Categories
National politics

Capitulation Day

Obi wan nailed the truth in his reaction to Democratic Capitulation on FISA and the rule of law. In fact, he nailed it and so did his readers in the comments section:

rmwarnick said…

They all took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution. Every one of them.

Obi wan liberali said…

They obviously took that oath seriously now did they.

Categories
culture life

Webelos Day Camp

I spent the afternoon and evening at Webelos day camp today. Not much to report about it except that I had an interesting thought during the flag ceremony. After we said the Pledge of Allegiance we had a prayer at the beginning of camp. As that took place it occurred to me that it was very fitting that we would say a prayer immediately after saying the pledge where we declare this to be a nation under God.

Categories
culture politics

Transit Oriented Development

The idea that we need more transit friendly ways to develop our urban and suburban areas is not new to me. I have long believed it. The idea that government restrictions hinder as often as they help is also easy for me to accept. That’s why I was interested to read about the ways that existing zoning laws often impede smart development.

Many of us will abandon our big gas-guzzling vehicles and forsake new land-guzzling, auto-dependent suburban developments in favor of commuter hubs and “new urbanism” communities clustered near mass-transit stations.

We’ll live sensibly for a change. . . We won’t go kicking and screaming, either. Just give it a little more time. Let the air pollution and traffic congestion and gas pumps that ring up $50, $60, $70 in a blur sink in, and we’ll embrace smart growth and new urbanism and commuter hubs like grandmas hug babies and babies hug puppies.

It’s already starting to happen . . . But there’s still one big obstacle . . . If commuter hubs and bus stop/train station developments are going to become the norm, if we’re going to change our wasteful ways and ease the burden on our environment and pocketbooks, local governments have to lead, or at least get out of the way.

“High density” can no longer be dirty words. Commercial and residential zones must be melded. Those tired old requirements of two parking spaces for every doorstep have to go.

My ideals for my family living situation include a large yard and I begin to wonder if that conflicts with my ideals for smarter growth and a more transit-centric lifestyle.

I think I’ll try to tackle that issue with some ideas of how to meld the two ideals – not just for me, but in general municipal planning. Any thoughts for me to consider?

Categories
politics

Federalist Nos. 18 – 20

These papers offer an analysis of other governments which might be compared and contrasted with the system being outlined in the Constitution. I don’t consider myself expert enough to critique the analysis, but it is very interesting to see that advantages of this new system as perceived by Hamilton and Madison when compared to Greece (No. 18), Germany (No. 19), and the Netherlands (No. 20).

Categories
National politics

Charting Government Fiscal Irresponsibility

While trying to find out how Tiger Woods did in the playoff round of the U.S. Open today (he birdied the last hole to force sudden death and then won on the first sudden death playoff hole) I stumbled upon news of the launching of PerotCharts.com. This website is a project of Ross Perot which provides important information that every person in the U.S. needs to understand (and every member of Congress needs to accept). Helping Ross Perot is David Walker who was the Comptroller General of the United States until recently – he was the person responsible for creating government fiscal projections and he seems to be tired of having his numbers spun by politicians for their own gain at our national peril.

Using data from the government itself, Perot Charts shows the fiscal cliff that we are facing and on “chart” 34 of a 35 chart Fiscal Challenges presentation there are four suggestions for how to begin correcting our dire situation:

    • Restructure existing entitlement programs
    • Raise payroll taxes and/or income taxes
    • Borrow more money each year to make up the shortfall
    • Cut discretionary spending even further

Of those four suggestions, we should be implementing at least 2 if not 3 of them (restructuring entitlement programs, cutting discretionary spending, and finding ways to raise revenue as well). What we don’t need is to borrow more – that only exacerbates the problem.

Categories
life

“We Talk of Christ”

Earlier this week I came across Christ.org and I really enjoyed reading what kinds of things had been written there. I plan to follow the discussion there to see if it continues to be enlightening. I also hope that it might be a source to spark my thinking when it comes to my Sunday postings as I try to avoid topics that are mainly secular in nature.

