California often gives me reasons to be proud, but this one may be a contender for the upper echelon of awesome:
California welfare cards can be used in many casino ATMs
Times review finds that in more than half of the state’s casinos and gaming rooms, welfare recipients can get cash from state-issued EBT cards. Officials say they’re moving to block such transactions.
This reminds me a little bit of stories I’ve always heard about students at BYU using their “Dining Plus” cards for basically anything they wanted on campus.
After signing a piece of evil legislation bill requiring Arizona police officers to determine whether people are in the country legally, the governor of Arizona said she’s requiring training for said police officers.
“This training will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the United States…Racial profiling is illegal. It is illegal in America, and it’s certainly illegal in Arizona.”
-Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
Training? Training will stop racism racial profiling dead in its tracks?
The economic and mathematical analysis of voting has generated a large amount of literature. Ever since Ken Arrow showed that there is no social choice function that satisfies the logical choice properties, people have sought to find the next best solution. Recently, Marginal Revolution had a thread about range voting that generated a lot of discussion about voting systems in general. I won’t bore you with the details of range voting, but to say that you assign a score to multiple options within a range of numbers. The highest score then wins the election. This is actually similar to a Borda Count, where the range in equivalent to the number of options.
(Note: The “Big Changes” I promised are still coming, but I had to get this post off my To-do list first. This was supposed to be a guest post last week, but I ran out of time and energy. Writing an open thread to a small audience is a recipe for lameness and non-commenting, (especially in light of GIGANTE, but I wanted to post it anyway for my own sake.)
If you’ve read my drivel for any lengthy period of time, you know how I feel about immigration. (hint: Me = Fan of Foreigners). In this spirit, I offer you some free Toothpaste:
[Note: The opinions expressed below, as well as the title of the post, belong to Fletcher (bio here), and no one else. They do not necessarily represent the opinions of myself, the LDS Church, or this guy. I do not edit guest posts; as such, any grammatical, logical, or factual mistakes that may exist are entirely Fletcher's fault, and frankly, I'm astonished that he didn't catch them.]
Are Mormons really worried about the California Supreme Court overturning Prop 8? Or, having fought the good fight, are they satisfied with their effort and just content to let the chips fall where they may?
This question was raised (sort of) in the comment section of an earlier post, although I have actually been thinking about it for a long time. It’s a fantastic question, and I, as a California Mormon and resident know-it-all, am clearly qualified to opine on the matter. Unfortunately, like so many interesting questions in life, the answer is the ever-unsatisfying, “Well, it depends.” Read more…
[NOTE: This post is my response to a guest post about whether or not a "Libertarian Mormon" is an Oxymoron. In particular, one of the arguments the author--Dan Weston--has made is that capitalism is an anti-Biblical philosophy. One assumption throughout is that libertarians subscribe to such a philosophy out of a love for capitalism. I addressed this point as a comment, but decided it is best to start a new thread. Thus, I re-post my comment below, with a few minor modifications.]
One important point of conflict here is that I think many people might be mistaken about why LDS people–if they are–might be drawn to libertarianism in the first place. If you have taken your understanding of “Mormon Libertarianism” from me, then the fault for this confusion lies with me–as I looked back over my older posts, I embarrassed to realize that I’ve never talked about this to begin with. In short, it has nothing to do with anything Jesus said or didn’t say–or Bible-based doctrinal circles that Joseph Smith “squared” via modern revelation. Read more…
A new article, written by Ben Edelson of the Harvard Business School, and published in the current issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives has shown that, among all the states in the United States, Utah–with it’s high-majority Mormon population–is the leader in subscriptions to online pornographic/adult entertainment (per 1000 broadband connections).
