes upon us all at once, and liberty is rarely lost in one stroke.”
  
  Our federal government is out of control. The sprawling government we have today is markedly different from the one bequeathed to us by our Founders, which “was strictly limited in its scope, guaranteed [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 7:08pm EST
  

• The Coming Battle Over Tax Increases/Spending Cuts In Utah

  They ain’t taxes if we call ‘em fees, right? At least, that’s how many members of the political class see it.
  
  As the St-Ex reports, the State of Utah is facing a budget shortfall of somewhere around $650-$850 million. Politicians must be longing for the heady days of [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 5:02pm EST
  

• Medical Care Follows Basic Economic Principles

  Economic scholar Thomas Sowell published a book last December called Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One. He has allowed Investor’s Business Daily to publish the chapter on the economics of medical care. IBD broke it into a nine-part series (see lead page). The parts are:Economics [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 3:18pm EST
  

• Creating Incresed Risk by Trying to Limit Risk

  Yes, there are a lot of “greed merchants” on Wall Street, agrees high rolling economic forecaster Ted Forstmann in an interview with CNBC’s Charles Gasparino reported in this WSJ op-ed. But these greed mongers don’t act alone, says Forstmann, who has “been calling them on the carpet [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 4:37pm EST
  

• Creating Incresed Risk by Trying to Limit Risk

  Yes, there are a lot of “greed merchants” on Wall Street, agrees high rolling economic forecaster Ted Forstmann in an interview with CNBC’s Charles Gasparino reported in this WSJ op-ed. But these greed mongers don’t act alone, says Forstmann, who has “been calling them on the carpet [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 4:37pm EST
  

• The Hands-On Method of Teaching Utah History

  Like every other kid in Utah, I had Utah history in fourth and seventh grades. I remember some of that. But we never did anything like the stuff my son's charter school class does.
  
  I spent the day volunteering to hike with my son's class on a 4-mile stretch [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 5:16pm EST
  

• A Doubly Wrong School Assembly

  It’s sometimes difficult to be appropriately critical of someone you know and respect. But it is important to speak out when you see something wrong.
  
  The St-Ex reports that last Friday Roy High School held a special assembly “to which only minority students were invited to listen [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 11:30am EST
  

• Vainly Trying to Fill the Leadership Vacuum

  “What was learned Tuesday is that the American voter is absolutely, totally, unremittingly disgusted with both political parties. More than anything, the American voter is desperate for political leadership.” —Daniel Henninger
  
  
  Studies suggesting that independent voters are essentially Republicans or Democrats that feign non-affiliation may need to [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 4:24pm EST
  

• Little Local Politics: Election Outcomes

  Back in September my city held a primary election to narrow the race for mayor from three candidates to two, and to reduce to four the field of five candidates for two city council seats. The incumbent two-term mayor was ousted in a tight three-way split. The remaining candidates were [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 5:48pm EST
  

• A Child's View of a Surgery

  I grew up during that golden era when doctors insisted on subjecting nearly all children to a tonsillectomy. At the ripe old age of nine, most of my friends had already been tonsil free for some time.
  
  Times had changed since my oldest brother had been de-tonsilized in an [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 10:45am EST
  

• We Want a Hero Government

  Robert Higgs is an economics scholar that has produced empirical works on the Great Depression and on the Cold War, among other things. He is an expert on the economic implications of governments. Per this Oct. 12 blog post, he also “despise[s] politics in general, and the two [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2009, 1:30pm EDT
  

• Methinks They Poll Too Much

  We are a nation driven by polls. Much of the news every day oozes with the results of polls. Some politicians appear to govern according to polling. Anyone promoting anything repeatedly cites polls backing them up. Experts spend time slicing and dicing polling data and our news organizations regurgitate the [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 6:26pm EDT
  

• Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness

  It turns out that cleanliness is next to godliness. (See Science Daily article.) Or at least, clean scents appear to entice people to engage in more ethical behavior. They become more fair and charitable.
  
  The article points out that past research has found a correlation between moral choices [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 6:09pm EDT
  

• Super Fed to the Rescue!

