Mormon Bloggers

My passport has expired.  I’d lost my driver’s license and was hunting for the legal documents I needed to replace it when I came across the well-worn little blue book.  I opened it up to take a mini-trip down memory lane and instantly felt a dagger of pain tear through my traveling soul.  I let out a scream and started to cry.  My husband came running to see what was the matter and then stood in a stupor fearing I’d finally completely lost my mind.  I felt like my life was over. The truth is that my life has been changing.  I’ve noticed over the past few months that my travel-planning is more of an afterthought.  The dreams are constantly in my mind, but the opportunities pass and I’m left reflecting on how I let practicality or financial responsibility make the decision for me.  Where in the past I would have spent the last two months spontaneously road-tripping, the farthest I’ve actually been is 2 hours from... Read the rest of this entry »

In case you hadn’t noticed recently, we have a bi-polar political atmosphere in America. For far too long we have wanted to have it both ways — entitlements and fiscal restraint. Whenever an impasse over those two polar extremes has presented itself, the two parties have compromised. Now it seems we have compromised ourselves into a box canyon with nowhere to go. Here’s the full S&P analysis for your reading pleasure. Having rejected the guidance of the rating agencies, S&P this week announced the jig is up. For the first time in the history of credit ratings, America has fallen from atop its perch as a AAA credit risk. What follows are the highlights from yesterday’s S&P report on their decision to lower the long-term rating to AA+, while the short-term rating is even worse at A-1+: Overview · We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’ and affirmed the ‘A-1+’... Read the rest of this entry »

“I am certain that, however great the hardships and the trials which loom ahead,  our America will endure and the cause of human freedom will triumph” -Cordell Hull, Secretary of State 1933-1944  Read More →

I cry when the flag goes by.  I try to stop, to hold it in, but the tears escape every time.  I still love parades like a little kid, and that is the reason why; a community joined together in reverence to salute the essence of what it is to live in our country. Sunday I attended the Freedom Festival Patriotic Service in Provo, UT.  My family and 15,000 of our closest friends gathered together for 90-minutes of independence-focused singing and dancing.  One of my favorite songs is the Armed Forces Medley.  I only have one relative that ever served in the military and he never speaks about it.  It is touching beyond description to watch as members of each branch of the service stand proudly to receive the recognition they deserve.  I love to watch the eldest veterans and their wives and their generations of family.  And I especially love to see our current or recently discharged soldiers standing at full salute with all the seriousness upon their faces... Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend we officially kick off the summer season with a three-day holiday we always look forward to in our family. Do you know the origins of the commemoration? Take a minute to watch the video, and remember and be grateful for the amazing sacrifices of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice so we could enjoy the freedom and liberty of America. May we never take for granted that which we have received through little or no effort on our part in comparison to those who laid the foundations upon which we have built our lives. Freedom is never free, and the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Thanks to the History Channel for putting this together, lest we forget. Free Counter  Read More →

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve held a second job working as a part-time cashier for Lowe’s. This is my first job in this type of retail environment. My mother has worked at Target for over decade, and what I’m about to say as held true for her as well. Most states, if not all, have some sort of law requiring employers to pay their employees 1.5 times their pay for overtime. Most states stipulate that overtime is any thing over 40 hours a week. Other states look at it daily, and require anything over 8 hours be paid as overtime. Here’s why these laws hurt works, and are inconsistent. Both Lowe’s and Target do a very good job at keeping their employees from working anywhere too close to 40 hours. And one of the ways they do this is by hiring more employees, and diluting everyone’s hours. I hear it all the time from upper management, “Are you near 40 hours?”, “Don’t hit 40 hours”, etc. I submit that it’s the... Read the rest of this entry »

