Dan disagrees with me about the idea that Mormons for Equality and Social Justice (MESJ) could be a force for good in Utah (check out the comments on the previous post). I agree with him that they are wrong about a lot of things (maybe even most things), but what popular group isn’t? G.W. Bush and the Republicans we have in office now have done more to harm my freedom to control my own property than any group that has been in office since Johnson in the 60’s. Yet I am stuck with them because they are the only viable party that even comes close to supporting my political philosophy.
I think MESJ are a breath of fresh air in Utah where the people think the Republicans represent them. The people vote Republican without having the first clue what these morons are doing. I only need mention Gov. Leavitt and then rest my case. Too many Mormons vote Republican because they think that is what all good Mormons do…not because they have a consistent ideology.
I don’t know what the solution is in Utah. I hope groups like MESJ will force the Republicans to start debating issues instead of resting on that (R) behind their name with the assumption that 99% of Mormons will vote for them. If Mormons who are more left leaning (and there are many) stop being RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and start supporting the Democrats we might get a real political dialog going in the state of Utah. That would be good for everyone because it would force the Republicans to return to their idealogical roots. At least I hope it would.
A couple weeks ago I posted this quote from Ted Wilson, former mayor of Salt Lake City, active member of the lds church, and proud leftist.
I heaped scorn on Wilson for his comments…but apparantly there are people in Utah who seriously believe the church’s teachings can be used to promote left leaning political philosphy. One group, Mormons for Equality and Social Justice (MESJ), was described this weekend in the Deseret News. I checked out their site and it is very interesting. They really seem to be intellectually honest and though I disagree with some of their conclusions (any time anyone supports government forced re-distribution of income) I find others to be quite compelling (we have an individual responsibility as prosperous member of the church to work for economic equality and the elimination of poverty).
This part of the short pledge members of MESJ struck me as a good attempt to avoid being associated with those who want to harm the chuch:
I understand that MESJ is not a forum for criticizing the doctrines or policies of the LDS Church and that MESJ does not adopt positions on social or political issues which contradict official positions of the Church.
Good for them. I hope they have success in bringing some diversity into the staid political atmosphere that exists in Utah.
I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this week. The book is huge and it has taken a lot of my time (notice the lack of posting this week) but it was worth it. It is a good book.
It isn’t as good as the others in the series. It probably should have spent a little more time under the loving scalpel of a good editor (there really isn’t enough story to justify 870 pages) but it is still fun to read.
I guess I should mention that I didn’t actually read the whole thing…I listened to a lot of it. I ordered a copy of the book from Amazon UK instead of getting the American version. This meant it would take me longer to get my copy than if I had purchased it here. While we were waiting for the book Lisa and I decided to go in on a copy of the book on CD with Michael. The book on CD is read by Jim Dale who is absolutely amazing. I’ve heard several books on tape and CD but I’ve never heard anything like him before. He came up with hundreds of different voices for the characters in the book and some of them were simply inspired.
I’m going to post a few of my impressions about the book and CD here and a few major spoilers will be included. If you don’t want to know anything about the story DON’T continue reading!!!
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Here is an interesting article about what Tom Davis (R-VA), my representative in Congress, has come up with to stop the constant whining to our north. He wants to give Washington, DC a voting representative in the House of Representatives. He also wants to give another representative to the State of Utah because it is under-represented. A pretty interesting compromise.
Can’t talk right now…
Reading Potter book…
More Later…
Dan posted on this topic a couple days ago, immediately after a Canadian court rendered a dicision validating a gay marriage and the government of Canada decided not to appeal (Read the story here).
I’ve had a hard time deciding where I stand on the issue of government recognition of gay marriage. My church has lobbied hard in the U.S. against the idea and I agree with the arguments they and others make about why government recognition of same-sex marriage would be a bad thing.
“We want to help these people, to strengthen them, to assist them with their problems and to help them with their difficulties. But we cannot stand idle if they indulge in immoral activity, if they try to uphold and defend and live in a so-called same-sex marriage situation. To permit such would be to make light of the very serious and sacred foundation of God-sanctioned marriage and its very purpose, the rearing of families” (President Hinckley, Ensign, Nov. 1998, 71).
I think that the real problem this issue brings up is being overlooked. The government shouldn’t be involved in the marriage of two individuals in the first place.
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We’re going to go see the choir perform at Wolf Trap next month. I have always like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir…it should be fun. If you would like to join us click here for tickets. I sure wish I knew how to get better seats. So far all I can are seats on the grass. Oh well. It will still be fun.
Dan mentioned this yesterday (you have to scroll down after clicking on this link to find the post because Dan hasn’t moved his site off of the crappy Blogger.com yet) but today Wired.com ran a story about it too. Read about the copyright problems discovered on Orrin’s official Senate website. Normally this wouldn’t be big news…but Senator Hatch made himself a valid target because of his stupid stupid remarks about what should happen to copyright violators.