  This morning I began quickly reading this WSJ article touting six specific regulations that its authors claim would quickly stabilize our nation’s problematic financial markets. The authors state: “Our country needs to strive for transparency in financial-company balance sheets and recognize the direct correlation between clarity in asset value [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 2:15pm EDT
  

• The Laws of the Uncivilized

  Some time ago, my local newspaper published a letter to the editor calling for harsher treatment of people that kept dogs that harmed or threatened others. The writer suggested an escalating scale for repeated offenses. The severity of the suggested punishments, the writer felt, would provide a disincentive to owning [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 3:54pm EDT
  

• America Shall Overcome

  This is the third post in a series about demonstrating adulthood as a society. In part 1 I discussed the new long-term revenue realities that state governments must face and that the federal government will eventually face. In part 2 I took exception to Indiana Governor Mitch [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 7:33pm EDT
  

• Democracies Fail the Test of Adulthood

  In my last post, I discussed the harsh financial realities that states must now face and that the federal government will eventually have to face, even if it currently acts as if the piper will never have to be paid. I wrapped up the post by citing Indiana Governor [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 4:55pm EDT
  

• The Future of State Government Revenues Is Now

  Back in the dim ages of, oh, three to five years ago, Utah’s politicians reveled in unprecedented ‘surplus revenues’ several years in a row. We had a popular pretty-boy governor with a big government agenda and a legislature that was busy figuring out its own priorities for growing state government. [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 5:22pm EDT
  

• Oh, the Inanity!

  “They will reap the whirlwind,” a middle-age acquaintance prognosticated recently while speaking of the explosion of electronic social networking, particularly among the younger generation.
  
  “Eventually they won’t know how to interact verbally or how to read body language. They won’t know how dating or courting works and they’ll end [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 11:26am EDT
  

• Freedom of Rational (or Irrational) Choice

  For years my darling wife has graciously packed me lunches for work, Scouting events, hikes, etc. She has put up with all of my food idiosyncrasies and various approaches to healthy eating. My wife does this because she loves me, despite my many flaws.
  
  Years ago when we lived [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 7:41pm EDT
  

• Free Speech by Car

  I’m grateful for freedom of speech. It is quite common for Americans to use their automobiles as moving billboards for expressing their opinions. I use my freedom to demure from such activities.
  
  My family’s automobiles are plain, stodgy, unadorned middle class family cars. There’s nothing attention grabbing about the [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 5:55pm EDT
  

• Teachers Behaving Badly

  Salacious news sells well. A juicy story that has been splashing across the pages of my local newspaper in recent days is the tale of a 62-year-old high school choral teacher that married one of his former students a short time after she graduated high school and turned 18. (See [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 12:59pm EDT
  

• Voters Don't Really Care About Issues

  Utah Policy has posted a fascinating discussion about the importance of issues in political campaigns. Three knowledgeable contributors offer their views on the matter. Each has demonstrated success in getting candidates elected to political office.
  
  These three are Todd Taylor, a chiropractor and Executive Director of the [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 6:44pm EDT
  

• A Repeating Pattern

  Writing of the development of the extended order in his book The Fatal Conceit, celebrated economist Friedrich A. Hayek writes (p. 32): “It is true that, for a time, the large trading communities that had grown up in the Mediterranean were precariously protected against marauders by the [...]
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  Posted: October 06, 2009, 8:13pm EDT
  

• Of National Parks and Public Property

  Last week we took our family on vacation to three national parks that are in relatively close proximity to each other. Throughout our trip we were blessed with clear blue skies and moderate temperatures.
  
  We knew that putting all seven of us together in a single vehicle for many [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 10:57am EDT
  

• Piano to the Fifth Power

  I wasn’t sure what to think when my wife handed me music for two pieces a couple of months ago and announced that she had signed me up with my two sons to be part of a piano quintet that would compete at the end of September. I sing and [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 8:57am EDT
  

• Who Is Your Master?

