Reach Upward

• 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