If you have any belief or interest in Christ it would be well worth your time to check out the site and see if it has anything to offer you.

Categories
culture life politics

Overload

These last couple of days have been overwhelming. I can hardly keep up with everything I need to do – which is why I failed to post. I’m still trying to catch up so this is mostly a chance for me prove that I have not disappeared. It is also a chance for me to point to the Radio West show from yesterday, The Case for the Independent Farm.

I was very excited when I started listening to the show. It really makes you take a fresh look at agriculture as a business and also at how the production of our true necessities (such as food) affects our lives and our lifestyles so broadly. I am hoping to break the whole show down and share more of what I learned from it. Until then, here’s one nugget:

The encouragement {in agriculture} is to do more work with less people, hence the myth that modern farming is efficient – well it’s more efficient per man hour but it’s not more efficient per acre, if anything it’s much less efficient per acre but we tend to measure efficiency in man hours and capital rather than in land which is the one variable that we probably won’t ever have any more of. – George Pyle, author of Raising Less Corn, More Hell

Categories
life

Looking for Work

I am looking for work right now and I thought it might be worth casting my net here to see if anyone knows of anything in the area of internet or software development (or something politically oriented if you can get hired into such a position). If you know of something, whether it be a project, a contract, or an ongoing position let me know so that I can explore all the possibilities.

You can view my resume if it might help you know where I might be able to help. (Thanks to Tom for the suggestion.)

Categories
culture politics

Federalist No. 17

Prior to Federalist No. 17 I had never completely disagreed with any of the federalist papers. Unfortunately , in discussing the possibility of a national government becoming stronger than would be desirable, Alexander Hamilton completely missed on his guess that:

It will always be far more easy for the State governments to encroach upon the national authorities than for the national government to encroach upon the State authorities.

Hamilton admits his lack of vision by saying:

I confess I am at a loss to discover what temptation the persons intrusted (sic.) with the administration of the general government could ever feel to divest the States of the {authority which should belong to them.}

My own assessment of where Hamilton went wrong was that he imagined an electorate that was perpetually working to stay informed. Instead today we have an electorate that has been diluted from the original – adult males who own property – to include any citizen, male or female, over the age of 18. I don’t mean to suggest that we should raise the voting age again, or make property ownership a requirement again, but I think it is fair to note that anyone who happens to be 18 does not necessarily have the same interest or inclination to become informed in their vote as someone who has property ownership which is directly affected by the actions of their representatives. Maybe we should adopt some requirement of tax payment – thus excluding those who have reached the age of 18 but who are simply living with their parents and not taking any adult responsibilities.

In truth, I think the biggest culprit is not the change in voting requirements as the rise of a society that is constantly lulled into complacency by a media culture that is predominantly experienced through passive reception. That seems to create a feeling of disconnectedness where people don’t have any real connection to government except to hear whatever the media covers – and the media naturally focuses on the larger national government more than more local government.

This disconnection would explain why the following assertion by Hamilton does not hold true today:

. . . the people of each State would be apt to feel a stronger bias towards their local governments than towards the government of the Union; unless the force of that principle should be destroyed by a much better administration of the latter.

In Utah today we have a state government that is acclaimed to be among the most wisely managed and yet many of our citizens think of little beyond presidential elections and the elections of our state representatives at the federal level.

Categories
politics State

The Way Things Work

I should not be surprised that the Hatch re-election committee is among biggest donors to other Republican campaigns. The only consolation is that very little of that $200,000 he donated for candidates outside of Utah came from donors inside of Utah.

Hatch gets his money mostly from special interests outside the state. He casts his votes for whatever the national Republican party line dictates and he spends his time and energy doing whatever furthers his government backed interests. His only connection to Utah is that this is where he receives the votes to continue living in Washington D.C. without having to work on K Street.

What really irks me is that the people of Utah have considered this to be adequate representation for the last 3 decades so they keep sending him back. (Okay, I admit that I have not been paying attention to Senator Hatch for 3 decades so it’s possible that he was more representative of Utah when he started in the Senate.) It’s nice to see that more people are voicing their displeasure with our non-representative senator-for-life.