Mormon Bloggers

I don't understand the "Click-it or Ticket" campaign. It makes no sense to me. I recently attended a driving class to get out of a ticket. The question was asked of the instructor if one can be pulled over for not wearing their seat belt. The instructor unhesitatingly answered, "No." He said that not wearing your seat belt was a "secondary offense", but that it's very easy for a traffic officer to find a "primary offense" of which to stop you, in order to ticket you for not wearing a seat belt.Read more »  Read More →

My voter guide is ready for March 8th. Are you? We have 14 candidates for city council in Norwalk, California, and I’ve been doing research for months. I expect to add lots more information between now and election day. (I’m a little behind.) One thing I can say for sure is, a difficult race now seems pretty easy to decide. I know who I’m going to vote for. Do you?  Read More →

My voter guide is ready for March 8th. Are you? We have 14 candidates for city council in Norwalk, California, and I’ve been doing research for months. I expect to add lots more information between now and election day. (I’m a little behind.) One thing I can say for sure is, a difficult race now seems pretty easy to decide. I know who I’m going to vote for. Do you?  Read More →

The following was adapted from the Improvement Era magazine of February 1911. Number of Wards The number of wards in the various stakes of Zion increased from 689, in 1909, to 696 in 1910. There are now 62 stakes, not including the California mission, where five wards were organized in 1910. Duchesne stake, with four wards, and Carbon, with seven wards were organized in 1910. Bear Lake stake has 23 wards, the largest number in any of the stakes; Oneida and St. George each has 20; Cassia and Granite each 19; then Blackfoot and Sevier 18 each; and Summit 17. [100 years later, on January 1, 2010, the Church reported 20,518 wards and 2,863 stakes.] Liquor Regulation In 1911 the Capitol building did not yet exist but efforts were underway to choose a site. The Utah Legislature, ninth session, met on January 9, 1911. Governor William Spry read his message to the joint session on the 10th. It is a lengthy document touching on the needs of every department of the state, and recommending the... Read the rest of this entry »

Suffragist Genevieve Clark, circa 1914 The following was adapted from the Improvement Era magazine of 100 years ago. Women’s Right To Vote Women gained the right to vote, in the November 8 election of 1910 in the state of Washington. Woman suffrage amendments to the state constitutions were submitted in that state, in Oregon, South Dakota and Oklahoma, and all except Washington rejected the amendments. There are five states in the United States in which women are now permitted to vote on the same terms as men, namely: Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, and Washington. [In 1920 the nineteenth amendment was ratified, prohibiting states and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote on account of sex.] Corn Crop The corn crop for 1910 was the greatest ever grown in the United States. For the first time in our history as a nation, we have succeeded in producing three billion bushels. This amount of corn translated into the terms of money and buying power must necessarily... Read the rest of this entry »

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to put a Windfall Tax on all stock market profits, including retirement funds, 401(k)s and mutual funds. In other words, she wants to tax what you have invested toward your retirement as though it were a “windfall.” She needs it to help the 12 million illegal immigrants and other unemployed minorities. This woman is frightening. “We need to work toward the goal of equalizing income [didn't Marx say something like this?], in our country and at the same time limiting the amount the rich can invest.” In other words, if you have a retirement account, you are rich and we need to tax it as if it were windfall income. When asked how these new tax dollars would be spent, she replied “We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profits... Read the rest of this entry »

Absolutely a must read book. Murray Rothbard, in very understandable and readable language, explains the evils of counterfeiting and inflation, and how the Federal Reserve is legally allowed to do both. The wonderful book can be found in several downloadable and free formats via Mises.org. Here's its introduction: By far the most secret and least accountable operation of the federal government is not, as one might expect, the CIA, DIA, or some other super-secret intelligence agency. The CIA and other intelligence operations are under control of the Congress. They are accountable: a Congressional committee supervises these operations, controls their budgets, and is informed of their covert activities. It is true that the committee hearings and activities are closed to the public; but at least the people's representatives in Congress insure some accountability for these secret agencies. It is little known, however, that there is a federal agency that tops the others in... Read the rest of this entry »

Explaining my reluctance to get involved in politics, this latest article by Lew Rockwell hits the nail on the head. I have voted before, but don't feel the least bit motivated to vote again. I don't feel my vote counts for anything, and I can think of a hundred other things I'd rather be doing. Anyway, here's his powerful conclusion, but the entire thing should be read: The larger problem occurs once [the newly elected officials] take office. Here is where the serious problems begin. They are leaned on by their new colleagues, the party elites, related financial interests, the press, and the entire system of which they are now part. Are they going to make themselves enemies of that system, or are they going to work within the system in order to achieve reform, and not just for one term but more terms down the line? Doing a good job means being part of the structure; doing a bad job means being an enemy of the very system that they now serve. Read more »  Read More →

The Interstate Commerce clause of the United States Constitution is found under Article I, Section 8, and reads, The Congress shall have power…to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; This clause has been especially abused by the US Federal government to justify all sorts of regulations. For example, it was used to justify regulations to set quotas on growing wheat on one’s own land for one’s own consumption, or of the consumption of one’s livestock because doing so could effect the stability of national wheat prices. A failed example has it being used to justify the Federal prohibition of firearms within a certain distance of elementary schools. Many believe the Interstate Commerce clause gives the Federal government unlimited power to regulate anything, because anything could effect “interstate commerce”. As Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his dissent of Gonzales v. Raich, Respondents Diane... Read the rest of this entry »

The Interstate Commerce clause of the United States Constitution is found under Article I, Section 8, and reads, The Congress shall have power…to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; This clause has been especially abused by the US Federal government to justify all sorts of regulations. For example, it was used to justify regulations to set quotas on growing wheat on one’s own land for one’s own consumption, or of the consumption of one’s livestock because doing so could effect the stability of national wheat prices. A failed example has it being used to justify the Federal prohibition of firearms within a certain distance of elementary schools. Many believe the Interstate Commerce clause gives the Federal government unlimited power to regulate anything, because anything could effect “interstate commerce”. As Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his dissent of Gonzales v. Raich, Respondents Diane... Read the rest of this entry »

After my experience with my last voter guide, I decided to create a wiki and, as of today, I am announcing that the wiki is here and ready with a good number of my recommendations. I plan to keep updating it as we get closer to the election, so if I haven’t posted much on a topic now, come back and take a look later. Also feel free to participate in talk pages if you have any feedback, comments, or questions, or alternatively, you can comment here. (I’m pretty vigilant against spam, however, so I warn you to be relevant and coherent lest I mistake your comment for a disguised site promotion. I also insist on civility.) The views expressed are typically mine, but I plan to accept help from some quarters. I strive not have a neutral point of view. That is, I strive to have an opinion, and I will keep studying the issues and updating content until I have enough information to form an opinion. However, until election day, this is a work in progress, and I may not decide some very... Read the rest of this entry »

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