Categories
life

Scout Camp

I will be gone to Scout camp for the next week so there will be no posting here. It will be interesting to see what kinds of thoughts are swimming through my mind after a week away from news, work, and modern technology.

Categories
life

Teaching and Learning

I have heard it said that you learn more by teaching something than just by learning or doing it. As I was preparing today for a lesson I caught some new insights into why that is. For one thing, the time taken to prepare what you are going to teach is much longer than the time that will be taken by a student in the lesson. Another factor that makes this true is that what you end up teaching in the actual instructional setting is not precisely the same as what you had prepared in advance. The teacher benefits from the preparation as well as anything new that comes in the lesson delivery. The students only get whatever came during the delivery time.

Categories
politics

Fourth Seat for Utah

The bill to give Utah a fourth seat in the House of Representatives has been hanging around for quite some time. It has not had too much coverage lately because very little has been happening with it. Yesterday I was surprised to see two editorials on the issue in Utah newspapers (Deseret News, Daily Herald). What really surprised me was that both editorials were against the bill. Back when this bill was getting more attention I was constantly disappointed that most of the coverage of the issue was supportive of the bill.

The reasons given for opposing the bill are that the other half of the legislation (giving Washington D.C. a voting member of the house) was unconstitutional. As the Deseret News pointed out, the goal of giving D.C. a voting member of the house is not without merit, but it is outside the scope of legislation. The proper way to accomplish this is to change the constitution, or make D.C. a state or part of a state. These are the same arguments I have been making on blog posts and comment boards ever since the issue was first raised. (Surprisingly, I discovered today that I have never talked about it here.)

The Deseret News offers one other reason to oppose the bill – timing. I have always argued that Utah should just wait until we get a new seat – we’re growing much faster than the country as a whole so we’ll gain new seats as the census gets updated. The editorial argues that the time is getting short enough now (only 3 years or less before we get new seats anyway) that Utah has nothing to gain by pushing legislation for a provisional seat in exchange for a (currently unconstitutional) permanent seat for D.C.

Categories
meta

Stable Title

Feeling that “No Working Title” was a disservice to my blog I implemented “Cause of Liberty” for a short period of time. I wasn’t totally satisfied with that and while playing around with words and fielding suggestions, I came to “Pursuing Liberty” and “Pursuit of Liberty.” Based on feedback from my best adviser (Laura) I went with “Pursuit of Liberty.” After letting it stew at the top of my blog for a while I have decided to keep it.

Categories
politics

Endorsement Lessons

My series of endorsements for 2008 was very enlightening. I learned a lot about my political leanings and what I thought was required of a president. I hope to capture some of what I learned here.

One thing that I learned was the value of time. When I began the endorsement process I had different expectations for what I was looking for than when I finished. There were a number of candidates who I did not reach the conclusion on endorsement that I had anticipated. I noticed how my own attitudes and perceptions about the political health of our country affected my perceptions about where different candidates stood as far as how I perceived their ability to lead the country. Also, as I continued to look at the candidates I found that my perceptions of them changed over time. I was no longer making judgments based on a snapshot of their positions, but I was also able to determine the trajectory of their positions and adjust my judgments accordingly.

I learned that timing is important. There were a number of candidates I could not endorse simply because they were not a fit for the needs of the day.

My appreciation grew for the work that is required of citizens if they are to make informed choices. making informed choices requires being informed about the candidates and the issues as well as understanding your own assumptions and values.

I have come to believe through this process that the rigors of campaigning are good exercise for a potential president. They are seeking a position that is challenging and unpredictable. The job requires them to consider the present as well as the future, knowing that their decisions can affect the lives of people everywhere. It makes more and more sense to me why we frequently select men (so far) who have been governors and generals, and less frequently select men who have spent time as legislators.

Categories
life

Marathon

Today was my marathon. I had hoped to finish in under 4 hours. The race began inauspiciously, with the buses arriving more than 30 minutes late to take us to the top. It continued promisingly as I ran well ahead of my pace for the first half of the race (on pace to finish in about 3:40). It ended with me learning a lesson. I had not done enough hill training and the first 17 miles of the race were all downhill (except for more than a mile of uphill). That accounted for my time being so good for the first half, but it also caused my calves and feet to fatigue early because I was using the muscles differently from when I trained. The result was that I started walking after 17 miles because I could hardly lift my feet, a problem I never had when I ran 22 miles on flat ground. I finished the race at a run after adding more than an hour to my time. I crossed the finish line at 4:57:23.

