With the Republican primaries in the news, I must reevaluate my political beliefs.

I was a regisitered Republican for nearly 15 years, until Obama ran in 2008. I’m still conservative (although probably more Libertarian) but I voted for Obama because I believed that whole change thing.

Well, nothing has changed. And this election cycle, I don’t believe Mitt is the answer to my political prayers.

So I ask myself: Who aligns most with my political beliefs?

I tend to rank things. Therefore my political priorities, in order, are:

1. Freedom
2. Pragmatism
3. Charity
4. Security

Freedom is foremost because with it new ideas dies. Freedom is not the same as democracy, not even a democratic republic, but that’s another discussion.

Pragmatism is next because a society should do what is in its best interest from a practical standpoint; above almost everything else, except freedom of course.

Charity is next because society should care for the least among us. Determining who actually is the lease among us is for another post.

And security is last because while necessary, it is the enemy of freedom. For example we could get rid of all automobile deaths, including DUIs, easily. Ban alcohol and aggressively enforce a 30 mph speed limit; even on freeways. But who in their right mind would agree to that?

A man is on his first visit to Boston, and he wants to try some of that delicious New England seafood that he’d long heard about. So he gets into a cab, and asks the driver, “Can you take me to where I can get scrod?” The driver replies, “I’ve heard that question a thousand times, but never in the pluperfect subjunctive.”

I love the English language. The other day, I bought Garner’s Modern American Usage. A great book for understanding how to use words.

But that’s so old school.

I just found a website called Wordnik. It’s new and not entirely sophisticated but it’s probably the future of how we learn language.

An audio recording of my oral arguments before the Utah Court of Appeals can be heard on the Utah Courts website here. You can download a copy here.

It’s always difficult to judge your own performance, so if you listen to the whole thing let me know what you think. Thanks.

“It’s easy to respect the rights of the pretty people, the popular ones, the charming folk, the nice guys.  No one’s going to run roughshod over Mr. Rogers’ rights.  We probably don’t need a Constitution to protect the Prom Queen.  It’s the assholes we need to write the rules for.  It’s harder to treat them well, to be fair to them, to refrain from punching them.  So 200-some years ago, we wrote a contract with ourselves to make sure we would always respect the rights of the worst among us. 

It’s easy to treat the good people well.  But the true measure of our character is how we treat the bad ones.  We choose to treat them fairly and with respect.  And I think it’s awesome.”

– From Preaching to the Choir

"Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don’t take shit from anybody. When the security agency in Israel (the ISA) started to tighten security and we had to wait in line for — not for hours — but 30 or 40 minutes, all hell broke loose here. We said, ‘We’re not going to do this. You’re going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport."

- Rafi Sela, President, AR Challenges – a global transportation security consultancy.

Read the whole article here.

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.

- Winston Churchill

Read more about the Gunpowder Plot.

“Bridgeport claims that ‘D.O.G. in Me’  infringed its copyright on Clinton’s ‘Atomic Dog’ based on the use of the phrase ‘Bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea’ (the ‘Bow Wow refrain’)…”

- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Bridgeport v UMG

Relatively few successful warriors are sensitive men or congenial fireside companions. Most possess an elemental commitment of an intensity happily unusual in civilised societies. They must daily give orders which bring death upon their own people, as well as the enemy. It is understandable that generations reared in peace, in the privileged circumstances of our twenty-first-century lives, should feel a revulsion towards the personal characters of [Sir Arthur] Harris and [Curtis] LeMay. Yet such men are useful, indeed indispensable, in a war of national survival.

– Max Hastings in Retribution:The Battle for Japan, 1944-45