From: Rocky Mountain Straight Talk by Muriel Sluyter We Americans have been free too long. Many of our citizens no longer value the freedom for which our ancestors fought and died, at least not enough to keep it. Many of us see nothing wrong with trading that freedom for money, inspiring a particularly unprincipled class of politicians to compete to buy the most votes with the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. That’s the money those politicians have sworn to use wisely. Apparently, “wisely” is in the eye of the beholder, or maybe just in the eye of the guy holding the key to the taxpayers’ bank account. Both that class of politicians and those citizens subscribe to the “Robin Hood” model of government, “Take from the rich and give to the poor.” Inexplicably, they consider such “taking and giving” a badge of honor. Have we truly devolved to this extent? How do we decide for whom we will vote? Let’s analyze some basic human tendencies:... Read the rest of this entry »

We Americans have been free too long. Many of our citizens no longer value the freedom for which our ancestors fought and died, at least not enough to keep it. Many of us see nothing wrong with trading that freedom for money, inspiring a particularly unprincipled class of politicians to compete to buy the most votes with the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. That’s the money those politicians have sworn to use wisely. Apparently, “wisely” is in the eye of the beholder, or maybe just in the eye of the guy holding the key to the taxpayers’ bank account. Both that class of politicians and those citizens subscribe to the “Robin Hood” model of government, “Take from the rich and give to the poor.” Inexplicably, they consider such “taking and giving” a badge of honor. Have we truly devolved to this extent? How do we decide for whom we will vote? Let’s analyze some basic human tendencies: Most citizens who vote for the man they think will... Read the rest of this entry »

This interview with Congressman Allen West (R-FL) should give all Americans renewed hope that fiscal sanity and spending restraint can actually happen. It’s not a matter of “if” we can and must do this, it’s only a matter of “how much.” When he was running for office last year, I wished this man and others like him could be elected in every precinct in America. You’ll understand why when you listen to him articulate his positions: A new era has finally dawned. The work ahead is not going to be easy. America, however, will get this fixed. There just isn’t any other alternative if freedom for us and the rest of the world is to be preserved. Free Counter  Read More →

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called for religious groups to unite in order to protect the religious freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution during a speech delivered at Chapman University Law School on February 4th, 2011. But Elder Oaks isn’t calling for a resurrection of Jerry Falwell’s “Moral Majority”, which became identified with a particular religious group and political party, but for a broader principle both nonpartisan and ecumenical. Primary media story published by the Deseret News; unofficial LDS reaction on MormonWoman.org, which includes good secondary links to other addresses on religious liberty, and by Jeff Lindsay on Mormanity. – Read the complete transcript of Elder Oaks’ speech HERE.– Read the LDS Church‘s press release HERE. Interview with Elder Oaks embedded below: Elder Oaks called for a unified, broad coalition defending religious... Read the rest of this entry »

I was asked by someone last week whether God will be the source of deliverance for America, or whether He has abandoned America because of the wickedness so prevalent among us.  On its surface the question disturbed me.  Of course God will deliver America!  And America has a role in the world to help deliver other nations from tyranny and oppression.  Could there be any question? Then he posed this question:  ”I notice you write a lot about politics as though you actually believe there is anything to be gained by it.  Isn’t God the real source of our power?” It made me wonder if the heat of all the political rhetoric sometimes fails to shed the light of truth on the problems we face. It is true, I write a lot about political matters.  It is because I believe there is an imperative duty we owe to God to do the best we can based upon all He has revealed to us to advance His agenda.  We remain silent in these last days... Read the rest of this entry »

George F. Will I stumbled over this magnificent summary of where we were at America’s exceptional founding, where we are today at the commencement of the 112th Congress, and where we are headed in the future.  It comes from George Will, and you can read the whole article here: The American Revolution was a political, not a social revolution; it was about emancipating individuals for the pursuit of happiness, not about the state allocating wealth and opportunity. Hence our exceptional Constitution, which says not what government must do for Americans but what it cannot do to them. Americans are exceptionally committed to limited government because they are exceptionally confident of social mobility through personal striving. And they are exceptionally immune to a distinctively modern pessimism: It holds that individuals are powerless to assert their autonomy against society’s vast impersonal forces, so people must become wards of government, which supposedly is... Read the rest of this entry »