Author Archives: Paul Mero

SB54 Suit, New Candidate Requirements

Sen. Todd Weiler, GOP Chair James Evans and Paul Mero discuss SB54 suit, new candidate requirements Podcast – Duration: 54:49

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Can libertarians govern?

Cache GOP Lincoln Dinner recap podcast — Duration 54:48

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Border Security

James O’Keefe is known for his short films exposing liberal hypocrisy and corruption. His most famous film was an undercover recording of corruption inside the offices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). O’Keefe’s revealing video footage resulted in ACORN shutting down its operations.

His latest video shows O’Keefe crossing the U.S./Mexico border unmolested by U.S. border patrol. He did it twice – the second time dressed in army fatigues and wearing a Halloween mask of Osama Bin Laden. His point was to show how unprotected our southern border really is. read more

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Bishop Wester and Medicaid Expansion

6/23/2014

Recently, Utah’s Catholic Bishop John C. Wester released a statement arguing for Medicaid expansion, specifically calling on the Utah Legislature to accept Governor Gary Herbert’s Medicaid expansion plan. His words were direct and, at times, sharp. Bishop Wester’s moral defense of Utah’s poor and needy was on display. I like how he speaks. I appreciate a moral defense of anything. For me, there is no argument more important than a moral argument.

That said, I disagree with his endorsement of Medicaid expansion – and I disagree on moral grounds as well as a matter of good government. read more

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Brendan Eich

Here is a name you won’t soon forget: Brendan Eich. Like so many other success stories out of Silicon Valley, Brendan Eich is a computer programmer who struck it big. He created a popular web browser language called JavaScript. In 1988, Eich co-founded a tech project that turned into the Mozilla Corporation that owns the web browser Firefox. Mozilla named him its new CEO on March 24 where he remained for eleven days when he unceremoniously resigned his position on April 3.

After two decades of brilliant work inside a corporation he built, what sort of scandal must have befallen Brendan Eich to get him to resign his post in only eleven days? What caused him to resign his prestigious job is that six years ago he donated $1,000 to Proposition 8 in California – and, for that high crime, homosexual activists drove him from office. In his resignation letter, Eich said, “Under the present circumstance, I cannot be an effective leader.” read more

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10th Anniversary of Transcend Series

Ten years ago this month Sutherland Institute finalized plans for a very unique project in Utah politics. It was ten years ago that we created our Transcend Series. Hundreds of elected officials and community leaders have spent the better part of a full day, once a month, for nine months to gain context, perspective and introspection about their role as decision makers.

The highlight of the Transcend Series has been sessions with author Jim Ferrell and educator Quinn McKay. Jim Ferrell permissioned these elected officials and community leaders to see people as people and not as objects in a political arena, and Quinn McKay pushed them uncomfortably to face the realities of honesty and integrity in public service. read more

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Atheist Convention

It seems that the 40th annual convention of American Atheists is coming to town next spring and its organizers sound like they’re looking to pick a fight with Utah’s Latter-day Saint population.

A spokesman for the atheists tells the Deseret News,

It is our perception that the Mormon Church is interfering with freedom of religion and freedom of speech in Utah by intimidating people…We’d love to be proven wrong on that, but everything we see and hear about how the Mormon Church controls things in Utah seems to be a prime example of religious oppression. They are pushing Mormon values on people. I consider that to be un-American. read more

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Bad Behavior

Do you have a right to behave badly? Most people probably would answer “no” to that question even if, in their heart of hearts, they feel quite differently. And, by all counts today, Americans do feel differently.

There is no constitutional right to bad behavior. In fact, the United States Constitution exists, in large part, to keep bad behavior in check at the federal levels of government. The same goes for state constitutions and a whole raft of state and local laws. Laws exist because of bad behavior – not to encourage it but to discourage it. A free society requires order, meaning good behavior, and a free society cannot long endure a culture of bad behavior – it can’t afford it neither can it naturally counter it. There are no neutral corners in a free society where bad behavior simply vanishes because men all of the sudden become angels. read more

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Business and Homosexuality

A growing number of private businesses are adopting internal policies addressing discrimination in the workplace regarding homosexuality. These nondiscrimination policies are adopted to ensure employees that their workplace is safe and accommodating. Interestingly, many private companies that have pursued these internal policies now advocate that nondiscrimination should become public policy. It’s not enough for them to have instituted these policies in their own companies, they now feel compelled somehow to insist that the rest of the world follow suit. read more

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Agenda 21

A recent editorial in The Salt Lake Tribune calls on the Utah Senate to oppose a resolution critical of a United Nations program called “Agenda 21.” This program was adopted over 20 years ago at a U.N. Conference on Environment and Development. The stated focus of Agenda 21 is the promotion of economic growth, quality of life, energy conservation, poverty reduction and environmental protection – each good causes in their own right.

The problem with Agenda 21 is that its lofty goals conflict and compete with even loftier concepts of American freedom, not the least of which is private property rights. read more

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