Month: April 2008

Categories
life meta technology

Old Goals, New Goals

I have made a goal ever six months for the last couple of years to review every talk from general conference before the next general conference. I have to make the goal anew each conference because each time I fail – until now. Thanks to my introduction to ScriptureCast I reviewed the final talk from the October 2007 conference this morning. ScriptureCast allows you to create custom podcasts from the scriptures (and the last conference or two) where you set the starting point and completion date and it generates a podcast for you. They don’t have the Bible but I hope they are working to add it – though I have no information about whether they are or not. it’s nice to finally meet that goal – just in time to start over again (as soon as this week’s conference gets added).

I have been trying, with pretty good success, to be consistent at writing here. I had hope of ensuring that my blog would be consistent enough to hold the interest of those who read it, and attract responses to continue refining my thinking. At one point I had an average of more than 2 comments for every post on the blog. That may not sound like much to some people, but considering the large number of posts from when I started the blog where there was nobody to respond I felt pretty good about that. Then I went through and added something above 100 posts from my earlier blogging and the comment count was again well below the 2:1 ratio I had achieved – I’m almost back to that ration thanks to much feedback from a half a dozen regular readers.

I have recently recognized that I have been holding back somewhat because of that relatively arbitrary goal (the 2:1 comment ratio). I have avoided writing about things that don’t feel very current or likely to generate some interest. I have decided that being picky is not my strong suit and I would like to make more strides on another goal that I had made – to go through all the founding documents (especially the Federalist Papers). I have decided to push for two posts per day until I achieve that goal – one covering Federalist papers, and another like what I have been posting regularly (that way I won’t put off studying one of the Federalist papers just because I saw something interesting to write. Hopefully that study will make my other writing and thinking deeper and more grounded in principle.

Wish me luck.

Categories
National politics

The “Ohio” Plan

With many people arguing that the primary election system needs to change there have been a variety of suggestions made. The “Ohio” plan, being considered by the Republican Party, is that first one officially being considered by either of the major parties (first so far as I am aware). The plan incorporates some of the basic ideas of the Rotating Regionals idea that was being promoted by the National Association of Secretaries of State. Essentially the plan would preserve the first 4 states position in the front of the calendar (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina). Then, at three week intervals there would be a group of small states (total of 50 electoral votes between them) and then three vaguely regional clusters of states would rotate in the next three primary dates. The three “regional” groups are

    • Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Wisconsin, Utah, and Washington
    • Arizona, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia
    • Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania
    • Leaving the small states group as -Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and non states like D.C. and Guam

The process would take 3 months.

Now I am looking for answers to two questions:

  1. Is this a good way to organize the primary process (should the Democratic Party consider a similar approach when they finally conclude their primary this year)?
  2. Is it better to proceed with this plan that seems politically feasible rather than continue the search for a more perfect approach?
    Categories
    politics State

    Rigging Universal Health Coverage

    Devising a system of universal health coverage in Utah is a high priority for our governor (I’d say it’s second to expanding our state economy). As usual, Scott is pointing out the glaring flaws in the approach the governor is taking.

    I find it more than a little disconcerting that a task force made up of people who make their money on health care are being put in charge of coming up with ideas. It should not be surprising that such a group would encourage a mandate on individuals. If we should have a mandate at all, shouldn’t it be a mandate on those who make their money on health care, perhaps a mandate that insurance companies must offer a broad array of plans, or that health care providers publish their prices (these are very preliminary ideas, just suggesting that a mandate on individuals is misguided).

    I also think that the task force should include some people who are not already insured – at the very least they should spend a lot of time talking to people (insured and uninsured) to find out what kind of plans would attract more people to purchase insurance. That should be the basis of any policy decisions and, if necessary, mandates for the insurance companies.

    In my experience, one of the reasons that doctors and clinics don’t want to publish their prices, is that they charge different prices depending on your insurance. They accept that when they want to charge someone $100 for a visit the insurance company will return the bill saying that they will only allow them to charge $88 for that visit and that they will pay $73 of that (leaving a $15 copay).

    It seems to me that the pricing system is upside-down. Doctors should publish their prices and insurance companies that will accept that doctor will agree to pay that published price (of course allowing for the copay structure). Doctors who charge higher prices would not be accepted by as many insurance companies and insurance companies who would not pay enough to cover the costs to doctors would not be able to offer access to as many doctors. People without insurance would also be able to make informed choices on the services they use. If my experience is any guide, the option of health savings accounts combined with a high deductible policy (sometimes called catastrophic coverage) would look much more desirable to more people.

    Categories
    Local meta politics State

    Party Shenanigans

    I would think that people who are politically involved enough to be elected as delegates and precinct chairs for the Republican party would want to be contacted by candidates so that they could choose who they would support. That is at odds with the assertion that the Utah County Republican Party promised not to give the emails of their delegates to the candidates. The water becomes extra murkey in light of the fact that there is evidence that some candidates do appear to have those email addresses. Kip Meacham has links about this as it develops plus his own experience as a precinct chair. The story is also being followed at Out of Context. This is definitely a case where people need to keep the issue in the public eye and put pressure on the party to not interfere with a fair political process – if some candidates have the email addresses then they should be released to all Republican candidates.

    If delegates do not want to hear from candidates then they should not accept the position of being delegates – but I don’t think that’s what is happening here. If candidates want to try spamming the delegates to win the primary then I think the delegates are smart enough to vote against those candidates at the convention – but I don’t think that’s what’s really happening here either. Maybe it’s my own personal bias here, but this seems like exactly the type of thing I would expect from a party that has no significant opposition (meaning another solid party to counter them) which has grown accustomed to simply dictating who will come before the citizens on the ballot for their perfunctory approval.

    I sure hope to see the Utah County Democrats grow to the point that they can regularly get their candidates elected – forcing the county Republican party to stop talking and start listening. We also need to see more active Republicans like Kip who will stand up to their party and say publicly that this is unacceptable.

    Categories
    culture

    April Fools Day

    I’m not sure exactly why, but I can never bring myself to make anything of April Fools Day. I try to be careful that I don’t buy into any of the prank news stories that float around and I certainly don’t mind the fact that lots of people have fun with this holiday, but I don’t think I’ve ever pulled a significant April Fools joke of my own.

    That puts me in a quandary. I am hesitant to write anything serious lest it be ignored as a joke and I have no desire to force some wit into my writing. Maybe I can luck out like last year. I didn’t even remember that it was April Fools Day, but as I look back at what I posted I can see that it was rather amusing.