I know that some of my supporters were worried that I might be disappointed by that time but I recognize the deficiency of my training. While I feel I could have pushed myself to do a little better than I did, I could never break 4 hours on this course without some significant hill training before the race. I am not disappointed in the results – I achieved a long-held goal to run a marathon and, as proven by some of the most seasoned runners I met on the course, that is nothing to feel bad about no matter what time the clock says when you finish.

Categories
culture politics

Heights of Public Discourse

I posted in June about the voucher debate exemplifying the worst of political discourse. Apparently Frank had similar thoughts about the voucher debate while reading The Audacity of Hope. I really liked Frank’s post because it illustrates one of the root causes of our unhealthy levels of partisanship that we currently have in Washington (and around the country). It also serves as a good illustration of why I consider Obama to be a top tier candidate even though I disagree with him on a range of issues. He understands the root cause of our political problems.

Frank has also written a second post about where he, as a conservative, agrees with Barak Obama.

Categories
politics

Funding Mass Transit

I think I recognize one of the major reasons why UDOT leans so heavily on building roads rather than transit. It has to do with perspective:

Why is it that transit funding is a subsidy but highway funding isn’t? Why do some people complain about seeing empty trains or buses in off-peak hours, but they won’t complain about freeways that are empty or nearly empty during the same hours? Why do some people never consider that, by funding highways much more than transit through the years, we are forcing people, even ones of meager means, to buy expensive cars and to fill them with expensive gasoline? Why do we consider Americans to be car-crazy, when they really have few other options? (Deseret News article – Thumbs Up to Funding Mass Transit 7/1/07)

That really makes you take a second look at all the arguments against transit solutions. I still don’t think that government should subsidize fares for mass transit any more than they should send citizens vouchers for gas. However, it may be that building and maintaining a transit rail line should be of equal importance to building and maintaining a road (which government does all the time). Operating costs for a transit system should be covered by fares, but maintenance should be subsidized similar to maintenance on roads. Perhaps a tax on fares that covers the same percentage of line maintenance as is covered for road maintenance by gas taxes.

To conclude from the same article:

Of course we need to keep subsidizing cars through highway construction. But we need to subsidize transit, as well. If one of government’s legitimate functions is to provide the infrastructure to help commerce thrive, this makes sense. It even makes sense from a conservative point of view.

Categories
culture life

Fireworks and Personal Responsibility

It doesn’t take much thought to realize that a hot, dry summer does not mix well with fireworks. Governor Hunstman called on cities to ban personal fireworks because of our conditions this year. The Deseret News Editorial on the idea notes that legal fireworks seldom create problems. The fact that we make laws which we don’t enforce encourages unlawful behavior. We should not be waiting for the government to tell us what is smart.

This situation, and my personal feelings leave me in a bind. Tomorrow all the cousins are getting together to celebrate and the families decided that we would purchase fireworks jointly instead of individually. None of us take the time to purchase illegal fireworks (which are expensive and pale in comparison to the professional displays anyway) but with the extreme fire season we are having this year I believe that it is irresponsible to act as if personal fireworks are some inalienable right. If it were not for the fact that our family has already agreed to do fireworks together I would choose not to do any personal fireworks this year – I’d just stick to the professional displays.

Categories
life

All In A Week

When I left for DevCon last Wednesday Isaac had just learned to sit up. By Saturday when I got home he had just started crawling in earnest. Yesterday when I arrived home from the conference I was informed that he had learned to crawl up the two bottom stairs from the family room to the kitchen. Today – I guess to prove how strong he was – he crawled (unassisted, but being closely watched) from the far end of the family room up to the kitchen and then on up the entire flight of stirs to his bedroom. Not only that he comes to me when I call to him.

He’s a mover now and he knows it. He might be a show-off too.

All this came about in the space of a week. It reminds me that I have to be watching every second at this age because these kids just grow so fast sometimes.