My favorite part of the story is the response of the staffer contacted by Wired.com for comment on the hypocrisy of this situation:
A spokesman in Hatch’s office responded, “That’s ironic” before declining to put Wired News in contact with the site’s webmaster.
Thanks to Instapundit for this link.
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I was checking some of my favorite blogs when I noticed that the charming and fun Rachel Lucas had something to say about Senator Hatch. I think the stupidity of what Hatch advocates (see my previous post) is pretty obvious but if you are having a hard time figuring why check out this post for a primer.
The whole idea that we should make it legal for an industry to destroy the personal property of others (hack their computers) without a trial or due process is so wrong…I can’t believe this is something that a rational person in a position of responsibility would ever advocate.
Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) had this to say about Orrin Hatch’s recent efforts to make it legal for media companies to damage computers that are downloading copyrighted works:
In the spirit of the Framers, I’m tempted to endorse a more traditional remedy: twice warning a politician about threatening people’s rights and property, and then running him out of town on a rail.
That’s one, Orrin.
And if I were the DNC, I’d already have started shooting the attack ad: Orrin Hatch and the Republicans want to wreck your computer so that Big Business can get rich!
Prof. Reynolds obviously doesn’t know anything about Utah politics…Orrin has nothing to fear because he is from a state where complacent republicans don’t care what their representatives are up to. Hatch is untouchable…he could pitch bags full of puppies into the Jordan river in Salt Lake while holding a press conference and still easily get re-elected. Running him out on a rail is probably the only practical solution.
UPDATE
Senator Hatch clarified his views today on hacking peoples’ computers to keep them from taking copyrighted materials…He’s still for it.
Click on the picture above for the most insightful foreign policy treatise ever!!!
I’ve watched Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox quite a few times. I think he’s a jerk but I like the format of his show. I especially enjoy watching his “Talking Points Memo” segment. I haven’t had a chance to watch it in over 6 months because life is really busy right now (Corryn’s almost 2 and my wife needs time to make her millions) but I do remember enjoying it back when I had a little bit of time. I enjoy it because it is opinion that is clearly and boldly broadcast in a short but very well spoken segment. It reminds me of what I like about my blog…he says what he wants and it is HIS opinion with no apologies.
This recent “Talking Points Memo” was effectively fisked by Eugene Volokh (The Volokh Conspiracy) last night. Clearly O’Reilly is completely off his rocker on this one. He blames the Internet for the actions of irresponsible people who post things he disagrees with…then he says this:
The reason these net people get away with all kinds of stuff is that they work for no one. They put stuff up with no restraints. This, of course, is dangerous, but it symbolizes what the Internet is becoming.
I wonder what he would prefer? Maybe the Internet should be restricted to allow only those who work for major news corporations to post their views. Maybe we need a gatekeeper for the Internet. Maybe a government agency that can vet everything anyone wants to put in a website to make sure it isn’t going to offend.
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Only in Utah. The following lines were in a Deseret News article about the resurgence of the John Birch Society in Utah.
Ted Wilson, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah and a member of the church, said Utah’s right wing has done an exceptional job of identifying religious teachings in the Book of Mormon that support their extreme political ideology, rarely drawing a distinction between religion and politics.
“But the Book of Mormon is also filled with liberal political teachings. Unfortunately, (those on the political left) have not done as good a job identifying those teachings,” Wilson said.
Ted Wilson is a smart guy and all…but to let a major area newspaper (that he has a regular column in) quote him as saying something so unbelievably stupid says a lot. I think the Democrats and leftists in Utah should follow Ted in his crusade to sell leftist politics using the Book of Mormon. Utah news isn’t funny enough…that would put it over the edge.
I read much of Eric Alterman’s book What Liberal Media? because I have always been interested in the subject of media bias. Today Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online posted a response to Alterman’s book on the Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal page.
This is an issue that has decreased in importance as information has become more and more available because of technology…but it is still kind of fun to listen to the right and the left yell at each other over media bias.
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Dan posted a very interesting thought Friday (scroll down to his Friday, June 13 post after clicking the link) about whether property rights are more important than speech rights. I’ve been thinking about the article he linked to and the arguments he made for the past couple days. Obviously I agree with him that property rights are more important that free speech rights. I don’t think it is possible for free speech rights to be abridged in a society which holds property rights (the right to own and dispose of your property as you wish) as inviolable. The same is not necessarily true in reverse (see my recent posts about those stinking republicans here and here)…so obviously property rights are more valuable.
Read his whole post then check out the Kinsley article in Slate to see an example showing that most Americans disagree with the way Dan and I would prioritize the importance of these two rights. Kinsley sites what Nixon did in 1971 to regulate the economy (he imposed absolute price and wage controls on the economy with enthusiastic support from Congress). Then Kinsley contends that most people supported this and were even suspicious of attempts to remove the regulations several years later….”at the time, controls were not just accepted but popular. When they disappeared, even those (like me) who had opposed them found it strange and, at first, unnatural. You mean, anyone can just charge whatever they want? How does that work?”
Would we react the same today? I like to think we wouldn’t…but who knows?
