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About the Blog

This blog focuses on politics relevant to Utah County. It does not seek to promote a particular political party, however the perspective is that of a constitutional conservative, and a classical liberal, subscribing to many of the ideas proposed by Adam Smith and Frederic Bastiat, which can be incompatible with many party platforms. The content in not intended to be neutral in tone, but to promote constitutional principles and liberty.

Much of the content posted to this blog is developed in conjunction with a voter guide which is published separately. The voter guide covers not only elections, but principles of government and voting, as well as coverage of many public policy issues.

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The Debate Over "The Best a Man Can Get"

The Italian term fascismo is derived from fascio meaning a bundle of rods. (Wikipedia) I'm a little late on the commentary here, and it really isn't Utah-specific, but I have plenty of unoriginal thoughts that, perhaps, I might put together in an appealing way. More importantly, somebody made the above cartoon for me, and it seemed like it would be a terrible waste to not air it a little. (It has been posted elsewhere, but it was made for me, and I love it.) You're welcome to share the image around if you are so inclined. My impression of Gi**ette's ad was negative from the start. I was disgusted with the extremely negative view of men in our society (ie. western masculinity), and by use of a clip from the Young Turks (a panel of radical leftist commentators). The message has often been portrayed, by those who like the ad, as a sort of "we can do better, men; look how great you can be" sort of message. That's an interesting interpretation, b...

Utah County Commissioner, Greg Graves, Accused of Sexual Harassment

A butterfly in a leafy bush. On a few occasions recently, I've tried to do dig around the Utah County website , trying to figure out what bills have been passed, and when. However, I've come up empty handed. The county codes and policies I can easily find, and there are meeting minutes and meeting recordings to pour through. This is great if you already know when something happened, or if one has the stomach to comb through reams of terse descriptions of the topics which the commissioners discussed, or watch days of recorded debate. However, what I would like to find are copies of legislation passed, and voting records. It really has been hard for me to find anything that gives me a really solid idea of what the commissioners are actively trying to do, or how well they are doing it. I'm hoping this is just a matter of ignorance on my part, and that I will be able to find the documentation of passed legislation, and maybe some other evidence of what commissioners are tr...

The Importance of Utah's Caucuses

Protected Wetlands in Southern Provo As someone who grew up in California and takes the responsibility of voting very seriously, I have been greatly impressed by the caucus system in Utah. The caucus system in Utah is incredible. It is a state treasure. In my mind, it is the only thing that stands between Utah politics and the toxic politics that I fled in California, and it is more than hyperbole for me to assert that the primary reason I left California was its toxic politics. In California, as with many other states, elections are largely decided with money, and the information is largely controlled by a powerful and politically uniform media. It takes real work to scrape together enough information to make an informed decision on candidates, parsing their statements closely to learn about their ideology, scrutinizing their endorsements rather than just accepting well-recognized names and happy-sounding organizations as de-facto evidence of a candidate's merit. When the ...