Can we just jump to the conclusion that, despite continuous warnings about porn in, well, pretty much every meeting since 1998, the biggest vice among Mormons really isn’t just caffeinated soda pop? Well, not really, in my opinion. I think it is far more likely to be a function of Mormon-influenced social policies than anything else. Read more…
Moses had his Aaron, and I have a Gay, Ex-Catholic Atheist. Guest author Dan Weston (See here for an introduction to Dan) offered to address the first question in my series “Answers to Mormon Questions” for me. The question came from commenter MM:
What do you think is the Mormon take on “natural rights?” Are individuals born with natural rights? Are they an inherent part of creation or can they be taken away? In what sense? Or are natural rights really an illusion, i.e., “non-sense upon stilts” as Bentham refered to them? More of a way for us to describe basic respect for one another than anything else? Or are you a consquentialist libertarian not a deontic libertarian and wouldn’t necessarily have a strong opinion about natural rights per se?
Glenn Beck is not someone I quote very often, but he said something that was passed on to me by a friend this morning that caught my attention:
“But that’s a fundamental misunderstanding about what Mormons are. I think they are most libertarian in their principles. There are a set of principles to live by, but you choose to live by them. If you don’t, nobody is damning you to hell. It’s freeing because I don’t answer to anyone but my God.”(Full text here)
In my previous post, I expressed some sarcasm and cynicism about the value of the stimulus package recently voted on by Congress.* I was then told by one of my friends in a comment that my post lacked substance, and I should repent, even if I don’t like macroeconomics.
My friend is absolutely right–I don’t like macroeconomics. I don’t like thinking about it, I don’t like talking about it, and I certainly never really liked taking tests on it. If loving macroeconomics was a temple recommend question for Mormons, I would probably leave the Church. Okay, that’s not true. But I would at least grunt and glare a lot more. Read more…
Oh how far I have fallen from my self-imposed responsibility to keep up with the workings of the economy in the US. Today I was eating dinner at a friend’s house and he mentioned that, as a country, we are now officially “stimulated.” I had no idea what he was talking about. Read more…
It may not be the most interesting legal case in the California courts these days, but the recent ruling by a Sacramento Superior Court judge striking down a mandate for all 8th graders to take Algebra rubs me a little bit wrong. I’m not a big fan of public education, but I was impressed with the ambitious mathematics requirements and thought they were a clear step in the right direction.
Here is an article in the LA Times discussing the ruling, as well as the parties on both sides. Unsurprisingly, the state teacher’s union was a primary source behind destroying all that is good in the world the lawsuit to overturn the requirement. No lobby is more effective in halting any form of progress in education than a teacher’s union–I learned this several years ago while working as a grad student on a study of private education incentives, but that is a story for another day. Read more…
There are several topics that I have written about extensively in the past, but because I took three weeks off from blogging (as well as reading the news, watching the news, or doing anything but studying and traveling), I’m really just out of touch with what is going on in the world. Instead of trying to write about things I am no longer educated on, I am just going to post a few categorized links for those who are interested. Once I catch up on things, then I’ll do less of that and more of my own commentary. Read more…
Note: I added a few things to this post…that’s why I re-posted it. Apologies to the couple of comments that were deleted.
Since the outcome of Tuesday’s vote, and the aftermath that is now spilling out all over California and other places, I’ve struggled deeply to get my mind around what–if anything–to say next. It feels silly to start writing about the recent sports contest, about the funny thing I saw on the Interwebs the other day, or even other more-serious topics. Things have changed in ways that are not easy to define or capture in a few sentences. I’d like to keep writing as I did before, but I just don’t know how. I tried to post something else the other day, but it just seemed too trivial and out of place. My friend said something last night that summarizes things well: “The only certainty here is that none of us will ever be the same.” Remember what Frodo Baggins said at the end of the movie The Return of the King?
How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand. There is no going back. There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep…That have taken hold.
Dear Mr. Seriously,
Who are your favorite people in the world this election season?
-Anonymous
Anon–
That’s an easy one. My favorite people are the good folks who made up the schedule for the Utah Jazz. Nothing makes my heart fill with warm fuzzies during a time of stress* more than seeing the first three games be against Denver, the Clippers, and the, uh, Clippers again. 3-0, and things are looking fine, with games against Portland, Seattle OK City, and the Knicks upcoming. Read more…
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