  To whom do you belong? I mean literally. Who physically owns you? Don’t give me any claptrap about your boss owning you. You continue at your current employment by your own choice (as long as your boss lets you). The fact that you must earn a living (just like the [...]
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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 8:47pm EDT
  

• My Generous Neighbor

  Part of me is still a child. I will meet someone or find myself in a place from my childhood, and suddenly a mixture of thoughts and emotions from a point in the past will arise in such a powerful way as to temporarily conquer all of my subsequent years [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 2:35pm EDT
  

• Don't Forget to Talk Like a Pirate

  Avast, me hearties! Tomorrow, September 19, be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Besides walking around and spouting fake pirate speech, ye may want to set yer crew down and watch yer favorite pirate movie. Of course, there’s Captain Jack Sparrow. If you’ve got young-uns, ye might check [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 3:13pm EDT
  

• More Free Speech Restrictions Dumped

  The incumbency protection racket known as campaign finance reform took another major hit today when a three-judge Washington DC Court of Appeals panel ruled that nonprofit organizations cannot be barred from spending any amount of money they want for candidate specific advocacy. (See AP article)
  
  Since the passage [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 2:58pm EDT
  

• Unlimited Congress

  “As every civics class once taught, the federal government is a government of limited, enumerated powers, with the states retaining broad regulatory authority.” —David B. Rivkin and Lee A. Casey
  
  Are there any “limits on Congress's power to regulate individual Americans?” David B. Rivkin and Lee A. [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 1:28pm EDT
  

• The Clean Energy Farce

  We use a lot of energy from multiple sources. Some energy sources suffer from the stigma of political incorrectness, while others are promoted as divinely eco-friendly. Except for those on the bizarre fringe, nobody wants us to stop consuming energy. But many want us to do it smarter and more [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 9:48am EDT
  

• Voting Local

  My town’s population is about 17,000. About 10,500 of those people are registered voters. In yesterday’s nonpartisan municipal primary election, fewer than 1,800 of those people voted. The results show that each vote cast in this type of election carries more value than a vote cast in just about any [...]
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  Posted: September 16, 2009, 4:29pm EDT
  

• On Being a Spouse

  We hurried the family out of the house last night for a family activity right after dinner. Upon leaving the activity, I took the kids home while my wife went to assist another family member. I was tired when we got home. I wanted to sit down and relax at [...]
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  Posted: September 15, 2009, 5:08pm EDT
  

• Two-Party Tyranny

  Norman Podhoretz provides one of the most apt descriptions of the differences between progressive and conservative thought that I have yet seen: “[I]n speaking of the difference between left and right, or between liberals and conservatives, I have in mind a divide wider than the conflict between Democrats [...]
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  Posted: September 10, 2009, 5:05pm EDT
  

• A Nation of Partisans

  Last month Brian Schott reported at UtahPolicy.com that the existence of a broad swath of independent voters is a myth. Citing studies by Alan I. Abramowitz, it is noted that only about 11% of voters are true independents. (I have seen other references claiming that truly independent voters [...]
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  Posted: September 09, 2009, 4:34pm EDT
  

• Building Bridges: A Camp Loll Adventure

  I spent part of Labor Day weekend laboring. I told my kids that I had no interest in celebrating the labor movement, which promotes an entitlement mentality. But I was interested in promoting productive labor as something good for the soul. I explained that I felt that it was particularly [...]
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  Posted: September 08, 2009, 6:21pm EDT
  

• My City's Municipal Swimming Pool Debate

  There has been a debate running for about a decade in my city about the municipal swimming facility. Some residents recently expressed their chagrin with a tax increase that they nail on the pool (see St-Ex article). It seems to me that the issues at stake are usually muddled [...]
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  Posted: September 02, 2009, 4:42pm EDT
  

• Will Your State Taxes Go Up?

  Utah Rep. Craig Frank and Utah Sen. Steve Urquhart have interesting posts addressing the question of how Utah should deal with its budget shortfall during the next legislative session. Both are opposed to broad tax increases. Frank opposes any targeted tax, but Urquhart says that an increased tobacco [...]
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  Posted: August 31, 2009, 2:13pm EDT
  

• Will Your State Taxes Go Up?

  Utah Rep. Craig Frank and Utah Sen. Steve Urquhart have interesting posts addressing the question of how Utah should deal with its budget shortfall during the next legislative session. Both are opposed to broad tax increases. Frank opposes any targeted tax, but Urquhart says that an increased tobacco [...]
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  Posted: August 31, 2009, 2:13pm EDT
  

• "Dad, Why Do People Get Divorced?"

