Category Archives: Radio Commentaries

Like many of you I’m tired of this political season. Mentally tired of all of the lies – yes, lies. I don’t know if it’s possible for a presidential candidate to run for office without lying. Sometimes the lies are purposeful like Obama on Benghazi and sometimes they’re simply part of survival like all of the flip-flopping by Romney.

Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, “To tell the truth, rightly understood, is not just to state the true facts, but to convey a true impression.” I like that standard of honesty but it’s a standard not met by many candidates. Campaign ads exist to paint mental pictures for voters about opponents. When Congressman Jim Matheson ran ads saying that Mia Love unjustifiably raised taxes as mayor of Saratoga Springs he portrayed Love as a big spender. In reality, Mayor Love and the city council were tasked with raising taxes for a rapidly growing community – someone had to do it sooner or later. That didn’t make Love a big spender; it made her a leader. read more

Voters in Colorado, Oregon and Washington will soon decide whether or not marijuana will be legalized in their states. More and more conservative and libertarian politicians are getting behind the movement to legalize pot. Anti-immigration stalwart Tom Tancredo from Colorado and libertarians Ron Paul and Gary Johnson are high on that list (pun intended).

Tancredo asks, “What is the law against marijuana if it isn’t the Nanny State telling you what you can do and what you can’t do to your body and with your body?” I know there are many opinions and perspectives that pro-pot people would cite to make a compelling argument. But I think Tancredo’s question just about sums up the whole debate, including why society feels it’s important to “legislate morality.” read more

Like millions of other Americans watching Monday Night Football this week, I was in disbelief. It didn’t matter what team you were routing for, if you had even one good eye to see with, you knew that the losing team got robbed by an obviously wrong ruling on the field. The call was so obviously incorrect that every commentator, especially former players and retired referees, were dumbfounded and nearly speechless.

Most people who follow sports know that the referees’ association in the National Football League went on strike weeks ago and refuse to work until they get a better contract. The NFL, for its part, has failed to successfully negotiate new contracts. In the place of seasoned referees, the NFL hired high school and community college referees to work its professional games. Folks, that’s like asking a kid with a new chemistry set to judge Nobel Prizes in science – it’s not that the kid isn’t interested in the subject, it’s that he’s not capable of judging anything at that level of skill and talent. read more

Two newspaper commentaries recently caught my eye – one from the Deseret News and the other from The Salt Lake Tribune – both written by self-proclaimed LDS Democrats and both arguing a deeply spiritual connection between their Mormon faith and the Democratic Party.

In the Tribune, former state legislator Scott Daniels tries to make the case that the Book of Mormon, held sacred by Latter-day Saints, is a blueprint for liberal fiscal and social policies. Daniels writes, “I don’t see how it is possible to read the Book of Mormon, believe it is the word of God and support the Romney-Ryan tax and budget plan.” He goes on to describe sections of the Book of Mormon that chastise people for materialism and implies that supporting Mitt Romney for president is a vote for materialism. Likewise, I suppose, the author is defending the idea that a vote for Barack Obama is a vote for God’s team. read more

A few weeks ago I mentioned that the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council was coming to Salt Lake City. Well, it’s here and it’s time to get to work. Sutherland Institute is a proud sponsor of the conference and as a sponsor I have a few insights I can share given the controversies surrounding it.

ALEC, as it’s called, is a lot like Sutherland Institute, except its operating model is a bit different. Instead of being a state-based think tank like Sutherland, it’s a national think tank comprised of delegate members. It’s like a mini-Congress in function. Center-right state legislators from across the nation are ALEC’s primary targets and non-politician supporters make up the rest of its membership because, frankly, somebody’s got to pay the bills for its meetings. read more

My first day working for Congress as a young man was January 5, 1987. That same year the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for the purpose of prolonging the lives of AIDS patients, a medicine called AZT. That was 25 years ago. Yesterday the FDA approved another drug, this time taken by healthy people at high-risk for HIV infection. The drug, Truvada, is supposed to be able to reduce the risk of contracting the disease. The FDA’s decision comes less than two weeks after it approved an at-home test for HIV. read more

When my sister, Leslie, was born in 1950 there was no such thing as autism. Back then she was “mentally retarded.” She was born with a few physical defects as well, not major, but you could tell she was different. Leslie played with all of the other kids in the neighborhood and was their relative equal until sixth grade or so when her differences began to become more apparent.

Although Leslie is my only sibling, I grew up mostly as an only child. In her teen years and well into her young adulthood my parents had Leslie in a variety of special schools. read more

A few years ago I commented here on the problems of bullying and addressed whether or not the state Legislature should act to stem its tide. I mentioned how, for whatever personal reasons, I’m like a one-man, heat-seeking anti-bully defense system. I mentioned briefly how I’ve seen my disabled sister treated by school kids and how that there’s just something about bullies that sets me off – so much so, in fact, that my reactions to bullies are often mistaken that I’ve become the bully.

The legislation I addressed on this subject back in 2009 remains with us. Representative Carol Spackman-Moss continues to champion the victims of bullying and would like to see penalties in place to try and mitigate its awful influences. This year there’s an indication that this legislation would include a provision on bullying against kids who are seen as, or self-identify as, homosexuals. A conservative Republican state senator, Howard Stephenson, has expressed his support for that provision. read more

The American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC, has been around as long as I’ve been in politics. ALEC is a non-profit membership organization comprised mostly of state legislators from around the country. It’s philosophy is center-right and, like other organizations serving state legislators, such as the National Conference of State Legislators, or NCSL, ALEC focuses on helping legislators craft model legislation – usually involving the protection of free markets. ALEC rarely gets involved with social issues. read more

This week I want to talk about the importance of marriage to society.  Colleagues at the Institute for American Values in New York City have published an updated edition of their excellent research on marriage and family titled, Why Marriage Matters.

The publication is like a Cliff Notes version of mountains of research on marriage and its effects on men, women and children.  Some of the most prominent family scholars in the nation are co-authors of this report – scholars such as Brad Wilcox at the University of Virginia, David Popenoe at Rutgers University and the grand dame of research regarding the negative effects of divorce on children, Judith Wallerstein at the University of California at Berkeley. read more