Author Archives: ptmadmin

As the remaining Boston Bomber received a death sentence for his crimes, once again I am forced to ponder the morality and effectiveness of capital punishment.

A comedian from Texas once bragged that his state has an “express lane” to the gas chamber. And, here in Utah, the Legislature just passed and our Governor signed a bill reinstating the firing squad as a means of execution. I’d venture to guess that most people are okay with capital punishment and that most people easily invoke its final solution as an appropriate and effective means to address capital offenses such as murder. read more

Nearly a month ago, a Jewish political activist against the imposition of Sharia law in the United States and elsewhere held, what she labeled, an art contest and, for a $10,000 prize, invited artists to submit renditions of the Islamic prophet Mohammad. She was fully aware of what happened in Paris, France, when Islamic jihadists killed most of the journalistic staff of Charlie Hebdo for publishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammad. She knew she was inciting at least an insult and maybe retaliation on par with Charlie Hebdo. She held the art contest to “show jihadis they won’t frighten us into silence.” read more

Political party platforms are at once everything and nothing – they hold significant meaning for those who care and are unknown to 99 percent of the general population. If a political party is a business, a party platform is its mission statement. If a political party is a product, a party platform is its brand.

Under freedom of association, every political party has a right to its brand. It has a right to assume a brand, message that brand and, within its own ranks, press for alignment to the brand. It makes no sense for a political party that believes deeply in the Second Amendment to brand itself any other way nor does it make sense for that political party to welcome members who feel differently about gun ownership. read more

How to avoid BBQ grill fires–Utah LGBT group wants to Survey Judges

How to avoid BBQ grill fires–Utah LGBT group wants to Survey Judges

Sexual rights and religious freedom podcast — Duration 54:48

If American liberty has any meaning at all, property rights are at the center of that meaning. So important were property rights to our founding fathers that you can hardly read any of their writings that do not mention them. So it’s with no little amount of curiosity that our founding fathers replaced the word “property” among our inalienable rights with the term “pursuit of happiness” in our Declaration of Independence.

This subject has been written about and debated endlessly within the freedom movement. Libertarians insist the exclusion was a matter of prose, not substance. Conservatives take the opposite position. Regardless, both camps understand that the ability of a person to possess private property is essential to true freedom. When private property disappears, so too does our freedom. read more