  “Dad, why do people get divorced?” my fourth grader recently asked me after he became aware of the impending divorce of the parents of some friends. Hoo-boy, that’s a tough one. I wondered to myself why he couldn’t just ask me about something simple, like where babies come from.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: August 31, 2009, 10:39am EDT
  

• We Need More Liberty In Health Care

  Our current health care system is “an edifice that is fundamentally unsound,” yet most approaches for ‘fixing’ the system “will put yet more patches on the walls” of the edifice “and then build that edifice higher.” So writes business executive David Goldhill, a self described Democrat, in this Atlantic [...]
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  Posted: August 26, 2009, 5:37pm EDT
  

• The Realities of Seeking Elected Office

  In a recent post, Connor Boyack admonished people to become politically involved. He noted that just privately disagreeing with the way things are going is insufficient. He suggested that each of us has a moral duty to do what we can within the scope of our capabilities and opportunities [...]
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  Posted: August 25, 2009, 5:37pm EDT
  

• Another Hike to Willard and Ben Lomond Peaks

  It has been three years since I hiked up to Willard Peak and Ben Lomond Peak (see 8/21/06 post). Given my schedule, I knew this past weekend would be my best chance to get back up there this season. Although I had invited my teenagers, their late [...]
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  Posted: August 24, 2009, 2:46pm EDT
  

• A Pariah's View of Party Politics

  Randy Simmons, the libertarian mayor of the small town of Providence, Utah, opines that “Most elected Utah Republicans are populists, not conservative. They want to run people's economic and private lives.”
  
  Simmons complains that he “once thought the Republican Party believed in individual rights, free markets, and property [...]
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  Posted: August 21, 2009, 3:39pm EDT
  

• Of Corruption and Term Limits

  David Miller briefly discusses term limits in this post about the 22nd Amendment that instituted term limits for our nation’s chief executive. Should term limits be extended to other offices?
  
  David admits to being somewhat ambivalent on the subject. I too have long been indecisive about broader [...]
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  Posted: August 21, 2009, 9:43am EDT
  

• Could the Free Market Address Senior Citizens' Health Care Needs?

  GMU Economist Russ Roberts posts an interesting question from a reader named Tom on his Café Hayek blog. In essence, the reader questions how the free market could possibly service the health care needs of senior citizens, given that pretty much everyone’s health care needs increase dramatically [...]
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  Posted: August 20, 2009, 9:09pm EDT
  

• Dealing With Drug Crime

  Two former Baltimore City Police officers recently offered their views on enforcing drug laws in this Washington Post op-ed. They make some very valid points. “Drug users generally aren't violent. Most simply want to be left alone to enjoy their high. It's the corner slinger who terrifies neighbors and' [...]
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  Posted: August 19, 2009, 4:22pm EDT
  

• A Friend Calls It Quits

  A man I counted as a friend took his own life a few days ago. I first met him when he and his family moved into our neighborhood about five years ago. This man and his wife seemed like good people, but from my first interactions with them, I couldn’t [...]
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  Posted: August 17, 2009, 9:54am EDT
  

• Spending Rehab

  The town of which I am a resident has just gone through a rather painful process to develop its annual budget. We’re a mostly residential community with a population of about 17,500. One of the reasons that I like living here is that it still has somewhat of a hometown [...]
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  Posted: August 14, 2009, 10:49am EDT
  

• Do School Districts Provide Appropriate Value?

  Do Utah’s 41 school districts provide value commensurate to their cost? Robyn Bagley of Parents for Choice in Education in this provocative article essentially asks for a cost-benefit analysis of the school district model. The questions posed in the article are purposefully pointed and imply a specific conclusion. [...]
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  Posted: August 12, 2009, 5:14pm EDT
  

• Low Expectations

  Peggy Noonan makes this astute comment about what we expect of our federal legislators: “They hired a man to represent them in Washington. They give him a big office, a huge staff and the power to tell people what to do. They give him a car and a driver, [...]
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  Posted: August 11, 2009, 4:52pm EDT
  

• Worse Than Doing Nothing

  “When health care is subsidized, no one should be surprised that people demand more of it and that the costs to produce it increase.” —Arthur Laffer
  
  I realize that we are currently in a major economic slump. But over the last four decades the overall economic picture has [...]
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  Posted: August 10, 2009, 8:09am EDT
  

• Should Legislators be Required to Read the Bills They Vote On?

