Monthly Archives: April 2025

What Judge Scott Got Completely Wrong

Posted on April 28, 2025 by ptmadmin

The current lawsuit over the Utah Fits All Scholarship program is simply more of the protracted debate between parental rights and public education. Third District Court Judge Laura Scott chose the side of public education. Of course, she would. As she cites, the state legislature is in the public education business by edict of the state constitution. But she chose poorly.

Here is what she got wrong: Appropriations for private schooling and homeschooling are not investments in the public school system. There is a fundamental difference between the Utah legislature’s investment in “education” and its constitutional imperative on behalf of “public education.” The Utah legislature funds many things not involving the public school system. Giving a kid this scholarship to get an education has nothing to do with public education. read more

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The Problem is You, not Trump

Posted on April 22, 2025 by ptmadmin

Never. Ever. If asked to defend a Trump presidency no less than 100 days ago, that would have been my answer. My answer is different today. Not because my opinion of the man has changed. I unaffiliated with the Utah GOP in 2016 over its support of then-candidate Trump. I have been a Never-Trumper since then. I have not voted for Donald Trump. And, yet, today I will defend democratic processes, differences of opinions, and the Trump administration. If that means I am defending the man, so be it, though I don’t think it does. read more

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The Misguided Notion of the Constitution as Peacemaker

Posted on April 13, 2025 by ptmadmin

A vainglorious faction inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is urgently pushing for a new “civic theology.” More idolatry than theology, this push would have church members move beyond a historic reverence for the inspired U.S. Constitution, more than a governmental framework for a free society, to a new enlightened view of the Constitution as a playbook of virtues focused on the meaning of citizenship.

Make no mistake, this peculiar view of the Constitution as a blueprint for citizen-peacemaker begins and ends with an irrational and partisan worship of political compromise. This elite faction of LDS insiders is upselling the Constitution as a compromise to cover a series of political sins. read more

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Posted in Personal Commentaries | 4 Comments