Mormon Bloggers

My wife and I were talking last night. She asks me insightful questions in order to fall asleep. You see, she asks a great question, and then uses my ramblings as a sedative. Works every time. Her drug last night was what I had to say about “rich people” and “poor people”. I explained to her that I don’t see two groups of people, rich and poor. I see four groups. Two types of rich, and two types of poor. The two types of people that make up “the rich” are 1) those who made their wealth by providing goods and services for trade with others voluntarily, and 2) those who used force, ie. theft or the machinations and power of government, either directly (politicians) or indirectly (lobbyists and their principals) to get their wealth. I like rich people that are “voluntarily” rich, I dislike rich people that are “coercively” rich. The two types of people that make up “the poor” are 1) those who are poor... Read the rest of this entry »

We are taught in holy writ that “when we undertake…to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves”. Also, that “it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.” That is because to control or dominate over another unrighteously is evil, and where evil is, God is not. It is my belief that political anarchy is the absence of this "unrighteous dominion". I am completely aware of the objections that such a statement of belief as this may create. As I will show, these objections are misdirected, the word anarchy has been misused in contemporary thought, and a state of political anarchy is actually desirable for a righteous people. Anarchy and Tyranny From politicians to religious leaders, anarchy has been... Read the rest of this entry »

We are taught in holy writ that “when we undertake…to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves”. Also, that “it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.” That is because to control or dominate over another unrighteously is evil, and where evil is, God is not. It is my belief that political anarchy is the absence of this "unrighteous dominion". I am completely aware of the objections that such a statement of belief as this may create. As I will show, these objections are misdirected, the word anarchy has been misused in contemporary thought, and a state of political anarchy is actually desirable for a righteous people. Anarchy and Tyranny From politicians to religious leaders, anarchy has been... Read the rest of this entry »

Of all the propositions before the voters of California this year, none seems so murky and unintelligible than Proposition 17. After initially coming to a negative evaluation of the Proposition, I’ve now become even less certain, though I still encourage a no vote. On the other hand, Proposition 17 provides an excellent example of why we need a new Attorney General, as the analysis and title of the proposition seem to be purposefully misleading. (Though to what purpose, I can only guess at.) The main point I see after analyzing the law, is that it doesn’t match what anybody is telling us about it. We are told that Proposition 17 is creating a discount that was never there before, or, from other sources, that the discount is being newly allowed to have continuity from insurer to insurer. None of these claims seem to be true. (Though I could not find a good legal analysis by anybody making such claims, which I would find immensely helpful.) For my part, I have done my own analysis... Read the rest of this entry »

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As part of my research into judicial candidates this year, I crafted a question to email out to the judicial candidates in my area. The letter I came up with read as follows (italicized text was omitted in Mark Ameli’s letter, as he was the first I emailed): As a voter, I was wondering if you could offer me some brief thoughts on what the rule of law means to you, and what responsibility you see individual citizens as having in promoting their own welfare, and the welfare of society, and what kinds of limitations you see to that responsibility. I had at first considered crafting a letter that asked about thoughts on specific current events, but I had my doubts that such a question would be well received, so I crafted this letter instead, with a question that is fairly obtuse, but which I felt might reveal something about the candidates’ ways of thinking about the relationship between the people and the law. I have thus far received 6 responses, and will update this blog entry... Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time again for my voter guide. Much as I did in my last voter guide, I’ll begin with a summary of my recommendations, for simplicity, and then continue with some review of the candidates and measures. With as much as there is to cover, I’m going to leave out partisan races, as well as the county assessor. My review of candidates will be bullet-pointed facts and source materials. After having gone through this for this year, I think that I may want to move this to a wiki format some time in the future, and recruit others to help me. It is hard to research this many issues in a timely manner with as busy as I am. With a wiki, my research could be updated as I went, making much of the information available sooner. The official California Voter Information Guide can be found at http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/ Summary of Recommendations State Propositions/Measures 13 – Yes 14 – No 15 – No 16 – No 17 – No Judicial Offices 28 – Edward... Read the rest of this entry »

YouCut is a new site that allows you to vote, both online and on your cell phone, on spending cuts that you want to see the House enact. Apparently, each week they will take the winner of the vote on YouCut and try to force a vote in congress. At first there will be a series of small cuts. Spending cuts are addressed one spending cut at a time. If no spending cuts result then YouCut will have been a big waste of time. But if it takes off, the voters will be very encouraged and more focused on where Washington spends our tax dollars. And even more so on cutting the mindless spending permanently.  Read More →

I thought I’d share an interesting perspective on our Southern neighbors, by Gabriel Land. His introduction: I have been spending a lot of time south of the border lately in Tijuana Mexico, allegedly the most non-Mexican of all Mexican cities. Yet the differences between San Diego and Tijuana are so glaring that they are impossible to ignore. A simple walk outside of the tourist zone and red light districts of Tijuana will paint an interesting picture. Anyone with an inquisitive, observant intellect will see that Mexico might not be the doom and gloom land of kidnapped Americans and drug war slayings that is the consensus reality among American citizens who utilize major media outlets as their primary source of information. Read the rest here.  Read More →

I thought I’d share an interesting perspective on our Southern neighbors, by Gabriel Land. His introduction: I have been spending a lot of time south of the border lately in Tijuana Mexico, allegedly the most non-Mexican of all Mexican cities. Yet the differences between San Diego and Tijuana are so glaring that they are impossible to ignore. A simple walk outside of the tourist zone and red light districts of Tijuana will paint an interesting picture. Anyone with an inquisitive, observant intellect will see that Mexico might not be the doom and gloom land of kidnapped Americans and drug war slayings that is the consensus reality among American citizens who utilize major media outlets as their primary source of information. Read the rest here.  Read More →

President Obama, in a graduation speech at the University of Michigan, said that partisan rants and name-calling under the guise of legitimate discourse pose a serious danger to America’s democracy. He said that: At its worst, it can send signals to the most extreme elements of our society that perhaps violence is a justifiable response. Possibly, in a few isolated cases. But it is far more dangerous not to speak up against runaway spending — from borrowed money that will be very difficult to pay back — and an extraordinary expansion of government. Even the president, in the same speech, agreed that government should be limited: American democracy has thrived because we have recognized the need for a government that, while limited, can still help us adapt to a changing world. And why should government be limited? Because a government that controls much of our lives can be dangerous to our liberties. Recall what President Reagan said: In this present crisis, government... Read the rest of this entry »

As I argued recently, political anarchy is the absence of unrighteous dominion. The state, characterized by its monopoly on the use of force and/or the coercive nature of its collection of funds, is one form of unrighteous dominion. Before a number of American colonies would ratify the United States Constitution, they demanded that it be amended to include what is called the “Bill of Rights“. Even though the Constitution was designed to grant only certain powers to the Federal Government, these colonies understood how nearly futile it is to “chain” down the state from exercising power beyond its granted authority. They understood that political anarchy, relative to the central state, must remain in certain spheres of action. As I will argue, the Bill of Rights was designed to protect the political anarchy of these spheres, and we should be diligent in expanding political anarchy into other spheres of action. What Are Rights? There are two ways of looking at the... Read the rest of this entry »