  “If a bill is too big to read, it's a good sign you shouldn't be passing it. Rule by anonymous technocrats is a form of tyranny, however benign.” —Mark Steyn
  
  Mark Steyn believes that every legislator should be required to read in its entirety any bill upon' [...]
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  Posted: August 07, 2009, 8:27am EDT
  

• What Can We Learn From Finland's Top Ranked Education System?

  Ellen Gamerman has a fascinating article in the WSJ about education in Finland. Having lived in Norway which shares a common border with Finland, having visited Finland, and having a brother that spent time living in Finland and that can speak Finnish, I was interested.
  
  Finnish 15-year-olds ranked [...]
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  Posted: August 05, 2009, 4:31pm EDT
  

• The Birther Conspiracies: Where Reason Meets Its Match

  A few weeks ago I wrote a post affirming that President Obama is in fact a natural born U.S. citizen, and is thusly qualified to serve as president under the citizenship provisions of Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. Predictably, the post drew responses from advocates [...]
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  Posted: August 04, 2009, 4:36pm EDT
  

• Antimoral Societies

  In his 1944 book, The Road to Serfdom, Nobel winning economist F.A. Hayek discusses the muddled moral thinking brought on by “fifty years’ approach toward collectivism.” His discussion of morality on pages 231-233 is thought provoking. “Issues in this field have become so confused that it is necessary [...]
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  Posted: August 03, 2009, 8:59am EDT
  

• Utah Is Both Less and More Republican Than You Think

  It was reported on KNRS Radio this morning that the voter demographic in Utah is markedly different than the common perception. It turns out that Republicans are not the largest bloc of voters in Utah—at least per the results of the 2008 general election.
  
  Political Parties In Utah
  [...]
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  Posted: July 30, 2009, 7:03pm EDT
  

• Health Care Freedom With a Security Component

  Kevin Delaney at y-intercept has during the last few weeks been developing the concept of a medical savings and loan as an alternative to traditional private or public third-party health insurance. He has established the domain [www.medicalsavingsandloan.com] “to start a debate about a free market reform called a [...]
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  Posted: July 27, 2009, 12:05pm EDT
  

• Pioneer Day

  In the 1950s, a man in his mid-20s that had grown up watching WWII first hand said goodbye to his native Germany and went forward into a new life in the U.S.A. This working class man eventually married an American girl from Wyoming, became an American citizen, and fathered five [...]
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  Posted: July 24, 2009, 4:03pm EDT
  

• From Harsh Realities to Ruthlessness

  I have been re-reading The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek. Speaking of the transfer of private property to the state, he writes (pp. 114-115): “To believe that the power which is thus conferred on the state is merely transferred to it from others is erroneous. It is [...]
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  Posted: July 23, 2009, 9:20pm EDT
  

• Achieving Adulthood

  I have worked with young men in church and Scouting settings for decades. I have seen many successfully transition from childhood to adulthood and I have seen many that did not do so well at making this shift.
  
  Our culture has evolved into one that worships childhood and where [...]
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  Posted: July 22, 2009, 6:58pm EDT
  

• Back From Camp

  I have just spent a week away at Boy Scout camp at Camp Bartlett. Over the weekend, I also visited Camp Loll because I have a son working on staff there. It was a rare opportunity to be bitten by mosquitoes at two fine Scout camps on the [...]
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  Posted: July 20, 2009, 3:46pm EDT
  

• A Vitriolic Good Bye

  Those involved in marketing know that every product has a life cycle. Some of those cycles are short (pet rocks) and some are long (Twinkies). A study reported last month found that life cycles of cultural items are affected by how rapidly they rise to popularity. In [...]
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  Posted: July 10, 2009, 2:54pm EDT
  

• Unprofitable Health Care

  Health care, some contend, is too special to be driven by a profit motive. As one person grappling with serious health issues and the corresponding costs asked, “Who can put a money value on a life?” Health care, it is said, should not be reduced to consumerism.
  
  We all [...]
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  Posted: July 09, 2009, 3:25pm EDT
  

• Housing Crisis Remedies Driven By Political Whim

  Economist Stan Liebowitz says in this WSJ op-ed that “most government policies being discussed to remedy woes in the housing market are misdirected” because they are based on a misunderstanding of “the actual causes of the mortgage crisis.”
  
  Using real (and readily available) data Liebowitz shows that [...]
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  Posted: July 07, 2009, 7:40pm EDT
  

• Drowning In Information

  My kids and their friends do not remember the days before the Internet. But it really wasn’t very long ago that the hippest people started adding an email address to their business cards. As email became more common, a weird business culture developed where the number of emails in a [...]
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  Posted: July 06, 2009, 2:57pm EDT
  

• America's Great Anniversary Festival

  Our Independence Day celebrations have thrilled me since I was a child. On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail: “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will [...]
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  Posted: July 02, 2009, 4:45pm EDT
  

• Public Official Privacy

  The media loves anything that smacks of salaciousness because it sells well. Demand for titillating and scandalous content is obviously quite high among news consumers. Fortunately for these consumers, people that have chosen to live in the public light frequently supply plenty of this kind of material.
  
  Among those [...]
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  Posted: July 01, 2009, 4:34pm EDT
  

• Scratches and Dents

  In the first four parts of this series (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) I presented the concept that our current employer provided health care system is accidentally designed to reduce liberty, increase costs, and reduce satisfaction. I also explained the paradox that our [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2009, 8:54am EDT
  

• Mixed Costs

  In the previous three segments of this series (part 1, part 2, part 3) I put forward the argument that employer provided health care has some bad features that are inherent in the very structure of the program. I alluded to what some of these problems are. [...]
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  Posted: June 27, 2009, 12:02pm EDT
  

• The Cost of Shackles

  Does it really make sense to hold tenaciously to our current system of employer provided health care?
  
  In the first segment of this series I introduced the concept of the company store and offered some explanation as to what was bad about it. In the second [...]
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  Posted: June 26, 2009, 5:33pm EDT
  

• Today’s Company Store

  In my previous post I discussed the ‘truck system’ that offered workers employment, food, and housing, but that kept them bound to a poorer way of life. An infamous element of this system was the company store. I said that a similar feature is at work today and [...]
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  Posted: June 26, 2009, 7:32am EDT
  

• Sixteen Tons

  In 1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford’s recording of the song Sixteen Tons hit the top of the charts. Even two generations later this song continues to be included in popular media, so even my children are somewhat familiar with it. I always knew the song was about coal mining, [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 6:01pm EDT
  

• Channeling Reagan

  Ramesh Ponnuru says that the GOP has a Reagan problem. Not that Reagan is a problem for the GOP. But that many members of the party seem to have derived the wrong lessons from Reagan’s political life.
  
  Ponnuru notes that some Republicans that want to be [...]
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  Posted: June 22, 2009, 5:27pm EDT
  

• Note to Conservatives: Obama Is a Natural Born Citizen

  A contention continues to be expressed among some conservatives that President Obama is not a “natural born citizen” of the United States as required by Article II Section 1 of the Constitution, and is therefore ineligible to serve as President. They note that the President’s father was not an [...]
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  Posted: June 19, 2009, 9:38am EDT
  

• How Should the U.S. Deal With North Korea?

  Analysts think that North Korea will fire a ballistic missile toward Hawaii in a couple of weeks, reports the AP. Although the missile wouldn’t be able to reach Hawaii’s main islands and the firing is labeled a test, this would clearly be an act of international aggression, aimed at [...]
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  Posted: June 18, 2009, 5:10pm EDT
  

• Re-Thinking Utah's Government Four-Day Work Week

  “No, you can’t go down there today,” I recently heard my wife tell my mother. “Remember, Utah government offices aren’t open on Fridays anymore.”
  
  Last summer, Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. forced most state employees to adopt a four-day work week, working 10 hours per day. One [...]
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  Posted: June 16, 2009, 4:39pm EDT
  

• Pay Phones

  As a recovering IRS tax auditor, I have some comprehension of the nature of the tax collection beast. Most of the people I worked with at the IRS had no greater love for taxes than does the average American. But they were interested in making sure that everyone fulfilled their [...]
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  Posted: June 15, 2009, 4:47pm EDT
  

• A Parting Controversy for Ambassador Huntsman

  Today’s WSJ online includes this post by John Fund about a kerfuffle surrounding how (soon to be former) Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. has garnered and used funds in his capacity as chairman of the Western Governors Association. “Jon Huntsman, the Republican governor of Utah, [...]
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  Posted: June 13, 2009, 9:53am EDT
  

• Emergence vs. Control

  I find it interesting that supporters of both Intelligent Design and unplanned evolution use complexity as support for their respective theories. One side claims that many biological structures are so complex that it is statistically impossible for them to have developed randomly. The other side says that many structures [...]
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  Posted: June 12, 2009, 8:55pm EDT
  

• LDS Sponsored BSA Units Have More Safety Incidents

  Concern was raised in a couple of recent Scouting leadership meetings I attended because BSA units along the Wasatch Front comprise a disproportionately high number of the program’s injuries, health and safety incidents, and other liability related issues. More specifically, such events occur at a statistically significantly high [...]
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  Posted: June 10, 2009, 5:26pm EDT
  

• Cutting the Fat From Scouting

  Saturday morning found me astride my mountain bike atop Big Rock. Big Rock is a prominent rocky outcropping on a mountainside east of North Ogden, Utah. The summit of Big Rock is a little more than half a mile from the trailhead, but it’s also about 560 feet higher than [...]
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  Posted: June 08, 2009, 3:28pm EDT
  

• When the Music No Longer Moves You, You Should Leave

  Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan comments here about the placement of a statue of Ronald Reagan in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol this week (see AP report). Noonan explains something I didn’t know before. “Each of the 50 states is allowed two statues in the [...]
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  Posted: June 05, 2009, 11:34am EDT
  

• I Was a College Dropout

  A young lady in my neighborhood that has been out of high school for a year recently told my wife that she doesn’t know how she will be able to continue her college education, having lost a scholarship that required good grades. Taking chemistry in the same semester as another [...]
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  Posted: June 03, 2009, 5:03pm EDT
  

• Summertime and the Livin' Seems Somewhat Easier

  The economy is all local, as the saying goes. We often talk about the national economy, but we mostly think about how economic issues impact us personally. A recession, the joke goes, is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose yours.
  
  As of Saturday, [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2009, 11:22am EDT
  

• One Down, Four to Go

  My oldest son graduated from high school yesterday. On the way home from the graduation exercises he said, “Well, I survived compulsory government education.”
  
  The graduation exercises lasted two hours. It had its dignified moments, but overall it was far less dignified than when I graduated from the same [...]
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  Posted: May 28, 2009, 5:40pm EDT
  

• Saving the American Family

  My children are richly blessed. I often try to tell them that this is so, but I know that they don’t really understand yet. To them my pronouncements must sound an awful lot like parents telling their children to be grateful for the dinner they have because children in Africa [...]
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  Posted: May 26, 2009, 8:09pm EDT
  

• Physical Learning

  Last night I attended the “energy expo” at my son’s charter school. All of the children in grades 3-5 displayed and demonstrated projects centered on energy. There were water, wind, electric, solar, and biofuel projects.
  
  Everything these students have done during this trimester has focused on energy. That includes [...]
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  Posted: May 21, 2009, 6:42pm EDT
  

• Politicians Can Only Make Political Decisions, Not Economic Ones

  I once watched a worker that was trying to insert a screw through two pieces of sheet metal. He aligned the pre-drilled holes and then started the screw with his fingers. At that point he looked around for a tool to finish the job and discovered that the only tool [...]
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  Posted: May 20, 2009, 4:50pm EDT
  

• A New Ambassador and A New Governor

  “Well, he’s a politician,” I replied to my son’s question as to whether Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert is conservative. We were having a discussion about Governor Huntsman’s nomination by President Obama to serve as U.S. Ambassador to China.
  
  At some point, Gov. Huntsman will resign and [...]
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  Posted: May 18, 2009, 6:46pm EDT